Novelty Classes and Adults

[spookypony]

Also agree that if it's "best tail" or whatever, then the best tail should win, not the cutest kid! Now, if I were judging and found two tails to have equal merits, I would confess to be inclined to give the child handler a higher placing than the adult handler. It does bring up the question of how exactly one compares tails of ponies, though...

The Spooky Pony's first show was a local Xmas show, where the only classes he could enter were Senior Equitation and Best Mane and Tail. At the time, merely being in an arena and going around in a circle somewhere near the wall was difficult enough for him, and there would have been no point in just going to the venue and wandering around outside the arena (not a problem) when his difficulty was with the arena, in particular. And he does have a fabulous mane and tail, so his win in that class was well deserved!

Our yard has a summer show, and Fancy Dress is hotly contested by adults as well as children. It's great fun for everybody, and costume ideas are kept very very secret for weeks beforehand...

At the local gymkhana last year, the Spooky Pony was entered for games, which I adore, but our Novice dressage time was in the middle of the games, so we couldn't do them...it was great to see some pretty big horses in the games, though, being thoroughly beaten by the nippy ponies!

 

[Cedars]

Also agree that if it's "best tail" or whatever, then the best tail should win, not the cutest kid! Now, if I were judging and found two tails to have equal merits, I would confess to be inclined to give the child handler a higher placing than the adult handler. It does bring up the question of how exactly one compares tails of ponies, though...

Oh goodness absolutely! Because for a child to go into the ring by him/herself with a pony shows alot of courage and guts. But saying that an adult shouldnt win regardless of whether they are best or not is silly.

Please see my post about our first (novelty!) show for an example of why adults should be allowed in.

So here's a controversial statement - if children want to show, their parents shouldnt be allowed in the ring to help them. This happened ALOT yesterday!!!

Hannah xxxx

 

[Tallante]

Also agree that if it's "best tail" or whatever, then the best tail should win, not the cutest kid! Now, if I were judging and found two tails to have equal merits, I would confess to be inclined to give the child handler a higher placing than the adult handler. It does bring up the question of how exactly one compares tails of ponies, though...

I also agree with this.

I have a 'foreign' breed who can only be entered in 'fun' classes until he learns how to turn left and right under saddle. We go for the experience (he's always placed bottom incidentally 'cos we're rubbish) but I would be more than happy to give a child higher placing if everything else is equal.

However, where it's not equal I don't believe in 'fixing' the result to put a smile on the face of a child. What would it teach them about 'fair judging', merit and the rewards of honest hard work? Not a lot.

 

[Mari]

Not everybody was lucky enough to have a pony to enjoy when they were a child. I know a number of people who didn't start to ride or get a pony / horse until they were in their 30s so why shouldn't they enjoy the fun classes at local shows. I don't agree that the children should win but I do agree that the one that best fits the criteria of the class should be the winner. An open class is open to everyone.

 

[wowser]

my daughter was 14 at the time when she did her first novelty class, it was also the pony's first time in the ring, the judge said i have to place the tots in front of you which we totally understood, she only entered as it was a small class and the pony had to start somewhere.

 

[dad_io]

I am shortly going to post about a family show I went to yesterday. (when pics are up! )

Zoom and I have done lots of xc at about 2'6 but she has only been over coloured poles 3 times. We entered the 1'6 scurry Zoom loved it and we won! When I noticed that most of the other entrants were kids I asked the organiser to give us a clear round rosette and the kids could have the proper rosettes.

She insisted that we had the first place

Zoom is a one-eyed polo pony and the only thing we can enter are local shows like this. There were several classes with age limits but the others were open. There was even an adult gymkhana!!!!

I think that there are alot of people like me who don't have horses that can do anything higher than local shows so I don't think that people shouldn't enter. However this adult in particular sounds like a knob!

OH told me you won i was stwarding the main ring on the tannoy. Anyway she said you deserved to win and the previous 4 classes had age restrictions. The reason she DIDNT put an age limit on the last 4 classes (which included the 1'9" scurry) was so that adults could HAVE FUN whizzing over smaller jumps. IMHO its usually so hard to beat kids anyway..

Oh and she got a load of grief in the Peter Pan 1' class - some of the kids got confused with the course and wiggled a bit between jumps. OH let it go as long as no obvious circles or representing at a jump. Well at the prizegiving (where all jumpoff contenders got a rosette) a woman had a massive go at her telling her she should have elimintaed them and if thats the way she wanted to judge a class then she would tell her kids it was ok to circle in between the jumps

Well done again for a WELL earned rosette and trophy

 

[branmash]

Hi I agree with Mari I was one of those people only having ponies when they were in late teens basically having a job to be able to afford them etc. I went to shows and did novalty classes with my mm ponies for the fun and trying to get placed, mostly the kids did lead rein and first ridden, and young handler i dont remember any problems though that was in the 80's so maybe things have changed

 

[baymareb]

I don't think age is the issue so much as attitude. It sounds like that adult has a rotten attitude which is just too bad but if there is no age limit, it shouldn't be expected that the kids will always win.

I think kids enjoy having fun adults in their classes and when they beat them, it's pretty exciting. And it is nice to be able to enter a green horse or an off type in a class for the experience.

 

[Cedars]

It comes down to not being bothered if a kid beats you!

 

[mon]

if they take your entry money then it should mean that you are judged fairly, but only entered one fun class as told that children would be put above adult so felt not for adults, save my money, prehaps there should be adult and kid classes.

 

[hairycob]

My son's 1st pony was a s*d to load without company so Pickle used to babysit him. Now the only class she was ever eligible for was veteran, but the pony used to do that so I didn't compete against my son. All that was left for her were things like best mane/tail. I would spend ages washing & grooming her lovely thick cob locks but on many occasions was beaten by, for example, a 8 yo with a pooey, scrubby tail. I just used to grit my teeth & smile but it did grate when the kid did already have a couple of rosettes from jumping. If the class is best tail then the best tail should win or there is no point - you might as well call the class cutest child or best matching browband & scrunchy.

 

[ebonyallen]

Well as I said, the tail was, to be quite frank, covered in poo... and her attitude stunk but I just wondered what people thought.

Blitz

What did they expect ! Poo covered tail is not a good look in any class

 

[Natch]

At whispers, twentysomething I used to take Frank in every handy pony class going It was excellent spook-busting experience, and we might as well have made use of the time we spent playing with tarpaulin and balloons at home.

A rosette at the end was generally 5th or 6th, and a bit of a laugh. Sometimes the classes were split into adult and child sections, which I think was good. We even got a speshial rosette once because the time they called me for HP clashed with a serious in-hand class I was just about to go into, but I'd paid my pennies so took him around it in-hand. The judge had such a strongly biassed pre-conceived notion that as a welsh D he would "clearly" would be difficult to even walk around it in-hand (he was an angel, more interested in eating everything than spooking) that she went and found us a speshial rosette especially

OP, if you told the 20 year old her horse's tail couldn't be judged any higher up because of the poo and tangles, then I think that would have solved it. Though I and plenty of others wouldn't have minded not being placed because there were children who could have been, I still don't think you should have automatically judged children above adults in an open class. If it becomes an issue where the adults have genuine claims to the prettiest tail or whatever, then IMHO you need to place them, and if you feel this is unfair you need to say to the show secretary or organisers that the class should be restricted or split next time (maybe you could allow adults to enter HC for a reduced rate?). But it would be a shame to do that based on one case of sour grapes (which lets face it can happen in any showing situation, and could just have easily been a parent moaning that little sophie had spent hours plaiting her pony's tail and still only got 4th )

 

[arizonahoney]

I am 30 and I enter novelty classes...

Now if the steed is covered in poo, we clearly don't deserve to win; but I do get a bit cheesed off when the ribbons are handed out to kids who have clearly not done a stroke of work on their ponies*

* My parents were not horsey, so if I ever wanted to go to a show as a kid, I had to groom my NF thoroughly and hack over on my ownsome. No horse boxes or show sheen for moi! So this may be a bit of sour grapes on my part...

 

[MissSBird]

Regardless of whether adults should enter or not, your position as the judge isn't actually to make judgements like that. It is up to the secretary to decide if they want adults in the novelty classes or not. The judge must then judge the class without taking anything like age into account (and in fairness to the op it sounds like you did that fine).

Personally I don't have a problem with adults in novelty classes. They're fun and light-hearted, and many adults on the local circuit could do with learning how to be fun and light-hearted about competitions.

 

[lillith]

I love novelty classes and the diddy sj, especialy on my slightly challenged and challenging youngster. I used to go HC if I was the only over 15 in the ring though, even if there was no age cap. Not that I was placed very often anyway she was aestheticaly challeneged and had an....interesting jumping style and we were working on brakes and turning.

God that made her sound awful, she was lovely, very very sweet natured just extremely dim. She never bolted or locked her neck it just took a while to get an idea across to her.

 

[Crackerz]

I don't see why kids should win, just because they are kids. You need to earn a win/placing IMO.

The best pony/horse should be at the top, regardless of it's handlers age....