Local riding club show needs a shake-up. All ideas welcome.

Once again, thank you for the further comments, suggestions and questions

@ester The events have a defined start time but then run on from there through a 12 class schedule, so people usually turn up as they think they need to.

We did go through a period of doing gymkhana type games but the young riders didn't really take to it and we stopped - as much as anything because there is a set-up requirement, the need for equipment (bending poles etc) and it became unsustainable. Of course we do have our fair share of no shows at every event - especially if the weather doesn't play - but Mary does seem to have a direct line to the weather gods, and we have only had maybe one or two events where the weather was bad - including the historic day when we had people doing a dressage test in an outdoor arena in a horizontal blizzard!! The pictures were interesting to say the least, and, as event photographer, I was out there taking them. :)

So, once again lots the think about. I'll have a chat with Mary too, who is now organising the end of season presentation evening, and will be talking to our venue very soon to book event dates for 2025. The presentation evening might be a good opportunity to canvas views on new ideas and ask members what they want to see us doing in the coming year. I'm sure that, whatever ideas we can come up with Mary will be determined to keep things running if at all possible.

Thank you again everyone.
 
I attend a number of these types of showing shows each year and some have huge classes (12+ entries) and some do very poorly.

I think the biggest factor is location. The busiest in my local area is just a farmers field with 3 showing rings. But they are surrounded by livery yards and private yards, so large number of people hack to the shows. They also have a kids ring with fun classes which seems popular.

Thinking of the other popular local shows, they are advertised constantly on all the local Facebook groups, they have their own Facebook pages and share photos very regularly. They also have huge fancy rosettes and sashes, trophies plus a raffle and good food vans.

Qualifiers are also great. Equifest, sunshine tour, South West ponies association depending where you are located. I'm sure there are others.

The ones that don't seem to do as well, have poor rosettes or don't shout enough about their rosettes, they don't advertise enough or are in awkward locations (one car width twisty lanes which people have said they've done once with a lorry and never again).

I find the schedules very similar between shows.

I think it also depends what else is on. Bank Holiday weekends seem to be very quiet to go showing. People going away maybe? Also one RC tried running a show two days after the big local agricultural show and had poor entries.

I do think the shows are getting quieter sadly, even just over the last 3 years. Cost of living is having a huge impact.
 
Tbh I'd be a bit put off if there was no idea of class times. Even a not before time is really helpful and if people are going to their first show they could have no idea when their class would start so could put them off.
 
Re class times. Yes I’m put off too if there are say 12 classes starting at 9 am no other not before times or guidance. As you’ll know from the shows you run you can never know whether they’ll be two in a class or 12 in a class so trying to work out what time a class might be makes it very difficult. In this sort of case if there was even an indication that say class six wouldn’t start before 11 o’clock it gives you some idea. Of course you might get there for 11 and hang around for a long time but at least you know you haven’t missed it. I once did a not before 2 o’clock class at 5:30 and the rest of the arenas were being harrowed for the next day but at least we haven’t missed it. One of the local shows I supported last year had a WhatsApp group just for the show day which is really helpful as the lorry parking was a little way from the grass Arenas so you would get warnings as to what classes were on. It was really helpful as someone who is on their own so it doesn’t have anybody at the ring letting me know what’s happening.
 
organisation is a big one, do the inhand for each breed run at opposite ends to the ridden? so many shows have the inhand m&m for example at the same time as the ridden, meaning people either pick just one or simply go elsewhere.

championships!! a nice sash is a massive draw, my local show last year got so much busier on the shows they had supreme and cash prizes etc. along with this is rosettes, if you can spend even a tiny bit more for slightly prettier rosettes it’ll draw people in.

a lot of qualifiers are free to run, can’t remember them off the top of my head but i was on the committee of my local show and we had loads running purely because we didn’t have to pay to do a lot of them.

if you already have a lot of people coming to give their horses experience, play into this! classes that are more general for those who’s horses don’t fit into specific categories, beginners ridden classes with no age limits, i love to see a “newly broken horse/new combination” class!

split the classes it makes sense to, for example traditional and plaited coloureds if you’ve got the entries, and maybe group together the riding horse/sports horse/hack classes if they don’t get as many entries
 
Squeak said:
Tbh I'd be a bit put off if there was no idea of class times. Even a not before time is really helpful and if people are going to their first show they could have no idea when their class would start so could put them off.
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Absolutely. But the flip side is that if you do put not before times in, you have to stick to them! I blacklisted one show (at a lovely venue, perfect for what I wanted) for starting their "afternoon, not before 1pm" classes at 11:30am, and then being difficult when I pointed out I couldn't be in two places at once!
 
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