If you simply love Working Hunters...

[Simsar]

I agree with Mr Woof, most of the Workers are schooled to death. Long gone are the days that they go at a hunting pace and stretch after a course. Unfortunately these horses are all to well schooled for me how boring!!! Sorry.

 

[FMM]

Blame that on the courses and not the horses. It is far too easy to roll a pole on the very technical courses that are now the norm. If you don't show jump regularly, you will find it difficult (I;mnot saying impossible!) to get into the top league in workers.

And it is not just Silverstream that hunts - we often have 3 or 4 boxing to the meet although we do tend not to hunt before HOYS - they start immediately after that.

 

[spacefaer]

I think you missed my point simsar

This is a class for show horses - they have to be well enough schooled to look smart in the go round, to jump a clear round over often tricky distances with light poles, and polite enough to let a complete stranger (often with interesting riding skills, but I won't go there!) ride them. Also well behaved in company - including the en masse gallop.

If such a horse also hunts - then that's as it should be.

We have hunters - 5 fit and (up until Christmas) hard hunted ones. The fact that we are lucky enough to have one good looking enough to show is a bonus - that we have another we think is better for next season - is also a bonus.

I'm not decrying the fact that to jump today's tracks the horse has to jump more like a Sjer - just that it doesn't mean it can't cross some decent country.

what's boring about that??

 

[only_me]

*wades in to argument*

Imo the problem is is that arenas are smaller, and indoor you expect that everything is shorter therefore the way of going is affected. If you compare HOYS working hunter to say, the RIHS working hunter you can see a difference.

Here the working hunter rings are as big as possible in the space allowed and the courses are flowing and up to height - at county shows. I am able to let my horse flow on and jump in a forward rhythm and I dont alter strides as the fences have been built to showcase the jumping rather than testing it. we are lucky in that we have few countys and most people do it on the side of eventing/showjumping/hunting.

Working hunter is meant to showcase the hunter - through jumping and manners. The courses are built to test showjumping which is an entirely different disipline and therefore the horses are produce to jump the courses not to hunt.
Every horse can hunt, but not every horse is a working hunter.

There is a show producer in ireland who events all his young horses and then does working hunter to sell them - fantastic results (inc. wins at RDS) because his horses can multi-task. He is a member on here.

 

[Mickyjoe]

*wades in to argument*

Imo the problem is is that arenas are smaller, and indoor you expect that everything is shorter therefore the way of going is affected. If you compare HOYS working hunter to say, the RIHS working hunter you can see a difference.

Here the working hunter rings are as big as possible in the space allowed and the courses are flowing and up to height - at county shows. I am able to let my horse flow on and jump in a forward rhythm and I dont alter strides as the fences have been built to showcase the jumping rather than testing it. we are lucky in that we have few countys and most people do it on the side of eventing/showjumping/hunting.

Working hunter is meant to showcase the hunter - through jumping and manners. The courses are built to test showjumping which is an entirely different disipline and therefore the horses are produce to jump the courses not to hunt.
Every horse can hunt, but not every horse is a working hunter.

There is a show producer in ireland who events all his young horses and then does working hunter to sell them - fantastic results (inc. wins at RDS) because his horses can multi-task. He is a member on here.

Well said!!
My two young working hunters also spend the season eventing which really stands them in good stead when faced with a track like the RDS, which now contains proper working hunter obstacles like stiles, banks, water trays etc.

I hunt and event my smaller one, who has been an extremely successful WH horse, but I must admit while I event the other (who has won on both his WH trips to Dublin), I don't hunt him - purely because I doubt I could ever stop him and don't want to blow his brains for eventing!!! :crazy: He is definitely not molly coddled though..

 

[only_me]

LOL i think you are the member I was trying to remember the name of! I knew the horse in question won RDS and also evented but couldnt remember the name!

 

[Mickyjoe]

Oh really!!? Lol! I was thinking of a few other people you could have been referring to (but didn't know if they posted on here). There are plenty of top Irish producers who multi-task their horses in the same way and win at eventing and WH.. Some of the RDS WH entries were also in the RDS Future Event horse class as I did myself one year.

 

[SueEllen]

I'm at the other end of things, we get on better when we can move on and just bound around the course which is what we did last summer with OK results but in order to step up a gear I feel I'm going to have to get more technical. Small arenas are a nightmare for me.

 

[Ladylina83]

I agree re the space in the ring - having 2 hunters 1 17 hand idiot who needs her head after a fence and 1 intermediate 15.2 who can turn on a sixpence and really shift some between fences you need all the room you can get.

It does bug me somewhat to see WB's coming out of the showjumping ring changing into a tweed and straight into the WH ring!

And yes I know that WBs are capable of hunting - thats not my point.

 

[SueEllen]

I get ya there.

 

[RachBethan]

As creater of this thread, I think that a working hunter should show forward paces but be easy to handle and schooled correctly. They should flow around the course with out hesitation or changing in speed. I don't like it when their heads are pulled into their chests. It's all very 'show pony' like and annoys me, as the head should be free but lowered to some degree. I don't know if that makes sense, but yeh... lol xD