Rider Review: Eurostar Carlotta Jacket

This has been a crazy stressful/busy week between work deadlines being moved up and apartment meetings & stresses of building ... I spent 3 and 1/2 hours choosing bathroom fittings on Tuesday afternoon - ridiculously exhausting! #grown-up-problems
Sadly all this stress has made for little saddle time for me, in fact - NONE - since I last posted on Monday evening. So as not to leave the blog totally idle and loose the little readership I have regained since the blog-silence of Autumn/Winter 2013 - I decided to post a rider review of my "new" jacket

Ladies & Gentlemen - the Eurostar Carlotta Jacket

Yours truly so please excuse the lack of quality/randomness of photo

I picked up this jacket "on sale" at a local tack store, I say "on sale" as it was still quite pricey but that's to be expected when buying brand-name and I deff wouldn't have looked at it twice at it's original price, cos I'm a cheapskate when it comes to my riding gear - the horses, now that's another story...they always get the best I can save to afford.
I needed a new winter jacket to keep me warm and this one fit the brief, looked nice on and had zip pockets, removable hood...it ticked all the boxes & was on sale.

I have had the jacket a while now and the rest of the photos in the post have been taken after it's first run through the washing machine, as let me tell you this jacket has been worn almost everyday since i bought it. I not only wear it to the barn every evening, but also every lunchtime on my mad-dash run across town to turn the horses out. It is the perfect jacket to wear around the beasties and for everyday tasks as it cleans up with a quick wipe of a damp cloth after horses scratch off you.

I find that it has a flattering fit due to vertical paneling on sides & under the arms - always more flattering than horizontal stripes IMO. It is nicely padded to keep me warm on cold days, has cotton elasticity around wrists and waist to hug to your shape, keep heat in and stop the jacket/sleeves riding up.It also has a lovely padded collar, again with cotton to keep you warm which can be zipped up and negates the need for a scarf - always preferable in my mind when riding as no risk of strangling...

Sleeve

Back turned up & normal to show cotton-elastic lining

There is a handy double zip system which opens from the top or the bottom - to allow you ease of use when in the saddle. The hood can be removed (zip) or fastened down (velcro) with a very cute stirrup shaped attachment to the hood - perhaps an unnecessary embellishment, but make it un-obviously horsey & I like that about it!

See earlier back picture for velcro fastening in between the shoulder blades

There are two zip pockets on the front to keep your phone and/or horse treats, keys, packets of tissues, money etc - with no risk of falling out  and no bouncing as the pockets are fleece lined so things "stick in them" ... or they do in my experience, plus these also keep your hands toasty and warm on a cold day.
There is also a "phone" zip breast-pocket inside the jacket which I typically use to hold my mp3 music player so that my earphones don't get tangled elsewhere...Keeping my phone in there would make it considerably less accessible and as i often forget my watch - I need it to know the time!

Other nice embellishments include a none to obnoxious logo over the left breast - I am not a fan of big in your face logos, so this suits me just fine even though it is a little blingy - as are the zips & cotton/elastic linings on sleeves and waist - but again it is relatively understated and only someone pointed it out to me I wouldn't have noticed. I am not the biggest fan of bling, so if it had been very noticeable I would never have gotten the jacket.

Negatives ... there are not many, that I can have noticed so far: after my month of daily abuse, this coat has weathered well.
One is that when wearing my riding gloves it can be difficult to get my hand out the elastic sleeve end - but that could just be my in-capabilities shining through. I could also always just take the gloves off and then put them back on again once I have the jacket on...but again, derpville resident #1 = me, so why make things easy for myself?!
It also feels to me like it might have lost some of its padded feel after having gone through the wash - but again this might just be my perception.

I typically don't ride in my jacket for arena work, and haven't gone hacking in the woods since I bought it so cannot comment with certainty what it is like to ride in, besides walking to warm up - in which case it is fine. Perfect length as you aren't sitting on it, if you want/need to work in it you can remove the hood or velcro it down with stirrup fastening - as I said I have been lucky enough with winter this year that I haven't needed it to ride.

A quick google showed me it comes in many different colours, although sadly I couldn' t find a Eurostar 'HOME' site to link to, perhaps one of you computer whiz-kid geniuses can help a technophobe out ;-)

All in all I am super happy with my purchase, I have had lovely comments from people at the barn & friends in work/I meet on the street - as I said it goes everywhere with me, like my Ariat Windmeres - both made the recent trip with me to Ireland and survived the rain & sea air there as I went "rock" climbing.
I cannot say enough positive things about this jacket and would recommend it to anyone looking for a warm winter jacket that can take you from the barn to everyday life and back again.

I am not in anyway connected to the Eurostar brand nor have I been asked to write this review - this is simply my opinion on a jacket I recently purchased and like so thought I'd share with whoever wants to read it.

PS: If you don't follow SprinklerBandit & Redheadlins, well you should their posts are awesome, but that aside - they have entered a photo competition with a fab French/paparazzi themed story. Please help vote for them and their fabulously imaginative photograph. :D