Numbers

In the UK, we wear our numbers on our backs, and it used to be that we rounded the edges of them, but I notice this is being done less and less nowadays. I always used to make sure I always did it, and I admit, I don't anymore. I even used to have a stencil so I could get the corners perfect!

I noticed at the Royal Dublin Show that the numbers are actually placed on horses' browbands. In the UK, sometimes you see people with the discs on the bridles. I think the Horse of the Year Show actually has this in addition to numbers on the back.

In Australia, they have the numbers on breastplates. I hadn't really thought much about this until I looked back at some old show reports in newspapers from the 1920s, where I noticed that the welsh ponies had the numbers around their necks, similar to the breastplate.