GGGear Cross Country Base Layer Set

GGGear Cross Country Base Layer Set

Get ready to stand out from the crowd on the cross country course with GGGear’s base layer cross country colour sets!

I ordered a “children’s design your own base layer, polo and hat silk” set for my soon to be 6 year old daughter Frankie. She is beginning to go out competing more and more so to inspire her further, I thought her very own bespoke cross country set was just the ticket. I did a bit of research as there are a few companies that offer this service but I really like what GGGear had to offer. They are very competitively priced and a family business, which I liked, so I opted to order from them.

They have all sorts of options available with cross country colour; set that are pre-chosen for you, sets that include matching accessories for both rider and horse to co-ordinate and much, much more.

Website

I found the website very easy to use when ordering the bespoke option, with drop down boxes for each item, size, colour options, pompom options and patterns to go on the base layer, polo shirt and hat silk. There is a box where you tell GGGear what to print and where and what colour you want it too making sure you can relay exactly what you want and where the prints are to go. This is a real selling point for us, so you can customise your silks exactly to how you imagined them in your head. The print options they have for patterns is endless: stars, spots, paint splats, apples, you name it. If you have an idea they can probably print it for you!

Because Francesca is going to be 6 (and a tall one at that!) I ordered her the Small/Medium youth. I chose royal blue base layer and hat silk with bright pink stars and then a contrasting bright pink polo shirt printed with royal blue stars. I had picked this option because from the very beginning Frankie has worn her trusty royal blue with pink spots hat silk and loves it, so I wanted something along those colour schemes but not totally the same.

With the order placed and paid for it wasn’t long until it arrived just a few days later by Royal Mail Tracked service. I was delighted when opening the package to see what I had ordered was absolutely spot on and looked even better than what I expected!
I don’t know about you, but children can be hard to please sometimes; even when you think they are
going to like something they surprise you and don’t. However, when I presented Francesca with her
birthday present (albeit a bit early as she was going to a Hunter Trail) the response from her was
sheer delight at her new base layer, polo shirt and hat silk set and it had to be tried on immediately!

It fitted her great, with a bit of growing room so it can be enjoyed and worn plenty of times without
her growing out of it too quickly……hopefully. All she seems to be doing at the moment is growing
out of her clothes!

Look and Quality

As you can see from the pictures she looked so smart in her co-ordinating base layer set and she felt very special in it too as it was made especially for her. She opted on the competition day to wear the base layer on its own as it was a hot 24 degrees.  It was great to have the option of the polo shirt to layer over the top or to change into the polo shirt afterwards.

The quality of all the items is very good and the printed stars are sharp and stand out on the clothing. I was pleasantly surprised when I got asked a few times by various competitors and mothers where the cross country colours were from as they looked brilliant on. With mummy points earned for getting such an amazing birthday present in the eyes of a pony mad child’s as well as running round 24 jumps over a distance of nearly a mile at the hunter trial, this mummy hopes she will be lucky enough for someone to get her her very own bespoke base layer cross country set.

Link for design your own childs set here for £55!

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ROR - Historical Giant at Burghley for CUDH meet

All these amazing photos are taken by Sam Pawley Photography 

Riding out on the roads and does there need to be changes to the law?

Morning everyone,

Yesterday lunch time I had a long conversation with my colleagues about horses. They all know that I ride and that my family owns horses and over the time i've been at my job I get asked a lot of questions about all things horse related.
Anyway, so we got talking about horses riding out on the road and a variety of topics came up which I wanted to share with you, the reader and hopefully hear your thoughts..

Also, very sadly, it coincided with Horse & Hound publishing this article Teacher killed trying to remount her horse
This lady had to get off to shut a gate while out hacking with friends, her horse bolted (which was mentioned to have a history of doing when trying to be remounted) and sadly she died from her injuries. My thoughts are with her family and friends, it's so sad. I'm sorry.

It got me thinking though as it was something mentioned while discussing horses on the roads.
So many of you will remember a few months ago that a poll was conducting asking people if they think that horse riders and owners should pick up their horses poo if they do it on the road while out riding. Now if you're a horse owner you'll obviously scoff at this as being ridiculous and completely unsafe!
But many of the people signing that poll were (I assume) non horse riders or owners, and they wouldn't understand how dangerous it would be to dismount a horse on the road, or they're just ignorant. Who knows?

But what really got me thinking during this discussion and also the open admissions that,  a lot of people just do not understand how to interact with a horse they encounter on the road, whether they are on a bike or in a car.
When mentioning that Georgie has to wear a headcam while out riding due to the amount of near misses or just plain silly drivers and cyclists they were shocked. Shocked that people would honestly try to endanger a person and an animal by them getting too close, going too fast or just plain trying to frighten a horse (we've been there with idiot teenagers in a car trying to purposely frighten Beanie but thats for another day). But then it got them asking - "when on a bike, how do you pass a horse safely?" to which I mentioned that it was much like passing a horse in a car. Slow right down, pass nice and wide at least 2 metres, and if you can do so safely and without scaring the horse, let the rider know you're passing.
Which then also got them asking "won't that frighten the horse". My reply  was that you wouldn't shout as loud as you can, but either ring a bell, whistle or just speak up and say "cyclist behind you passing". But what do others think, should cyclists let you know they're behind you? Would that spook your horse, or would you and your horse actually prefer to be aware by a whistle or ring of a bell?
I know that when Georgie and I encountered a cycling club cyclist whizzing past Beanie as fast as he could without so much as a warning we concurred that cyclists on quiet road bikes should make an effort to let you know they're there. Horses are flight animals after all and their instinct is to run away from something they perceive as frightening or a danger to them. So by a cyclist flying past really quietly is going to spook a horse!
Now saying that, some horses are pretty much desensitised to almost everything and anything. They could have a bus go by and let it's air brakes off and not bat an eyelid, or pass roadworks or speeding cars and it not faze them at all. But as you may know, not all horses are like that.
Horses have different personalities, temperaments and have had different experiences which all affect how they would behalf on the road out hacking. Talking of which..

The conversation then steered into them asking did I think that the government or some governing body should assess horses before they are allowed on the road? At the time I wasn't quite sure what to answer..
I mean there are two sides.. Well at first you could answer, yes perhaps that would be a good idea. It could stop horse owners whose horse isn't ready for the road to give it plenty of training etc ready for the assessment and when it's finally ready, be allowed on the road.
But then on the other side, you could say that actually horses don't always react in the same way every time. There could be other factors which could one day mean the horse was absolutely fine on the road, and then another time it be very jumpy. Very windy days for example, as strong winds make some horses jumpy.
I don't have a definitive answer, even after sitting down last night and really thinking about it.

I wrote a comment on the H&H facebook and got some interesting replies -

Obviously my post here is an expansion of my comment on there, but really.. something needs to be done about the lack of awareness and consideration of horse and rider on the road.
There hasn't been a good safety awareness commercial on how to safely pass a horse on the road in a very long time. Years in fact!
And it needs to be put in between prime time tv programmes, not late at night or at some stupid time where no-one is going to see it.
We see a lot of "Think Bike" adverts, but why can't there be a "Think Horses" advert about how to pass a horse properly, and a fictional example of the impact of what an accident will have on people's lives. If a motorist hits and kills a horse and rider they have to live with that for the rest of their live. That is something I just cannot fathom people haven't thought of when driving inconsiderately on the road!
Plus also the impact a death would have on the the family and friends of the killed rider.


Here are a few photos which I found on a horse and rider road awareness group on facebook.
Follow them here

Use these pictures to put on your facebook to educate drivers by this simple picture of how much space you need and how slow they need to go.

And always always where your high viz! Us horse riders may look completely uncool but i'd rather look uncool than injured!