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

G

Greylegs

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 December 2011
Messages
3,257
Visit site
I help my friend "Mary" to manage/co-ordinate a small, local riding club of the type which seems to be very much dying out these days, sadly. The club runs 4 showing shows and 8 dressage events spread across the year. We don't hold events which involve jumping due to the need for additional arena stewards to set up and remove fences etc. The events are hosted at a local riding centre which has a standard 40x20 outdoor arena as well as a nice indoor school which is slightly larger. Attendance at the events varies, but they are generally attended by a small cohort of regulars as well as a few new faces every year and, overall, they break even and cover their costs. But it is becoming clear that the whole thing needs a bit of a shake up - new or different classes or a different way of doing things to encourage people to attend and generally freshen up the club's event offering. Mary is very resistant to change. She has been doing things her way for years and has the organisation of the events down to a fine art!! She also likes to be in control of things (fair enough!) and also has other professional and family commitments which take up her time. But it is increasingly clear that, if the club is going to continue, we need to encourage more people to come along, and I feel that we need to refresh what we do, and how we do it, to encourage this.

Classes currently are the usual mix of in-hand (young stock, M&M, veterans, best condition etc) and a few ridden classes (riding club horse, best rider, Tack and Turnout, lead rein best rider, open ridden horse etc). On occasion, there have only been 1 or 2 entries in a class, but rarely more than 5 or 6 at best. People generally seem to enjoy the events, but, of course, we are fully aware of the cost of getting horses ready and transporting them to a show, and all the other pressures on people's time. There are also a number of large event venues in our vicinity which run programmes of their own events, and we are aware that we are competing with them for entries on any given day. It seems that people come to us a couple of times to give their horses/ponies/riders a bit of experience, then move to events run by the larger venues when they have gained a bit of confidence at local club level.

So - are showing shows at this level now a thing of the past - if so, the club is doomed to close; or can we do anything to introduce new classes, new ways of doing things etc to breathe some new life into things? All thoughts and ideas gratefully received.
 
Is it worth holding 'masterclass' evenings, with a talk/instruction/lesson from an old hand, or professional? Could be anything from what the judges are looking for, how to put a ridden show together, smart turn out for rider and horse, how to plait.... you get the idea. Apart from offering your event as a qualifier in some classes,, or staging a young riders only event, I'm not sure what else would be achievable given the fixed programme you have at the moment.
 
Our local club started putting on classes for younger people i.e. those aged 10 and under. They include things like best handler (mum or dad or friend can come into the ring to be there just in case). They also include 4 or 5 novelty classes - best tail, prettiest face etc. Your friend may not like the thought of this type of class, but they do bring in the punters and they tend to enter all of them.
 
I wish I knew the answer to this as I am in a similar position with a show. I've tried asking the members what they'd like at the show, and putting those classes in. I've tried mixing serious classes with fun ones. I've tried making the schedule so that people can enter about 6 classes rather than just one or two. But nothing works. I fear the showing show is not what's wanted any more.
 
I’d agree with seeing whether any of your showing classes could be qualifiers as that’s likely to attract more entries and maybe chuck in the odd fun class in there as well eg handy pony or fancy dress?

I’ve done unaffiliated dressage to music before and that was quite good fun and the place I did it just had a bog standard CD player borrowed off someone nothing fancy so that might be an idea as a one off?

Other than that maybe survey your current members about what they want to get out of the riding club & what classes they’d like to see?
 
I was chairperson of a RC about 10yrs ago and I feel your pain. The whole committee resigned shortly after I joined (not due to me 🤣) I went to the EGM volunteered to be on the committee and somehow ended up the Chairperson! 😳 I didn’t really know anyone and had never been on a RC committee let alone been a chair. It was a challenge let’s say 😩.

However we did turn it around and it’s still going. I did it for two years. I was what it needed for that period but tbh I’m not particularly cut out for that role and found it stressful dealing with people stuck in the past. E.g. when I suggested using bridle numbers for dressage as we struggled getting stewards you’d have thought I’d suggested killing a baby 😳.

We didn’t run a showing show though which is a lot of effort, prone to weather cancellations or low numbers attending and turning out a horse seems to be a dying art. I’ll have a think about how we approached things generally and post later.
 
Are you using a variety of judges? Sometimes people can be put off by having the same judge every time.

Other than that - themed/ fun dressage events seem popular such as christmas jumpers etc. Also are you getting good coverage on social media, photos from the event etc and advertising your dates? Prizes, sashes and good rosettes also help as well as a championship at the end of the year.
 
Personally I think showing is way down the list of things people want to do nowadays.
I did join our local club, went to one training session, didn't like the woman teaching so did not go again.
Other things that are on round here.. arena based le trec training , working equitation, mechanical horse sessions , low key dressage/Test riding training
 
Novelty classes, young rider/ handler classes, and much as it will be extra work WH classes.

I run one of these shows each year, and WH is what brings them in.
 
The struggle is real.
I don't think there are many clubs who are not in a similar position.
For my sins I not only run the majority of our riding club events I also run 2 regional Arab groups shows...

Without sounding daft be sure to make sure you the best rosettes you can afford. Getting sponsors means you can offer prize money or prizes - these go along way at local level. Qualifiers also help pull in the crowds.
It's also a case of boring people senseless with advertising it, you can never do enough!
Entry fees - are these competitive? Can you afford to offer people who pre-enter the same rate for on the day entries? Some sort of loyalty bonus?
Perhaps a league for the dressage to encourage people to keep on entering? or should you consider dropping a couple of the shows, 8 is a lot in a year.
Themed shows as others have mentioned. And also thinking outside of the box for dressage - bitless classes?
 
I think there is a massive decline in the number of working hunter classes going on, so if you could have a morning in-hand showing in the indoor (or outdoor, either or), and then afternoon ridden showing, and run varying height working hunter in the outdoor you may pull more people in and they will do both events depending on class timings
 
What’s the riding community around you like? E.g., if there’s livery yards with kids, then go for the fancy dress/prettiest pony/etc. If you think there’s enough foreign breeds around, then add a foreign breeds class (and maybe parade?)

Agree with lottiepony’s comment thinking outside the box for dressage: Christmas themed/onesie dressage, “no stress dressage” where people can ride in regular clothing, bitless or even bridleless dressage classes, and maybe even prix caprilli.

If your thing has been classes for people who want to give their horses some experience, then you could consider leaning into that with more no stress classes, young handler, amateur produced, qualifiers, etc. And then advertise it as an everyone’s welcome/perfect for youngsters/build up your confidence/low pressure environment to learn about showing. (And get pictures of people and their plods with big rosettes won at said classes because the best way to make people interested in doing more showing is fancy rosettes.)

And then you look at what you can offer that isn’t possible for people to do at home - that tends to be events that need a lot of stuff (like trec and WE and WH) but something else to think about might be gymkhana for adults? Or maybe get in contact with the BHAA to see if you could work with one of their instructors to do an introduction to horseback archery thing.
 
Can you do points for results leading to a final with decent prize (hopefully sponsored by local business or even nice person). Some sort of qualifier. I remember being amazed that a 3rd place in a riding club dressage meant that I could go to a big show in Wales for the finals. Or some sort of league.

Dressing up sounds nice, but it is a lot of effort for people.

We did an educational thing with a judge watching a test, then giving feedback and advice and then the rider riding it again, and hopefully finding improvements, a Test Your Test.
 
Racehorse classes, if you don't already have them. A lot of people like to take their racehorses out in hand, so definitely include in hand.

People have said qualifiers, but I'd run your own 'championship show' at the end of the season, both for showing and dressage. So say anyone who had come first or second in any of your classes throughout the year could enter the championship show. Jazz it up, do sashes (people LOVE a sash!) and as good prizes as you can beg from as many sources as you can. Needn't all be horsey - eg. a voucher for a pub lunch for two at the local pub etc goes down very well.
 
As Gamebird has said racehorse classes really popular. Round here the biggest classes are racehorse and veteran, in hand and ridden. Concours classes seem on the up as well. What about beginner showing classes with judge advice at the end. Perhaps doing entry fee discount for multiple classes. I generally only go to shows with qualifiers these days but have supported a couple of smaller local shows to try to keep them going and the entry numbers were quite variable but they were generally fairly well supported. Both did lovely rosettes though appreciate cost element if not all used. You could do something like a highest placed rosette for person not to have shown at a particular level or with limited experience of showing. I think it can sometimes be quite dispiriting for people when they think the professionals have turned up whereas actually it’s just people who’ve done a lot of showing. My horse won a class at quite a big agricultural show this year and my other half did hear somebody commenting about professionals. I don’t think any of the horses in the class were professionally produced but just people have done a lot of showing.
 
I remember our local riding club had a members competition whereby points were accumulated throughout the year and then there was a prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It definitely helped with the numbers and I even won a trophy one year. Do you have plenty of sponsorship? I think posh rosettes help attract competitors too, as do extra prizes/money. Agree with others, fun classes and best condition etc, mean that everyone has something to do, even if they don't have a show horse.
 
We are a small club and we have found the most popular classes are " have a go showing" were cantering is not required and the judge gives each entry friendly feedback on how to improve and ROR classes - both in hand and ridden. Mini trec obstacles/handy pony ( in hand and ridden) has also been popular .
We also ask for ideas and this year have had several ask for concours d'elegance which we are looking into.
Good luck as we too find it hard to keep things interesting.
 
For the dressage aim to have a championship with sash and big frillies

Showing does better at local level if you can do kids classes &/OR sunshine tour qualifiers. I took my youngster out to get him some jumping experience last summer and the jumping was running alongside 2 rings of showing. They were packed! Lots of kids classes but the main draw was qualifying for the sunshine tour.
 
I show at county level and beyond but I wish some local shows did some showing to music classes and pairs - they are the fun classes that the county shows lack these days and only run at the yearly society championship shows, I wish some smaller shows brought them back as we'd certainly enter as they are great fun and can be good experience for the younger novice horses
 
Maybe you could do a fun show/gymkhana games to cater for ponies and younger kids.

Or a Le Trec type of thing with obstacles, this was always great fun and attracted large numbers at our riding club. Its easy enough to set up, maybe you might need to hire some of the obstacles or get someone to knock up some obstacles for it like a gate/bridge that sort of thing, bit of tarp to walk over, some balloons to pass through. As well as obstacles you have a timing session, I think we had to walk as fast as we could between poles set at a distance and then canter as slowly as we could, it was timed.

If you did have a few sets of wings and poles you could try combined training. That also used to attract large numbers at our riding club.

It's not that hard to learn and measure related distances, there's plenty of info on the Internet. You would need a collecting ring steward and a pole picker.

I think you also need to speculate to accumulate. If you had poles you could do polework clinics or have someone come in to demonstrate groundwork exercises. You can get poles and jumps off FB market place at a fraction of what you'd pay for new and you can get coloured plastic fillers from the jump for joy range too.

You could also organise some loose jumping sessions for people, maybe invite a photographer and get a photo as part of the entry fee.

You need to think about doing things to keep people interested. Maybe instead of rosettes you could offer half price entries for prizes and helpers could also benefit from this.

At Xmas/Easter hold a fun show open to all. We had one person jumping a round, another person and their dog then being passed the baton and jumping over fences. We had a chase me Charlie, a treasure hunt on horse back and a bareback event.

If you have a big enough venue you could invite Monty Roberts or Richard Maxwell to do a demo evening. They did this at my club and attracted 650 spectators, my horse was used as a demo horse. These events generated a huge amount of money for the club and kept it ticking over. They were lucky enough to be able to hold some top class jumping and dressage shows which attracted big names though which helped them.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20250102_182226_Facebook.jpg
    Screenshot_20250102_182226_Facebook.jpg
    75 KB · Views: 8
Last edited:
humblepie said:
As Gamebird has said racehorse classes really popular. Round here the biggest classes are racehorse and veteran, in hand and ridden. Concours classes seem on the up as well. What about beginner showing classes with judge advice at the end. Perhaps doing entry fee discount for multiple classes. I generally only go to shows with qualifiers these days but have supported a couple of smaller local shows to try to keep them going and the entry numbers were quite variable but they were generally fairly well supported. Both did lovely rosettes though appreciate cost element if not all used. You could do something like a highest placed rosette for person not to have shown at a particular level or with limited experience of showing. I think it can sometimes be quite dispiriting for people when they think the professionals have turned up whereas actually it’s just people who’ve done a lot of showing. My horse won a class at quite a big agricultural show this year and my other half did hear somebody commenting about professionals. I don’t think any of the horses in the class were professionally produced but just people have done a lot of showing.
Click to expand...
Exactly this - we aren't showing professionals but have done a lot of showing a county level and just work really hard at it alongside a full time job. Thus we are turned out correctly and our horses are bred for the job and well schooled. We take young ones out to local shows to gain experience but often get dirty looks or snide comments - definitely a good idea to have rosettes for different levels of experience.
 
Just about every RC has a 'Mary', and to be fair mostly the Mary's of this world to most of the work. Its great having ideas, but are they the people who are going to do the work, and IME some of them suddenly find they are away on busy when its time to set up or take down.
Childrens classes alway attract entries, but very few conversion rates to helpers, so I think you always have to start with how many people who will help, and then devise something around what you can actually do well.
I always think about the one person pony or horse owner, where you devise the classes so they can enter more than one class, I will not go to anything that has one class we can enter because its takes as much time effort, and fuel, to enter one class.
A regular gymkanna morning perhaps once a month, starting not to early, and one entry fee for all the races, gets the whole family involved and you will be surprised ho many adults want to have a go. For a bigger event, then you have the fun classes followed by fancy dress. If you can get a local sponsor, and perhaps ask them to judge it.
A dressage test, then clear round included in the entry. Always work out how many enties you need to cover your costs, if you can add values to the entry fee at no extra to you, to make it more attractive. That can also be remade as show parctice and WHP, with a different judge.
For most of these you only need four helpers on the day, and perhaps a tea and snack person.
For years I used to help at shows and RC, because I had enjoyed going to them with my children, but in the end often the politics, and the lack of H&S awareness, just made me give up.
A lot of bigger shows are suffering from low entries, so you really have the think why you are doing it and what is your target market.
 
Are all the events competitions . Do you hold clinics not everyone wants to compete. I love pole clinics . I have had a go at trec obstacles , Working Equitation , Formation riding all great fun. I do like to go to the odd dressage show but clinics I will happily go to weekly through the winter if there is an indoor school involve.
 
outdoor girl said:
Our local club started putting on classes for younger people i.e. those aged 10 and under. They include things like best handler (mum or dad or friend can come into the ring to be there just in case). They also include 4 or 5 novelty classes - best tail, prettiest face etc. Your friend may not like the thought of this type of class, but they do bring in the punters and they tend to enter all of them.
Click to expand...

Gymkhana games are usually well supported too and don't involve jumps 👍
 
I think it's worth trying to target the kids. Fun shows, prettiest mare, most handsome gelding, pony the judge would most like to take home etc gymkhana games, I used to love little shows like these when I was a child. Nothing serious just fun where kids can have a go and show off their ponies. A mix of in hand and ridden always works well with kids as if the pony is being a bit naughty on the day they may not want to ride but can still take part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top