Product Review: Horze Summer Glove Extravaganza

Horze Shona Touch Screen Riding Gloves: don't bother taking off your gloves to text your friends any more! Photo by Kate Samuels.

Horze Shona Touch Screen Riding Gloves: don’t bother taking off your gloves to text your friends any more! Photo by Kate Samuels.

You can pick a rider out of a crowd in the summer by many things, but most notoriously by our tan lines. We might wear jeans and a conveniently cut top to fool you into thinking that we are bronzed all over, but there is one thing that we cannot hide: our glove tan.

Wearing gloves in the summer sounds like a crazy thing to do, if you ask your average layman, but as riders we know how important gloves can be for hours of working with horses in the sweltering heat.

Personally, I like to have gloves for lots of different occasions, and always a backup pair just in case. Horze was kind enough recently to offer a selection of summer gloves for product review, because it’s important to have a few options for your glove wearing satisfaction, and maybe to grab a few different pairs at the same time.

Horze has eighteen different pairs of summer riding gloves available, and I selected three that I thought would represent a few distinct options. At very reasonable prices, you can afford to collect a handful (ha!) for different needs.

Horze Airflow Gloves have a very fine mesh on the back of your hand for extreme summer ventilation. Photo by Kate Samuels.

Horze Airflow Gloves have a very fine mesh on the back of your hand for extreme summer ventilation. Photo by Kate Samuels.

First up, we have the Horze Airflow Gloves, which I was most interested in from the get-go. These gloves boast a really thin stretchy mesh on the back side, which promotes maximum breathability and does away with the possibility of sweaty hands.

The mesh is nicely flexible, and allows you to flex your hands in any way without feeling constricted. I can see how these would be preferable gloves to wear in very hot climates, because they almost feel like no glove at all!

On the underside, the Horze Airflow Gloves have a smooth synthetic suede, a sort of soft faux leather that feels nice on your palms but also provides a good grip on the reins.

They velcro at the wrist on the under side, but tuck right in around the base of the wrist and do not interfere with flexing at all. I usually wear a size 8 glove (I know, I have big old farmer hands) and I was comfortable in a Large, so to me they run a little small.

So that you have an option for schooling or competition, the Horze Airflow Gloves come in either black or white, and retail for $17.95.

Horze Shona Touch-Screen Riding Gloves are very durable, and very practical. Photo by Kate Samuels.

Horze Shona Touch-Screen Riding Gloves are very durable, and very practical. Photo by Kate Samuels.

For our next set of gloves, we can just go ahead and admit that we hate the necessity of taking off our gloves to use our phones while riding. Anybody who says they don’t ever use their touch screen phone while riding is completely fibbing, because we all do it.

Whether it’s answering the phone on a hack, texting your groom as you’re coming back to the barn, or double checking your dressage test right before you go to warmup, the extra hassle of undoing your gloves is just uncalled for.

The Horze Shona Touch-Screen Riding Gloves are a great combination of durability, design and usability. They come in several fun colors, as well as the classic dark grey for more important situations.

The gloves sport three fingers that are touch-screen enabled, the thumb, the pointer finger and the middle finger, all of which have a material that is capable of holding an electrical charge.

This pair of gloves feels really durable and long lasting, while also feeling comfortable and soft on your palms They have an adjustable velcro attachment on the back side of the wrist, as well as some elastic for a more custom fit.

I love them for cross country, they just fit so well. The breathable polyester on the back of the hand makes them suitable for summer use, but I could also see using them in colder weather as well. They retail for $19.95.

Horze Supreme Neo Riding Gloves in blue are super soft and comfortable. Photo by Kate Samuels.

Horze Supreme Neo Riding Gloves in blue are super soft and comfortable. Photo by Kate Samuels.

The final pair of summer gloves for your consideration are the Horze Supreme Neo Riding Gloves, which are really just your every day schooling go-to gloves. These soft flexible gloves are fun in design and color, and seem like a great glove to count on for all tasks.

They come in either blue or light pink for the accents on the back of the hand, which is made of a breathable polyester mesh for your summer comfort. The durable suede grip on the other side is ideal for grasping sweaty reins, or riding on cross country. Bonus points if you have blue or pink as a color for your outfit!

The Supreme Neo Riding Gloves have an elastic wrist with no velcro closure of any kind, but I found that it was comfortable and well fitted, and easy to put on and pull off. They also have the bonus factor of being machine washable, which is ideal for summer gear and gloves that you use frequently all day.

These gloves retail for $18.95, which is yet another example of Horze’s affordable glove collection. That way, you can have several pairs of different kinds of gloves for different rides!