Showing. Fed up with it.

[MagicMelon]

Now, first of all I am NOT a bad sport. I am not the type who expects to win all the time by any means. I must admit showing is not my forte (I prefer BSJA and eventing!) but my Welsh is rather stunning (he is!) so I do try the odd bit. We did extremely well showing yesterday coming home with a lot of trophies! But today was crap. My boy went really well (he can misbehave) in the ridden class, but ended up being placed near the end. I wouldnt mind this if the other horses were better but they werent! 2 were lovely. But 2 others were dreadful! One barely got into canter and wouldnt walk forward without a serious boot in the ribs. The other was just very ugly, dodgy paces and went along with its nose sticking right out (no sign of a nice contact). People afterwards said they were rather shocked too! HOW can somethings like that be placed about my boy who went really well on a lovely contact (and he has nice paces and has masses of presence!). I didnt expect to win, but to have things like that placed about me is just pathetic.

THEN in the working hunter, my boy again did a super jumping round, yes a tiny bit sticky as the grass was slippy (but everybody had that) and did a lovely show but then a scrawny thing was placed above him again! This one jumped VERY slowly, only just managing to get over the fences and didnt go on any sort of contact. I was told by the judge "lovely horse but a bit green jumping". Yes, well he is still only a 5yo! But he still jumped way better than the other one! I thought horses were meant to be nice and forward going etc. the other one certainly wasnt and didnt even attempt a gallop.

Grrrr..... just really annoyed me. There is just absolutely no consistency in showing judging whatsoever. I hate it and plan to go back to my SJ and eventing for the forseable future!

 

[Equibeau]

Very disappointing for you, this is also why i went off the showing lark. It is a question of individual taste sometimes. But well done for yesterday, at least that went well for you!

 

[Christmas_Kate]

showing is very hit and miss. we took a STUNNING yearling filly to a show last weekend. In her class were two other ponies, one a highland 'colt' with the hugest ba**s you have ever seen, and it stood at about 14.2hh...a yearling...i think not! The second was a sec D 'colt', again, with huge ba**s and the same size if not bigger. Willow is a 13.2hh new forest. She came 3rd, which was annoying as she was clearly the only yearling.
Showing does often seem to be that those who are well known get the results, alot of favouritism is apparent. When you do it week in week out you get to see this, and get to know which judges know which people, and which judges to avoid. But then you get days when you beat the pants off the big proffessionals, and it's all worth it!

 

[sherwood']

me too! i used to love showing but this is my last yr in a ridden class. it is totally unfair and i am going for somethign with more of a challenge- i will still do workers but intend to spread my wings and go elsewhere for a bit more excitment! its full of dispointment and at the end of the day - generally the winner knows the judges and has winned and dinned them b4 the class! and that is no joke!

 

[Loupride]

Thats the thing with showing Im afraid, its all about personal opinion and what the judge on the day likes. I had a rather crap day in the WH yesterday too. Not so much the judges fault though, Pride was a bit uncertain about the coffin in front of one of the fences so asked he to have a look first!!!

I gladly agreed and landed straight in it

You just pick yourself up and wait for next week!!!!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

GRRRRRRRR this make me soooooooo angry. Have had the the same thing many times, sometimes wonder why I bother. One year went to the Isle of Wight County Show (thought the judging might be better at a bigger show. Ha ha what a joke). Put my piebald cob in both the in hand coloured class and the ridden coloured. She came fourth in the ridden class (which was about right in my humble opion). However she wasn't even placed in hand and was beaten by two horses who were lame!!!! The minature which came third only did about three strides of trot and nodded like a dog. The owner was arranging to play bridge with the judge the following week, so why was I suprised

 

[ginniebee]

My friend did a ridden showing class at our local riding club, one of the entrants was doing her individual show when the horse fell over and the rider fell off, they got placed ABOVE my friend and the judge told her that her horse was too "downhill" for her liking. WTF, you cant get any more downhill than falling over can you? But thats our local riding club for you, if your nose isnt up the judges behind in some classes you needent waste your money entering. The rider should have been eliminated, for falling its in the rules. Needless to say a complaint was put in, and shes vowed never to show there again.

 

[Oaksflight]

My experiences of showing have often been like this. I'm doing Working Hunter, Riding Horse and Open Hunter on Sunday. My assistant manager's sister is in Open Hunter too, she's riding one of the judges girlfriends horse. The other judge is the previous judge's dad. Lets hope he has some morals...

 

[FMM]

Sophandhal - this is where local shows are confusing. There is no way really that a horse should be doing Riding Horse and Hunter as they are different types of horse. However, as a local show does not have proper guidelines (usually just height) it is impossible to decide which class to do as it totally depends on what the judge thinks meets his own personal criteria.

Having said that, there IS a horse which competes successfully on both riding horse and hunter classes at HOYS level, but that is one horse out of around 500 so is the exception rather than the norm.

As a general comment (and nothing at all to do with any of the above posts) it is all well and good saying that a horse above youin the line has done something wrong. However, if you are in a riding horse class with, say, a native pony, then no matter what happens, it is unlikely you will be pulled in above the horses which are of the correct type for the class.

I stress once more I am not responding to any of the above posts!

 

[ginniebee]

Unfortunately you could go on about personal choice forever, and basicly that is what showing comes down to, the judges personal choice. Not always in a negative way if you get what i mean. And if you get 2 very similar horses shown in a very similar way how on earth are you going to decide who over who! Not a position i would like to be in!!!!!

 

[FMM]

At least with affiliated shows there are certain criteria that have to be met. At local shows, classes are sometimes (not always!) judged by the organiser's best friend's daughter's best friend's mother's dog clipper who used to ride on the beach when they were little ...