Adults/Show Producers competing ponies - The kids miss out

For years my daughters competed in local dressage competitions most of the the time they were the only child in the class, so when they did win or were placed it was for their performance and what an acheivement.
Its then same with showing, there are age restricted classes Junior,FR,LR and show pony and hunter classes are age/height restricted but how sad that when you get to the age limit for that class even through you have not outgrown your pony you can no longer compete with it.
So M&M's have become more popular with adults,because
Several breeds can carry a normal size adult easily
They are hardy and cheap to keep.
Horray! You do not have to plait.
You can compete your pony no matter how young or old you are.
They tend to have less problems than bigger breeds so smaller vet bills.
That is why a nice one is so much easier to sell than a horse.
 
I show a pony. There's NO way I'd put a child on him, anyone who knows him can back me up on that one. As above, the pony is being judged, and it's just the way it is, also I have been whooped plenty of times by fab kids when my own pony is being a total arse so it's not all unfair!!

Remember most of these natives were bred to carry an adult anyway! :o
 
Interesting debate but my original point was that I thought it unfair that a producer can qualify so many ponies for others to ride at finals. A lot of you keep saying its the pony that is judged so why then does the producer have to qualify it?
To say a jockey has no influence on the way of going which a lot if people have eluded to is just not correct.
I'm all for people, any age, getting help, but why can't they ride them other than at the big finals?
 
Why is it unfair??? That is what a producer does, proffesionally produce horses and or ponies? There have always been proffesionals in the showing world who will qualify certain ponies for Studs, the stud owners breed them and the producers compete them to showcase the stud. HOYS, RIHS and Olympia are for "Open" ponies and are not neccesarilly kids ponies. You will find that many M@M breeds were in fact breed as pack horses or to been ridden by ADULTS. SP and SHP`s are specifically breed for children.
 
Not everyone has a kid the right age to compete the pony. Ie a breeder will send a pony away to be produced because they have no rider themselves, said pony qualfies under producer, producer qualifies another and at the final has to decide which is the better one to ride and which to hand the reins over of.

There are also others whose riders are doing exams et al and can't take time out of school to attend the qualifiers but by the end of year finals their exams are done and dusted and they can ride their pony.

Another posibility is that the producer gets a damned sight better tune out of the pony than the kid whose parents own it and they are paying an absolute fortune to get the pony to HOYS. Once there they don't mind being placed down because their darling little cherub children got to ride at the BIG ONE.

There are many, many reasons as to why a producer would ride over a kid. But then you get the likes of the kids that ride for producers and they are flippin amazing! So would you then turn around and say that ordinary kids don't get a look in when there is a produced pony ridden by an employed child rider and that that's not fair also?

It's showing - at the end of the day it's only fair if your at the right end of the line up!
 
Blimey! I can see why everyone I know that does showing moans so much, and they even are at the right end of the line most times.
I will def stick to coloured poles and a stopwatch and there's a lot to be said for rugby loving kids!
I'm glad at least someone has finally admitted it might be because they "get a tune" out of the pony though.
 
I too can't really see what the problem is. I kind of understand where your coming from but that is showing regardless as to it being ridden, inhand, local, county, national or even crufts for that matter. Producers will produce, the best rider / handler available to bring out the best in the pony will be used.
At top level there's an awful lot more at stake than just a trophy and rosette, it's all about reputation and adding ££££'s to the value of the pony. If I were in a position to have an highly experienced rider compete on mine I wouldn't hesitate to hand over the reins. The same goes for inhand showing. I enjoy showing but often feel that Im the one who lets them down.
 
Afrikaner said:
Hi all

I was having a conversation with a friend last night who is big into showing.
I was amazed to hear that adult producers firstly ride ponies as small as section A's but the thing that has amazed me most is that these producers can ride as many ponies as they like to qualify them (the pony) for big shows such as Olympia, HOYS and RIHS then the owner gets to ride them at the finals?

How can this be fair? What I mean by that is how does this reward the family who have a pony that is not under production, but would equally qualify if it had a producer riding it and would also do as well if not better if going head to haed, both pony and rider.

Coming from a SJ background why are the rules not as they are here, the qualification is with pony and rider, not just pony.

I'm told (correct me if I'm wrong here) that there can be sometimes 4-5 ponies that qualified under a producer being ridden at the final by their owner or another rider.

For me, it's totally unfair and how can people in showing not wonder about the negative effect this has on getting new people into showing?

We've seen so many top riders start off in showing and it's great for young kids to be able to ride at top shows that will hopefully encourage them to go further but surely this is not the best way to encorage more people to get involved, it just does not reward for the right reasons.
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That's showing - the nastiest and most corrupt equine "sport" there is....Tried it once (with some success I may add) But I wasn't prepared to go to the lengths needed to keep winning, trying endurance this year and what a refreshing change!!
 
OP, you should feel sorry for children who ride show ponies! Children who want to have fun on ponies do gymkhanna, pony club, SJ and XC, not serious showing.

One local family have to bribe their children to ride in showing classes, and I'm not surprised! Mother and Granny spend hours prepping their string of ponies. Once the children are dressed for their class they are forced to stand on a piece of carpet so as not to get their boots dirty. They are then lifted straight from the carpet onto whichever pony. And all this is for local unaff village type shows, not county level! These children ride to satisfy the desire to win of Mother and Granny, not because there's any fun in it for them!
 
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marmalade76 said:
OP, you should feel sorry for children who ride show ponies! Children who want to have fun on ponies do gymkhanna, pony club, SJ and XC, not serious showing.

One local family have to bribe their children to ride in showing classes, and I'm not surprised! Mother and Granny spend hours prepping their string of ponies. Once the children are dressed for their class they are forced to stand on a piece of carpet so as not to get their boots dirty. They are then lifted straight from the carpet onto whichever pony. And all this is for local unaff village type shows, not county level! These children ride to satisfy the desire to win of Mother and Granny, not because there's any fun in it for them!
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But that could be said about many sports! Check out the Dad's at a football match! But it's true.... Jumping is much more fun!!!!
 
marmalade76 said:
OP, you should feel sorry for children who ride show ponies! Children who want to have fun on ponies do gymkhanna, pony club, SJ and XC, not serious showing.

One local family have to bribe their children to ride in showing classes, and I'm not surprised! Mother and Granny spend hours prepping their string of ponies. Once the children are dressed for their class they are forced to stand on a piece of carpet so as not to get their boots dirty. They are then lifted straight from the carpet onto whichever pony. And all this is for local unaff village type shows, not county level! These children ride to satisfy the desire to win of Mother and Granny, not because there's any fun in it for them!
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I totally agree with you. Some kids look like as though their heading for the gallows not the show ring and have to perform week after week.
 
marmalade76 said:
OP, you should feel sorry for children who ride show ponies! Children who want to have fun on ponies do gymkhanna, pony club, SJ and XC, not serious showing.

One local family have to bribe their children to ride in showing classes, and I'm not surprised! Mother and Granny spend hours prepping their string of ponies. Once the children are dressed for their class they are forced to stand on a piece of carpet so as not to get their boots dirty. They are then lifted straight from the carpet onto whichever pony. And all this is for local unaff village type shows, not county level! These children ride to satisfy the desire to win of Mother and Granny, not because there's any fun in it for them!
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My 6yo daughter loves showing. We have great fun doing high level M&M LR classes. She enjoys PC rallies but loves her showing and gets pretty grumpy if we have not been to a show for a while! Perhaps when she gets more confident she might find the other horsey events more fun but for now perfecting her up downs and a big cheesy grin makes her happy.
 
mcnaughty said:
My 6yo daughter loves showing. We have great fun doing high level M&M LR classes. She enjoys PC rallies but loves her showing and gets pretty grumpy if we have not been to a show for a while! Perhaps when she gets more confident she might find the other horsey events more fun but for now perfecting her up downs and a big cheesy grin makes her happy.
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I'm sure my daughter would enjoy getting all dressed up for the odd showing class (as I'm sure it wouldn't take long for the novelty to wear off), but if she didn't enjoy it, didn't want to do it, etc, I certainly wouldn't make her week in, week out, in every available class on a string of ponies....
 
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Sorry but doesn't the same go for other disciplines too...? You can have a producer qualify a pony for showjumping events e.g Blue Chip can't you? And dressage too I'm sure...

I might be missing the point but... Why so bothered? All sports are 'corrupt' in some way. There are plenty of places for everyone to go and have fun!
 
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