May Babes Equestrian has recently come into my life…and my has the brand charged in full force. I saw them a while back on social media with their built in underwear breeches…which honestly didn’t sound like my thing…but I acquired a couple of shirts recently during a sale and was SO impressed I immediately applied to be an ambassador for her brand. Now the shirts aren’t the only reason…nor even the main reason. What really attracted me to Emily was her IG stories. Yup. IG stories. Why? Well in those stories she shared a lot of her process for developing her products. She shares sketches. She shares failed samples. She shares her why. What really drew me to the brand was that Emily seemed to be out to solve problems…not just put out another basic tight/breech like everyone else with 3 or 4 silicone logos all over it. I mean…you know what I’m talking about. It started with one…and now everyone and their sister is trying their own brand of cheaply made, same patterned clothes. Some of them are cute…sure. Some of them I really like of course! But May Babes is NOT that. And that’s where she hooked me. Trying the actual product was just the clincher. So as mentioned, I’m now an ambassador for the brand so I have a coupon code that will get you a discount upon order. Use code DECIDEDLYEQUESTRIAN for 10% off your order (there’s also a page with discounts if you join her newsletter FYI…and sometimes those are REALLY good discounts).
So today I’m actually not going to review those shirts I bought (I’m going to save those for warmer weather). Instead I want to share with you the new Charlie 1/4 zip that just released a few weeks ago because it is a good weight this time of year in a lot of places. Emily sent me two sizes to try out after discussing fit…and being one of those girls who has decided skin tight is what she likes when she rides…I’ve settled on the medium. The large fit fine, but was certainly looser in the body. If you want a looser fit…order your normal size or even size up. It was a little trimmer in the arms than I would have expected based on the waist size, but…I also have huge arms! So there’s that. It’s not restrictive however…but it certainly isn’t going to cover up anything on your arms if you’re wanting to downplay those.
My first thought upon the very sneak peak type promo photos is that this shirt was going to feel very business casual to me…which for people that regularly go from barn to work or work to barn…this shirt is going to run double duty. The collar is crisp and the the pattern on the fabric is very menswear, which I adore. The only thing stylistically I think that would have made this even more barn to work is if she did a faux button panel on the front with a few buttons on the top where the quarter zip is. As it is with the zipper, it does still have a bit of an athletic wear look. It has zero logos on it…which makes it IMO more stylish and less “horse riding specific.” I think you could easily throw a crew neck sweater or vest over the top of this and go right on to work. I don’t have that kind of job anymore…but I know a lot of you do and this is a consideration. I have nothing else in my horse clothes anything remotely like it, which is amazing. For style, I enjoy it. It feels polished on days I need to look better (clinics…or when I have a zoom call to go off to). My dressage queen heart really wishes there was some bling on the zipper pull (not a lot…but maybe one solitaire sparkle or something). HA! I think that would top the look off amazingly…but again…dressage queen over here.
I’m always wearing new stuff to review for the barn and regularly wear them on lesson days. Sometimes my trainer notices (like the out of place white and tan show breeches I’ve tried lately), but a lot of the time she doesn’t. Because so much of it looks the same. My trainer immediately asked me about this one as she walked up and I stopped my warm up. She thought it looked very nice and professional. She wanted it. She came up close and was like…”Oh woh! It has stripes!” I looked over at the mirror and she was right…from a distance there’s a little bit of play on the eye and it looks like a gray with something intriguing going on. I’m not sure how to describe it. But it plays a little trick on your vision. You know what I mean. We’ve all encountered those fabric patterns before. This one is similar.
So the most important part is of course performance. Does it feel like wearing a business shirt while riding? No, no it does not. It feels like riding in athletic wear, which is exactly what it should do. This is not a thin weight summer shirt…but more of a fall/winter/spring type base layer. It’s not overly warm (so it’s not going to make you die if it randomly gets to 70 degrees) but it is thick enough to cut the chill when the temps go a little lower. I have been fine wearing this in 50 degree temps with no jacket while riding. Obviously it’s cold now, so I haven’t tried it when it was super warm yet…but I will…and I’ll try to remember to update this review. Moving on. It performed beautifully in the saddle. No restrictions. The fabric is soft and comfortable on the inside, but has a fun texture on the outside that make it stylistically a bit more interesting. I really liked it for riding.
Cleaning was great. No issues. I washed exactly like I do my other horse clothes. On cold, hung to try. I should mention that I literally clip my shirts on a line…I don’t use hangers. Did this cause this shirt to go mishapen? No it did not. Collar still crisp. No need for special care!
Value is good I think for the quality. The price is on par with other shirts on the market, and lower than some (and if you’d pre-ordered it…it was a really good deal!).
She’s got a similar one in black in white pinstripes coming out soon which I am looking forward to! I have always loved them, but they haven’t been in style for some time (but appear to be back in the cool patterns for this season). Looking forward to that!
I really am enjoying riding in this new shirt from May Babes and I’m looking forward to trying more from the brand (and watching her come up with some brilliant ideas to solve problems we all have). If you make an order, you can use code DECIDEDLYEQUESTRIAN for 10% off (and don’t’ forget to join her newsletter for access to the good sales!).
