Western show clothes to match brown hat

So, my cowboy hat is brown. Not sure why I ever decided to go with brown, but I did lol, I've had it for a few years. I don't really want to buy another one.

My mare is bay, and I also have a royal blue saddle blanket already. My tack is all dark.

We only show at locally/territorially but I'm trying to figure out how the heck to at least somewhat match my stuff together. I haven't shown since I was under 18, and at that age I had to wear a helmet so didn't worry have to worry about matching to my hat. Plus, back then I wore a sweeeeet men's cowboy shirt with flames on it hahaha.

Do I need to try and find dark brown pants to match the hat?

I'd LIKE to stick with a blue shirt to match my pad, but I could also get a different colored pad. I've been sort of thinking that beiges or creams would go well with brown, but not so sure they'd go well with a bay horse

SO MUCH THOUGHT UGHHH

Brown pants, brown chaps, and a plain royal blue collared shirt would be really classy.

RED! RED shirt, red pad, brown hat and chaps!

I would go with what oh vair oh said. There's really no need to change from blue to a different color if you like how blue looks on your horse. Brown pants and chaps would look best with your brown hat. But if you don't want to put that kind of money into it and you're just showing locally, blue jeans should be acceptable. Just make sure your jeans are a size longer than what you would normally wear so they will cover most of your boot.

I am really thinking the brown hat, brown chaps, and brown pants with a royal blue shirt and blue blanket. I just didn't know if it looked sharp enough. I don't want to dress over the top (like, very minimal bling and such), but I don't want to look frumpy either haha. Would a mostly white shirt with blue and brown accents look weird?

Would black pants look terrible with brown chaps? Probably eh? Lol.

Our local shows have somewhat strict show clothing guidelines, no blue jeans allowed.

I DO like red, but honestly River looks really nice in blue.

I agree with oh vair oh's suggestion. I would not pair black pants with brown chaps.

I would be very careful in pairing a solid royal shirt with the brown, especially if it is chocolate. Matching colors can be tricky, and sometimes what sounds good on paper really isn't going to look good in actuality. Brown and royal is a pretty harsh look as the colors don't typically complement each other. Browns and jewel tones or turquoise tend to look really nice as neither color is trying to over power the other.

Below (if the image code works) is a palette of browns and blues that work well together:



If you can find a lightly patterned shirt like a white shirt with a royal blue pinstripe, I would do that. Otherwise, I would recommend a white shirt and then a scarf with blue and brown in it to tie it together.

Thank you spurstop, that's awesome!

To be honest, I was picturing the blue and brown in my head and it did NOT look good :p

I might just do the white shirt with scarf... be a lot easier lol.

Shoulda just got a black hat.

^is your hat current....meaning has it been cleaned and shaped and is it a "serious" hat? (As opposed to a city slicker hat...LOL). Your hat should be your biggest investment. You can get all the right stuff for shirts, boots and chaps...but if your hat is not up-to-snuff, it ruins the whole look.