How to be correct in selecting tack and costume for Spanish ridden classes

Vaquera style Clothing

Hat:
Traditional sombrero hat. Hat colour should complement as best as possible the clothing colour. Men rarely wear black hats.
Should have a wide flat and stiff brim. Some ‘cheap’ versions have a narrower and/or flexible brim and these are not truly correct.

Jacket:
The correct Vaquera style is the chaquetilla campero. This has a rounded collar and no lapels and to be correct must have five buttons at the front and five on each sleeve. Note that only the top button should be done up (and it is considered incorrect to ride without the jacket buttoned). Top quality (made to measure) jackets have a special lining, stitched so the jacket is stiff and appears moulded to the body.
Sometimes seen - A piece of white cloth or card protruding approximately 1” (25mm) from the right breast pocket of the jacket.

Lady is wearing; calzon campero (trousers with turn ups) and chaquetilla campero.

Gentleman is wearing; calzon paseo (trousers with caireles) and Chaquetilla campero.

Either combination can be worn by ladies or gentlemen.

Waistcoat:
Matching colour to the jacket. It should have five buttons at the front and all should be done up.

Shirt:
A plain (no frills or diamante buttons) white shirt is worn under the jacket. The top button is done up. To be absolutely correct, the sleeves of the shirt should be long enough so the cuffs are just visible, protruding beyond the sleeves of the jacket.

Trousers:
Two styles: Calzon campero (trousers with turn-ups) or calzon paseo (trousers without turn-ups) that take caireles, 5 per leg. With paseo trousers, the top two caireles should pass through both sets of holes in the trousers and the bottom three through only the inside holes. The usual choice of caireles is; horse heads, acorns or vaquera stirrups, all in silver colour.
These come in varying qualities, with two or three sets of horse heads etc per cairele. Horse hair caireles (ideally to match the horse’s mosquera) are also correct, although rarely seen nowadays.

Braces (Tirante):
Traditionally leather, plain or tooled. There are also many choices of cheaper ‘elasticated’ paterns.

Ladies – Vaquera:
It is usual for ladies to wear the same as men in vaquera style. However, ladies can ride side saddle, with vaquera jacket and side saddle skirt (falda amazona) and high brown boots. For competition (Doma Vaquera) the skirt is usually black or grey with pin stripe.

Sash:
Should be worn around the waist, knotted, with the ends traditionally tied onto the braces which hold the trousers up, with no loose ends. Sometimes this is a silk scarf and normally this complements and blends in colour with the rest of the outfit, although it can be contrasting and more colourful for riding in the Feria.

Boots:
Campero trousers are worn with brown (must not be black) calf length or knee high boots (not with polainas - Spanish style half chaps).

Paseo trousers are worn with either shoes (brown) or short boots (brown), plus polainas (not with boots).

Polainas (Spanish half chaps):
For competition (Doma Vaquera), polainas are plain.
For riding in the Feria they may be plain, or of the tooled type (‘Huelva’ style), or with white ornamentation (repujada style).

Spurs:
Black iron, Spanish type. For competition - with rowels (see current Doma Vaquera regulations for permitted rowels).

Spur leathers:
For competition (Doma Vaquera) must be white, otherwise brown. Black leathers are incorrect.

Full chaps (Zahones):
Can also be worn (also sometimes seen in competition). Can be various designs from plain (liso) working style or the discretely tooled Huelva style, to the ornamented (Repujada or artesania) style which is used only for Feria, not competition. Chaps can be worn over either type of trouser, i.e. campero (with turn-ups) or Paseo (with caireles). 

Clothing Colours
Trousers: For men when riding, the trousers are usually a fairly sombre colour, either a grey striped material, brown, dark blue, bottle green or black and should match the colour of the jacket. Black is not a popular colour and an all black outfit is not considered correct as this denotes funeral wear. Ladies sometimes choose maroon jackets.

Notes

• For Doma Vaquera it is not correct for women to wear culottes. They either ride astride in the male costume or ride side saddle (Amazona) and wear a side saddle skirt, which is usually black or grey striped, with the jacket (chaquetilla campero) etc.
• Wearing gloves of any sort is incorrect, regardless of colour and forbidden in competition (Doma Vaquera).
• Horse tendon boots or bandages are not used in competition (Doma Vaquera).
• A whip should not be used in competition (Doma Vaquera), except for side saddle riders (although a stick is often used when training young horses).
• Ribbons are not put in the mane (only in the rejoneo – horse mounted bullfight). Ribbons are a Portuguese practise rather than Spanish.
• For the Feria it is permitted to put ‘borlajes’ (coloured woollen pom-poms) in the mane and top of the tail.
• Numnahs are not used under Vaquera saddles and not allowed in competition (Doma Vaquera).
• Martingales are not correct and not allowed in competition.