Hunter or Sport horse

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LOU83

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Sorry for all these silly questions but i'm really trying to get my showing with my youngster right net year.

What are the differences between the classes, I'm hoping to show my will be then yearling next year and i'm trying to work out what type of classes he would be able to enter.

His breeding is ID X TB

Whats is the difference between Hunter classes and Sport horse classes, what types are they looking for in both of these classes?
 
In theory, a hunter would be a good workmanlike stamp, with good bone (obviously how much depends on light, middle or heavy weight), ground covering flat movement (ie not wasting energy with lots of knee and hock action)

A sporthorse should be a horse that would be suitable to either event, show jump or do dressage, so obviously be well made and athletic, but could have a lot more movement than the hunter.

However in reality a lot of people show their horses in both. A lot of county level hunters are quite over topped and stuffy in their movement, not helped by handlers who seem to want to mince like they are showing a 12.2hh show pony. Very rare to see a top class dressage stamp in a county show sport horse class, I'd say the majority were eventer stamps, ie TB crosses. Most of the judges are hunter judges too, so they tend to go for that type anyway.
 
Agree with everything Volatis says - if you have an id x tb you'd be aswell entering in both - after all plenty of SHBGB judges were hunter people initially........and if you have a large, well developed colt so much the better
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Good luck
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I agree with the above. I might well be doing both with my rising 3yo this summer. Previously only done Sportshorse classes and done fairly well in them too. Although he is athletic, I'm not sure his movement is big enough in front for Sportshorse only.
 
I'm no expert on this, but a filly by my stallion (pure-bred Arab!) out of a v nice hunter mare won both sport horse and hunter foal classes at county level this year.

If anything she did better in the sport-horse classes, as she has quite big elevated movement which the sport-horse judges loved, but was possibly a bit too flashy for the hunter judges, although her conformation kept her in the top placings in the hunter classes too.

I would say why not enter both and see how you get on? It's all good education for your yearling, and feels more worthwhile to go to a show and do 2 classes rather than just one. If after a few shows you find your boy is always down the line in the sport-horse classes, then maybe just stick to hunter classes (or vice-versa), but to start with you might as well enter both, IMO.
 
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