fatpiggy
Well-Known Member
My advice is don't take it so seriously! It is riding club, not Wembley. The worse judging I ever experienced was in a area show. The judge openly stated that those of us on the chestnuts (4 of us) could go to the end of the line up or leave the ring as he didn't like chestnuts. One of them was an ex-HOYS qualifier. My horse is retired now, but even when I used to compete at the riding club shows, I went with the attitude that it was a nice day out, a chance to catch up with people and that I had the loveliest horse on the field, and if the judge couldn't see that, then that was their hard luck. To view it from the other side though, my horse was well known as a fruitcake in the ring. We entered the equitation class as usual and she was her usual hyper self. But we one the class. When I asked the judge (who had seen us several times before during the season, so knew this was normal behaviour for my horse) why we had beaten everyone, she replied that although my horse hadn't gone well, I had done everything she had asked me to, coped with my mare's antics and shown that I could ride. In comparison she said, the other horses were push-button rides. I'm willing to bet the other competitors were pretty mad though.