As
part of my Christmas gift from my lovely trainer and boss, I got a pair
of SSG’s 10 Below gloves. After two months of use, I feel that I can
now write a review on them. I did not realize until yesterday that they
are marketed as riding gloves and not work AND riding gloves. Which
greatly changes my perspective on them.Here is the information given on them from SSG’s website (www.ssgridinggloves.com):
“Due to the success of our summer weight SSG® Digital glove with the best grip and durability of any riding glove, we engineered this 10 Below™ Equestrian glove with the digital palm. In addition the glove features a spandura back, a waterproof membrane, thinsulate lining and inside that our exclusive polar fleece. As good as it gets in a winter riding glove. 4 Layers of warmth!”
The design of the gloves is absolutely ideal. First off, they fit me! I had been searching high and low for small, insulated work gloves and could not find ones in my size. There’s nothing worse than a glove that fall off of your hand or that had extra long fingertips that get caught in everything. They are slightly grippy. They have a knit wrist meaning that bits of hay and straw do not get into the glove, which I love! They are insulated nicely, not too thinly, but not too thick as to make them awkwardly bulky. Another thing that I love is that they are waterproof! No more wet and cold hands after breaking ice off from water troughs or draining hoses. While riding, my hands stayed warm for a majority of the time. I still had frozen fingers on those really cold days and haven’t found a glove that keeps my fingers warm 100% of the time. Just stick a hand warmer in each on and they’re good for putting out round hay bale on the tractor and doing chores in frigid temps or a blizzard.
I used these gloves not only for riding. I had them on my hands ten hours a day, six days a week. I opened gates, carried buckets, lunged horses, tacked up, carried straw and hay bales, ice chipped, mucked stalls, fought with hoses, fixed fence, did snaps and adjusted buckles. If I had used them solely for riding, I doubt they would have fallen apart at the one and a half month mark.
It started off with some wear spots on the fingers. Then the stitching on the extra patch of layer on the index fingers came loose. That started catching in everything from girth buckles to gate snaps. I finally just ripped it off. Then the thumbs area started developing a hole. At first it was just the top layer, then the waterproof membrane ripped as well and pretty soon all four layers were shot.
As warm winter riding gloves, these are great! I highly recommend them for riding in weather below thirty degrees. I still think your hands would be cold in ten below weather, but I did not get the chance to test that out, thankfully.
I hope that SSG will make a more durable pair of gloves just like these, waterproof and with the knit wrists for working around the barn. They would be worth the money and I would purchase them in a heartbeat. If you’re looking for a pair of gloves to double for both work and riding, I would pass on these as they will not last you even one season. They are sold as riding gloves for a reason. Even so, they have the best pair of winter gloves I have owned.
