Showing... Love it or Hate it?

AdorableAlice said:
Sorry Pigeon, but I think you could be wrong. To successfully show horses you need to have an excellent eye to find a nice horse in the rough and produce it correctly. They are not born show horses.
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Beautiful horse, and I agree that a well produced horse has increased chances of winning, but say he had some conformational blemish that didn't affect his soundness - You could put in all that time and effort and still loose to a horse with straighter legs, for no reason other than that. And it's not like it's something that you can work on or change. Sure, a neck, topline or coat can be improved, but if he has badly angled hocks he has badly angled hocks, and all the hours in the world won't make a difference.

What I also don't understand, is if he's a gelding, and he's sound, why would minor conformational faults (and I mean in terms of less visually appealing rather than any soundness issues) really matter? I do understand conformation grading classes for stallions and mares, but on a horse that will not pass on his faults, and is a lovely animal in and of himself, I just don't get it.
 
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EKW said:
As AA says you really need an eye for a good horse and to see it's potential. If you want to do showing then there is no point in going out and getting a blemished/badly conformationed horse and you quite simply will not do well. If your going to do it then you may as well go all out and do it properly!
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That's what I mean, you have to buy a horse FOR showing really. It's not something you can teach him, like jumping or dressage, he either has it or he doesn't.

I haven't shown my boys (actually my sister did take baby to working hunter and he won, but there were only two in the class...) but I don't think I could deal with being placed badly for a confo issue or blemish, because there's sod all I can do about it!!
 
I will take my youngster to some shows, but only to get her used to crazy. I much prefer something where it's not down to a judge's opinion whether you win - if you are highest/fastest etc, no matter what you look like or who you are or how you got there, you are the winner!

I also like animals to be animals first and foremost, and showing of all stock seems to require soooo much fiddling about with their natural behaviour - cattle have to be *pumped* so full of food it's unhealthy, sheep have to be lambed and clipped at bizarre times of the year, ponies have to be rugged and wear tail protecty bag thingies and all that stuff that.
 
If you look at my threads during the summer, I was so stressed preparing Ben for showing, his first show and then a county show... So many people told me that I should give up because it was stressing me out so much and I was worrying about everything. The first show was a nightmare, he lost the plot a bit and so did I (well I'd pretty much lost it already) there was so much prep involved, training, building up topline, sorting his mane out, soooooo much grooming, feeding, loooooots of cleaning, practicing plaits, pulling, clipping trimming... Showing has never been my thing but the run up to preparing for our first ever county show (both mine and his) was pretty much my idea of a nightmare.

Was it worth it? Hell yeah, I loved every minute of the show, I was so very proud of my boy, how he looked and how he behaved, don't get me wrong, he was more than ready to come home and become a mud monkey again and my Christ, I welcomed the rest and return to sanity but I don't regret one second of it, to go to a county show and feel like we had pulled it off, like we didn't look out of place and to hear the compliments was worth every wrinkle, grey hair and frown line. Mostly in the future we will be jumping, but I'm considering a return to the show when I'm happy with his ridden performance ;)

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I love it! We show RoR, L/R and natives, can't get enough, the only bit I don't like is the getting up early to plait! We show at county and do a bit of local with the little ones too. I can honestly say I can count the number of times we have been 'robbed' by a bad or facey judge on one hand, and I'm talking over a period of years at both local and county level.
The problem that a lot of people have, especially at local level is that they look at their horse through the proverbial rose tinted spectacles. You must know your horse, know his faults and try to minimise them as best you can.
I also run a local show and do it because my eldest loved doing locals with her PC pony and had tons of fun and I would hate to see local shows die out and the kids with the 'ordinary' ponies have nowhere to go. Local shows are dropping like flies in our area because of the cost of putting them on and also it's very disheartening to spend so much money and effort into them only to be met with whinging complaining competitors. We are lucky that our show always gets a great crowd but i do see comments on Facebook after some shows that would really p me off were they directed at us. No wonder the local shows are being lost.
 
Lots of interesting comments being raised.

For the poster who experienced rudeness and assuming it was affiliated level, you should have written to the governing board and made a formal complaint. Behaviour like that is unacceptable. Everyone pays their entry fee and registers their animals and should be treated equally. Judges under go plenty of training and are accountable to their societies. It is also worth keeping a note of any judges that obviously don't like your animal or one that you don't like riding your animal. There was one ride judge we always avoided because he had a habit of never taking up a contact, which confused my horse and resulted in the horse hooking off with the judge and being sent out of the ring.

The quality of judging at lower levels is often suspect and I cannot see an answer to the problem. The vast majority of local level shows are run by volunteers and obtaining the services of good judges in return for a bottle of wine is tricky. I think one has to be open minded at the local shows and just have fun. We had an hilarious day at our local, quite big, village show a few years ago. The horse had looked a bit sour at the last County show he did, so we turned him out for a break and then took him locally to test his attitude. He went well and eclipsed his rivals and collected 7th place, the judge, a local MFH had preferred horses belonging to or ridden by hunt members. The judge told us she felt the horse would improve when he matures and his paces establish. We did not tell her he had 200 points BD and was unbeaten in his weight classes that year.

If you look at the true meaning of showing, it should be a means of finding the best stock to breed from in the future. The youngstock classes should produce 'perfect' specimens that will go on and improve the breed, be it equine or livestock. Obviously this is a very simplistic view but that is how showing evolved many years ago.
 
Pigeon said:
That's what I mean, you have to buy a horse FOR showing really. It's not something you can teach him, like jumping or dressage, he either has it or he doesn't.

I haven't shown my boys (actually my sister did take baby to working hunter and he won, but there were only two in the class...) but I don't think I could deal with being placed badly for a confo issue or blemish, because there's sod all I can do about it!!
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I have to agree with the bad placings for blemishes!
I bought my dream horse last year, I bought her to jump and for her beautiful temperament. Out jumping I have had people approach her and compliment her on her looks.
When I bought her the vet said she will not make a county level show horse due to her plaiting slightly behind, which is fair enough at the time.
Last year I entered an unaffiliated nonqualifier championship show and entered the metre working hunter class. I chose wh because she has a splint on the outer foreleg and a scar unmissable scar on her hind. I was told scars etc are more forgivable in wh.
The horse who won jumped the only clear round. Mine and 2 others had a fence. The other two had incorrect attire and dirtier horses, I had gone to the effort of buying correct gloves breeches etc.
I was placed last, the judge said he adored her and should consider breeding from her but she was too scarred against the other 3. In a class with poorer horses I would excel.
So I will not show again!
 
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I would not give up if one judge disagreed with your horse, I would at least give it a few times, one judges last might be another judges 1st :) Its all an opinion at the end of the day isnt it! :)
 
Love it. The skill of producing a horse to look its best and to go well for a judge in a busy county show environment. Yes it can be facey but you soon learn what judge to avoid. I love turning a horse out well. Have made lots of friends both unaff and affiliated. Echo EKW sentiments.
 
Yes you can buy a horse specifically to show with the best conformation and blemish free but sure you would look for the same in other disciplines!

Take some of the HOYS winners for example - the Supreme horse, a maxi cob, does dressage. The Worker champion hunts and events, the coloured champion evented too before being snapped up for showing.

Poor conformation will increase your chances of lameness and inability to do the job to the required standard. Not always - some of the best racehorses have had god awful conformation but stayed sound long enough to retire to stud.

You also need a pretty/handsome horse for showing and to be honest if you are going to buy a horse for whatever discipline you are better off buying one with a pleasing head 'cos your gonna have to look at it over the stable door everyday so you may aswell like what you see!
 
EKW said:
Yes you can buy a horse specifically to show with the best conformation and blemish free but sure you would look for the same in other disciplines!

Take some of the HOYS winners for example - the Supreme horse, a maxi cob, does dressage. The Worker champion hunts and events, the coloured champion evented too before being snapped up for showing.

Poor conformation will increase your chances of lameness and inability to do the job to the required standard. Not always - some of the best racehorses have had god awful conformation but stayed sound long enough to retire to stud.

You also need a pretty/handsome horse for showing and to be honest if you are going to buy a horse for whatever discipline you are better off buying one with a pleasing head 'cos your gonna have to look at it over the stable door everyday so you may aswell like what you see!
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Thats it in a nutshell :)
 
I miss all the pomp and ceremony of shows :) Sweden is very relaxed, I was at a M&M show on saturday and the judges all had trainers and jeans on, mobile phones out and not a show jacket anywhere in sight on anyone, though some of the kids did have white shirts and stocks. The ponies were all beautifully presented though. Even in such a relaxed environment as that there was still a bit of burning competition between parents of children who were competing and some sideways glances here and there.
 
I love showing, I enjoy the schooling involved and all the other preparation to get your turnout perfect.
I feel that showing is an excellent showcase for promoting breeds/types as the ideal show horse has excellent manners, paces and conformation.
Over the years I have really enjoyed organising, judging, producing and competing as well as going to watch HOYS etc.
 
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