Search For A Star ... More like Search for a disappointment!

RORs do have to have raced - you cannot just take any TB and show it. I would assume then that the people who were disqualified were either producers themselves or were being produced. The is a huge and very heated discussion on Horse Gossip about home produced and pretty polly classes and people blatantly cheating but then saying the rules are too complicated. Somebody earlier asked OP why, if she thought she had a good enough animal, she wasnt just entering the HOYS qualifiers themselves. Well she can but the whole point of HP, PP and search for a star is that producers cannot do both! Same with amateur classes - they are kept separate to give the home produced amateur their own class away from the producers. Unfortunately, people try to cheat or 'bend the rules' and they do get found out - good!!

ROR is not an amatuer class! it is open to producers!

The confusion comes from the fact that the 2 different sets of classes are sponsored by the same company and so in order to keep costs down they hold them on the same day at the same venue.

SFAS = Amatuer only
ROR = Open to anyone who has a TB that has raced
 
and it isn't totally which the OP was doing, and whether the ROR comment is just an aside ie how can that one be open to producers but that they have possibly been found out to have some connection that makes them non SFAS eligible.
 
I did the hunter class at Osbaldeston this year. I think the rules are perfectly clear regarding amateur status of horse, rider, passport etc., etc. I don’t know how they could be misinterpreted to be honest, unless you are a half wit ! Whether people adhere to the rules is of course another matter. But the principle is that the classes are for home produced amateur riders only.

As some else pointed out, there are also amateur classes for hunters, riding horses, hacks and cobs under Sport Horse Breeding which culminates in the finals at the Royal International. However, while the rules are quite clear about riders being amateur there are no rules for the horses and its quite normal for horses to be ‘produced’ and the owners meet up with their horses at shows. Just recently I was in a class where a couple of the horses had competed in the open classes with their producer and then the owners had jumped on for the amateur section. As a true amateur (amateur rider, home produced horse), this is something that bugs me, but I have to live with. Its not ‘amateur’ as I see it, but its within the rules and its how many amateurs choose to get their qualifying tickets.
 
TBH OP, what did you expect from a showing class?! If you want to be judged solely on how your horse goes, do a dressage test.
I detest showing as it's totally subjective and based on someone's opinion. I'd always rather go DR or jumping - at least if you knock a pole, it's obvious why you didn't win!!
 
How do you all react to a horse that won't stand still in the line er watching at the Cheshire show, a very badly behaved horse leap fidget and everything but shoot off in the line up, I was thinking, it will be placed down for that, lol and behold, it came first! In my day (the olden Jurassic era,) if your horse didn't stand mannerly, you were marked down for it... I have seen this as said at the Cheshire show and local RC classes... Have judges been blinded or not trained or have the rules been bent to over look these foibles? Btw, I wasn't entering, only watching!
 
How do you all react to a horse that won't stand still in the line er watching at the Cheshire show, a very badly behaved horse leap fidget and everything but shoot off in the line up, I was thinking, it will be placed down for that, lol and behold, it came first! In my day (the olden Jurassic era,) if your horse didn't stand mannerly, you were marked down for it... I have seen this as said at the Cheshire show and local RC classes... Have judges been blinded or not trained or have the rules been bent to over look these foibles? Btw, I wasn't entering, only watching!

My horse lost his ticket for bad manners in 2007. Middleweight class, pulled in first with the unbeatable Pride and Joy in second. We are true amateurs and the horse lived in a barn at home, totally produced by me. Foot perfect for the judge and whilst in the line up Robert Walker chatted away to my rider complimenting the horse. With the riding and confo judging finished I put my rider back on board, gathered my grooming gear and the mounting step and walked away.

My horse gave a little nicker as I walked away and wanted to follow me. Asked to stand he threw his teddies and stood up. the steward was quick to get the line out into the final walk round but the damage was done and the judges had seen the strop. He lost his place to Pride and Joy and never managed to beat him through the years they competed against one another. I never ever groomed again and ended up watching his classes from a hiding place. He never played up when groomed by a stranger.

He got his ticket at another show but it was a lesson hard learnt !

I do believe a misbehaving horse should go down or out. Maybe a novice hunter can have some slack, but not open horses and certainly not riding horses, cobs or hacks.

I judged locally last year, had 6 open hunters in. Sent one out lame and two for bad manners in the go round, followed by another for trying to dump the ride judge. By the time that had all happened I had two left in the class and they were both not true to type.
 
How do you all react to a horse that won't stand still in the line er watching at the Cheshire show, a very badly behaved horse leap fidget and everything but shoot off in the line up, I was thinking, it will be placed down for that, lol and behold, it came first! In my day (the olden Jurassic era,) if your horse didn't stand mannerly, you were marked down for it... I have seen this as said at the Cheshire show and local RC classes... Have judges been blinded or not trained or have the rules been bent to over look these foibles? Btw, I wasn't entering, only watching!


Suspect it depends on who is sat on board ! I've seen horses loose their place for not standing in the line up and even at the point of being presented with their rosette. I'm lucky, mine stands like a rock and is always happy to receive his ribbons and a good pat.
 
It is hit and miss S4AS my niece had a fab time last year blew it hoys with a wrong leg but still got a placing

Thend on the flips idea people out right cheat; one horse at osbaldaston that q is a working pupil with a show team
 
It is hit and miss S4AS my niece had a fab time last year blew it hoys with a wrong leg but still got a placing

Thend on the flips idea people out right cheat; one horse at osbaldaston that q is a working pupil with a show team
And has as far as I'm aware been disqualified. They just haven't updated thier website
 
My gripe with SEIB is that they refuse to bring qualifiers up to within a 4 hour drive of Scotland. So getting one in Scotland is just never going to happen. I can't do SFAS because of my job but the ROR class is attached to it.

Their reason - Scotland doesn't have the quality or quantity to warrant a qualifier up here. Utter tosh!
 
As many others have stated, the ROR Racehorse to Riding Horse series and the Search for a Star series are entirely different, goverened by different rules.

The only similarity is that both events are sponsored by SEIB, and thus held on the same day at the same venue.

RoR is an open HOYS qualifier like any BSHA class held up and down the country for hacks, riding horses etc. Its very poor form not to read the rules and then to moan anonymously on social media when you discover the rules weren't either as you dreamt up or weighted in your favour!
 
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