What is a hacking jacket?

You might have come across "hacking jacket" as another term for sport coat.

A hacking jacket is a traditional English riding jacket, often "ratcatcher" (tweed). It's cut with a single vent to look good when sitting in the saddle, and has a tailored waist. Hacking jackets are sometimes now worn purely as fashion statements. In fact, Matt Smith's jacket as Doctor Who is close to a hacking jacket in style, especially the Shetland tweed one he wore last.

What is ratcatcher?

Ratcatcher in the equine context is the least formal dress worn by a foxhunter. It consists of fawn or brown breeches and a tweed jacket. Colored hunting ties have become common.

Traditionally ratcatcher is worn during the first autumn hunts or "cub" hunts, when new hounds, horses, and riders are being trained. Ratcatcher is also worn on informal days. Some hunts expect new riders to wear ratcatcher - that way they can be spotted in the field and helped...or avoided...as the case may be. Juniors, especially boys, normally wear it. Juniors also wear ratcatcher when showing hunters, especially ponies, at least in the UK.

In the US, a "ratcatcher" can also be a white shirt with a stand up collar, commonly worn in the show ring.

Why is a foxhunter's red coat pink?

Some foxhunters, depending on the hunt, are permitted to wear "hunting pink." It's usually limited to hunt staff, and sometimes only to male hunt staff.

Hunting pink involves absolutely nothing of the color pink. It includes a red coat, white breeches, tall boots and a white shirt.

Not everyone uses the term - but why did a red coat come to be called pink in the first place? The traditional etymology says that at one point the very best hunt coats were made by a tailor by the name of Pink.

A hunt leaving a castle - yes a castle - in England. The man in "pink" (red coat) is the Master of Hounds; the other riders are wearing black. Source Owain.davies via Wikimedia Commons.

What is a shipping halter?

A shipping halter is a halter with padding placed around the cheekpieces and the headpiece, in order to prevent the horse from bumping its face, poll, or eyes against something in the trailer.

It is most often made by simply wrapping detachable padding onto a standard halter, but some barns (that ship horses a lot) may give each horse a separate shipping halter.

What is a tail guard?

A tail guard is a flap that's placed over a horse's tail when shipping. It stops the horse from rubbing hair out of the top of its tail when in the trailer. They are sometimes called tail wraps.

A bandage wrapped around the tail is also sometimes used, but is hard to apply without doing more damage to the tail.

Are "tail lights" uncomfortable for horses?

Somebody showed me these things the other day.

They're strings of LED lights secured to a horse's tail for visibility at night. Some police forces have started to use them. Are they uncomfortable for the horse?

The answer is...maybe slightly. The lights are secured to a specially designed wrap that goes around the horse's tail, which the horse is probably aware of. It should not be actively uncomfortable for the horse unless it is fitted incorrectly (which, by the way, can be dangerous and cause permanent tail damage).

It's unlikely the tail light causes any real issues for the horse (it may spook other horses until they get used to them), but I wouldn't use one for more than an hour or two, just in case. However, I can't imagine a better place to put a safety light than the tail, which tends to move, making it obvious to motorists that you're there and that you're riding a potentially unpredictable animal.

What is a stampede string?

It's a leather string that's used to tie a cowboy hat on, usually running under the chin. It's pretty much to keep the hat from being blown off. It often has decorative tassels on the end. Occasionally, stampede strings are made of horsehair.

(Cowboys have colorful names for things)