New to showing help needed!

[Heelsdown_]

Hi all, looking for some showing advice please

I bought my first horse, mario (16hh 10yo, grey ISH gelding) back in September after years of sharing and loaning and I’m looking at introducing him and myself to showing. I’ve mainly done pony club activities throughout my youth but showing is pretty new to me!

I’ve attached some pics at the bottom of Mario.

I’m lucky enough to have a local riding club show monthly next door throughout the summer and figured this would be a perfect introduction into showing with him.

My aim is to do inhand for the most part this year (he’s still green under saddle and very low mileage despite being 10 so don’t want to blow his brains and overload him too soon).

The local show has an inhand ring which I figured would be the ideal introduction to get him used to the show environment first and maybe enter some ridden classes at the last show of the season for the experience.

From the looks of the classes they run the classes we could enter inhand seem to be: hunter, best condition and open showing would these be correct classes to enter him in? What attire would we both need for these inhand? Any dos and donts?

In terms of ridden classes what sort of classes would be correct in entering when the time comes and what attire would be required for said classes?

 

[AmyMay]

I’ll let others advise you on what classes.

But, wow. Just wow! What a beautiful boy

 

[lottiepony]

Beautiful boy!
The 3 in hand classes you've listed sound fine. You could also enter any novice ones as you would most likely meet the criteria.
I would suggest at the end of one of them you ask the judge if they think he's in the right class or what else he would be suited to and if they have any hints or tips on your turnout - don't be afraid to ask.
Bridle wise show him in the bridle he would be ridden in. Hunters generally have a wide flat cavesson noseband, plain browband, snaffle would be acceptable but eventually you would expect to see them in a double or a rugby pelham to give the same illusion.
For yourself in hand - tweed jacket, shirt & tie, brown gloves and a showing cane. As he's grey you could go for darker coloured trousers, boots you can run in are important! Headwear is up to you, if there is any doubt over behaviour wear a hard hat.
Ridden you would wear the same (obv with a hard hat, velvet hat silk if it's not a velvet showing style hat) cream jodhs and long boots.

In hand showing is an art, so many people let down their horses by doing a poor job. I recommend practicing! You horse should trot up easily in hand and be polite. Listen to what the judge asks and do exactly that.
Couple of pics of what I wear, my horse is a part Bred Arab so can have a coloured browband. Also pic of my old horse who I showed as a small hunter.

Remember it is just the opinion of one judge on one day. Don't get disheartened, you will be taking home the best boy, one day you might be first the next week down the bottom of the line up. Watch and learn from others.

Also you don't need to spend a fortune, nearly all my gear was bought second hand from either ebay, charity shops or my local tack shop that has a great range of pre-loved items!

Would also recommend getting him out to things like training sessions or specific showing clinics as these really help set them up to have a nice positive experience. I'm part of a local riding club and we have club training on a fortnightly basis which has really helped get my youngster to be level headed in company. You could also ask if they would run an introduction to showing clinic?

 

[humblepie]

Lottiepony. Fab reply and I have sash envy. Not managed a pom pom or flower one yet. Just to add I’ve done a lot of in hand showing and went to a clinic earlier in the year and learnt some new techniques from that.

Original poster - good luck and enjoy. Showing people generally very friendly and keen to help.

 

[lottiepony]

Lottiepony. Fab reply and I have sash envy. Not managed a pom pom or flower one yet. Just to add I’ve done a lot of in hand showing and went to a clinic earlier in the year and learnt some new techniques from that.

Original poster - good luck and enjoy. Showing people generally very friendly and keen to help.

I can highly recommend showing arabs or their relations lol...I'd never won such beautiful rosettes or sashes before I can tell you! I freely admit I'm a rosette snob - if I've managed to win one, I want a nice one lol!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Arab shows have the most amazing sashes and rosettes and the bigger shows have the most lovely Arab head sculptures that you win as well.

 

[Heelsdown_]

Beautiful boy!
The 3 in hand classes you've listed sound fine. You could also enter any novice ones as you would most likely meet the criteria.
I would suggest at the end of one of them you ask the judge if they think he's in the right class or what else he would be suited to and if they have any hints or tips on your turnout - don't be afraid to ask.
Bridle wise show him in the bridle he would be ridden in. Hunters generally have a wide flat cavesson noseband, plain browband, snaffle would be acceptable but eventually you would expect to see them in a double or a rugby pelham to give the same illusion.
For yourself in hand - tweed jacket, shirt & tie, brown gloves and a showing cane. As he's grey you could go for darker coloured trousers, boots you can run in are important! Headwear is up to you, if there is any doubt over behaviour wear a hard hat.
Ridden you would wear the same (obv with a hard hat, velvet hat silk if it's not a velvet showing style hat) cream jodhs and long boots.

In hand showing is an art, so many people let down their horses by doing a poor job. I recommend practicing! You horse should trot up easily in hand and be polite. Listen to what the judge asks and do exactly that.
Couple of pics of what I wear, my horse is a part Bred Arab so can have a coloured browband. Also pic of my old horse who I showed as a small hunter.

Remember it is just the opinion of one judge on one day. Don't get disheartened, you will be taking home the best boy, one day you might be first the next week down the bottom of the line up. Watch and learn from others.

Also you don't need to spend a fortune, nearly all my gear was bought second hand from either ebay, charity shops or my local tack shop that has a great range of pre-loved items!

Would also recommend getting him out to things like training sessions or specific showing clinics as these really help set them up to have a nice positive experience. I'm part of a local riding club and we have club training on a fortnightly basis which has really helped get my youngster to be level headed in company. You could also ask if they would run an introduction to showing clinic?
View attachment 111276
View attachment 111278

Beautiful pictures, lovely to see the turnout, makes me feel better that I think I have a fair amount of the things we’d need to start out.

Thank you for the advice. I think I have most of the stuff needed for inhand classes. He has a plain hunter bridle already he came with and I luckily have a tweed jacket I’m hoping I can still squeeze into! It’s about 15 years old but still in great condition as it was worn once or twice and put in storage

In terms of shirt and tie is there a specific colour or is it personal choice? Definitely need to pick up some beige jods and brown gloves and could probably borrow a cane off a friend I’m a lover of eBay and Facebook market place so hoping to kit myself out with anything needed that I don’t already have second hand for now until we know if it’s something we’ll be more interested in doing going forward

Thank you for the advice re: asking judges about correct classes and turnout that’s definitely something I hadn’t thought about doing!

Are tails generally pulled or plaited?

I’m lucky that there’s a few places within hacking distance that offer showing clinics throughout the year (as we don’t have transport at present!). These are more aimed at ridden showing but will definitely be useful if and when we venture into the ridden aspect.

Thanks again for your advice! I think in the meantime I need to practice my plaiting, it’s been a few years

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

If you ask the organisers nicely they might offer a half hour 3-4 person inhand session which would probably be quite popular for people with youngsters or people like yourself who want a heads up for biting the bullet and hitting the ring. Most don't really think about the inhand side of things.

Shirt and tie - personal preference though I wouldn't go too loud or garish with a hunter. Show canes are dead cheap and can be picked up for usually £10-12.

 

[lottiepony]

Shirt colour and tie is down to personal choice. Any colour compliments a grey, go with a colour that suits the jacket you've got.

Tails should be pulled or nowadays people use the thinning rakes as not many actually 'pull' now, I certainly don't.

Good luck with it and remember enjoy, let us know how you get on and don't forget a photo! You've got your work cut out with a grey lol getting him clean and then keeping him clean!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Some tweeds have a secondary colour running through them like a blue or red then you can match your shirt and tie to that, mine is blue so I have worn a pale lemon with a navy and gold tie or pale blue shirt on occasion.

 

[follysienna]

In terms of shirt and tie is there a specific colour or is it personal choice? Definitely need to pick up some beige jods and brown gloves and could probably borrow a cane off a friend I’m a lover of eBay and Facebook market place so hoping to kit myself out with anything needed that I don’t already have second hand for now until we know if it’s something we’ll be more interested in doing going forward

Only wear jods for the ridden classes. For inhand smart trousers are best. Work type trousers, chinos or smart jeggings look professional - charity shops, eBay and even poundland are great places to look. As he is grey you can get away with dark trousers, so perhaps black, navy, brown, tan or burgundy seems popular.

 

[Heelsdown_]

Thanks for all the advice, we’ve booked onto a showing clinic hacking distance away that’s offering both inhand and ridden so hoping we’ll get some good advice and feedback from that too

 

[Heelsdown_]

Update we did our first show yesterday. A few minor blow ups as it was a completely new situation for him but honestly so proud of him! We need to work on our standing on grass as all he wanted to do was eat our in hand clinic a few weeks ago helped loads with standing him up and getting him used to other horses trotting around. We got 2 3rds. Looking forward to next months!

 

[humblepie]

Well done and looking very smart

 

[Cherryblossom]

You both look fantastic. Well done!