What color TACK does your horse wear?

I'm in the process of purchasing a Standardbred mare who is registered as black. However, I see a mealy muzzle and lighter points on her, so I'm positive that she's actually a 'bad ass brown'... a dark one, mind you, but still brown.

What color tack do you use on your darker horses? I'm planning to use a white saddle pad with red, teal or black piping on it... would brown tack look silly? I'm buying used tack and All-Purpose English saddles are just more plentiful in all shades of brown rather than black. I'm quite taken with one saddle in particular - the seat is a lighter (Havana?) red-brown and the flaps are a darker, almost chocolate, brown. It looks really sharp, but I can't decide if it'll look odd on a dark brown horse.

If you ride a dark horse in brown tack, can you post a picture or two for me?

I have brown hunt seat tack and black dressage tack for my dark brown boy. There are some older pics of him in his hunt seat setup on my "Barn" page (photobucket hates me today, or I'd post some here... ).

One thing to keep in mind when choosing a color for your leather tack - if you plan on showing in the Hunter division, you're better off with brown tack and a shaped white saddle pad. It's just a tradition in the hunter ring, and in my area black hunter tack isn't at all common. If you're just pleasure riding, hacking, or showing in the jumper division, black tack and square pads are just fine if that's what you prefer.

Brown tack, especially the lighter colors, look wonderful on black horses. All my tack, both jumping and dressage, is brown.

Thanks! I'm not planning to show much, if at all. If I do, it'll be more pleasure type classes to serve as a change of pace from the trail riding and arena work. I'm not really interested in showing. :)

I'm definitely coming around to the idea of brown tack. I prefer darker tack, but the brown looks so... traditional and polished.

I find the more Havana color, or anything with a little red hint to it, really pops on the darker horses.

I have black but I too like the look of the browns with the reddish tones, especially havana. When offset with the white pad it tens to bring out the reddish-brownish glow of the BABs

I love browns on black horses!!!

Black/dark horses look good in anything. So really it would just be your own preference :)

Like others mentioned, I would stick with brown if you were considering H/J. I personally have a grey (but really, he kind of looks like a dark dappled buckskin with speckles) and ultimately would love to have black tack.

Same! There's a horse at the barn named Poiurise and he is black. I wear dark tack on him all the time whilst jumping in competitions etc.

My black and white pinto wears a medium oil aussie saddle and even our BO (who is a dyed-in-the-wool cowboy) says it looks good on him. Excuse the ginormous fleece pad...it came with the saddle, but obviously doesn't fit it.