Showing - Where have all the classes gone??

[Hazkirbo]

There was a handful of local shows I had planned on doing this year with my boy, competing in the working hunter.

I had planned on attending 5 shows, however only one has working hunter classes!! Looking at the show schedule, it seems all the shows have sacked off any of the jumping elements. Even Nidderdale Show (quite a biggie round me!) doesn’t appear to be running any WH classes - or general jumping - only affiliated SJ.

Anyone else noticed this in their local shows? I’m looking at North & West Yorkshire (so, if anyone can point me in the direction of some WH classes; that would be great!!).

Disappointed, as i’ve spent an absolute fortune collecting all the gear for WH/showing Hoping a show sec - or someone with a bit more knowledge- will be able to advise where they’ve all gone, and why?!

 

[Equi]

Most likely the cost of the jumps hire and insurance. Shoes are costly to run and after covid many have found it hard to get their footing again.

 

[gallopingby]

Cost of hiring jumps is several hundred pounds plus you need people to move them around and sadly no one wants to volunteer these days and as entry fees frequently don’t cover higher costs it’s a non starter for many shows.

 

[Lucky Snowball]

We found sj and wh entries are down with just about half a dozen wanting small jumps. More popular classes are in hand and fun where competitors are only required to walk and trot. As above the effort of moving the jumps, settting up and storing away - just not worth it.

 

[humblepie]

That is a shame. There do seem to be quite a few down this way but possibly that is affilated shows. Years ago when I did WH locally it would be a few straw bales under the jumps, perhaps a brush someone had made, planks, a gate and a water tray with rubber ducks or even a trough - I think H & S has probably moved on from that. We used to loan our show jumps to the village show and they would get creative. Are there any riding club shows that might run one?

 

[tda]

I think working Hunter classes have declined to only society shows I.e BSPS, etc, so Richmond EC, West Park, northallerton EC up your way

 

[Time for Tea]

We still have quite a few round our way. Perhaps because it is a popular area for ponies (New Forest) It is a huge struggle getting people to help though as well I know from years of pony club volunteering

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

No help for you but I entered a showing show near me at a big equestrian venue. Two days before the show I got a text saying it was cancelled because they only had 8 entries. Such a shame as they had a huge range of classes.

 

[LEC]

Just not worthy the effort to put on. Need the jumps, need to set them up and then need higher levels of first aid.

 

[DeliaRides]

I'm involved with a Riding Club and we run monthly shows through the season and have seen a dip in class numbers for SJ and WH. We are still running them but several other clubs in our area have stopped. Reasons it has become difficult are:

- People generally getting sniffy about jumping anything at all on grass, preferring to only jump on a surface (we run on grass)
- It is more expensive if you are running jumping as the first aid provision is more and I think insurance is too but
- Yes to jumps needing more volunteers etc. to set up and run the classes (pole pickers etc.)

Much of the show jumping in our area is run by venues on a commercial basis but they don't seem to bother doing any showing including WH.

I think there are so many venues offering competitions now that the audience is spread thinly and many events struggle for numbers, meaning they have to then make tough decisions about what they can continue to run.

 

[DeliaRides]

The very wet winter also hasn't helped a lot of venues running on grass because you can quite often find enough dry ground to set up showing and in hand rings but have to be more careful about space to jump safely. We had to cancel our first show this season due to ground conditions and ran our second with no jumping events due to ground.

 

[minesadouble]

Appleton Grange EC do unaff Working Hunter.

We do BSPS Workers with my daughters ponies and they are the best supported classes at every show we go to, way more popular than flat showing.

 

[Mustard]

So many riding clubs have gone, including the one I used to chair. As people have said above, people just don't want to volunteer, although they want the shows. The working hunter jumps used to be stored at my yard, because we couldn't store them on the club field. That meant every show they had to be loaded into my lorry, driven to the show ground 5 miles away, unloaded and put out, and then had to be loaded back up, driven back and unloaded again. Sometimes there was only me, in my 60s and my husband, in his 70s, to do it. One weekend we had to cancel the WH classes at short notice, because my mum died on the Thursday and I had to drive to Kent. My colleagues running the show had complaints, even though they apologised and explained why. I wish i could say it was unbelievable.

 

[Kaylum]

When our guys were doing affiliated wh the horses were different, fit and ready to hunt. They were ridden 10 miles plus 5 times a week at a good pace. Good number of entries as well. Qualifying for a show was very difficult. As the jumps are rustic they have to be different than show jumps so often heavier.

But I agree I loved watching wh and the ponies my friend's had would sell for a lot of money.

Now it's cob classes which get the entries. Horse showing is more popular and organisers get their money where they can.

 

[McFluff]

This weekend I’m helping at a long standing local charity show in the WH ring. Did it last year - it’s a long day, and you still get an entitled attitude from some of the competitors (not all, but enough to matter). I was surprised at what (some) people would complain about - jumps not being fancy enough, jumps being too scary (!), jumps being the wrong height (had to use tape measure to prove that moaner wrong). Many appear to be unaware that the show only runs due to volunteers (and we won’t keep doing it if we get abuse).

 

[Dave's Mam]

Just not worthy the effort to put on. Need the jumps, need to set them up and then need higher levels of first aid.

Yep, they need a paramedic if there's jumping.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Most of our local unaff shows have binned wh/whp classes, mostly for the reasons given above - financial in the main.

Our RC show was 2 weeks ago, a committee member supplied her lovely set of jumps for workers, there were 2 other showing rings, a clear round sj all day and a SJ ring as well as a dressage arena going, all on grass. We had good entries in the workers over the 4 classes, it was worth her bringing the jumps but a right old faff for her as not a lot of help to load and unload at her yard tho there were many hand for setting up at the venue.

Cheaper to have a 2nd dressage arena, can pack more entries in with a lot less hassle tho.

 

[SEL]

One of the local showing yards near me ran working hunter shows over winter as pre season prep and the turnout was really low so I don't think they'll run them again next year.

 

[Ahrena]

Where about are you in West yorks?
I’m relatively near Halifax and absolutely spoilt for choices - multiple shows every weekend. I haven’t looked particularly at WH as my horse isn’t there yet but plenty run it.

 

[Kaylum]

Weeton has got working hunter on.

 

[Chiffy]

Working Hunter and Working Hunter Pony are still thriving in our part of Scotland. Our Riding Club hold a show completely dedicated to it, running from the tiniest jumps up to a Metre5 and 10. There are qualifiers for Blair too.
A fairly local indoor venue held a similar day of just WH classes which was well attended.

 

[PSD]

I think lower level showing in general is slowly dying out. So many shows in my area are cancelling either due to weather or low entries. With the cost of everything going up people cannot justify additional costs for shows, if you don’t have your own transport it’s a lot of money for just one day at a small show. We still have a lot of WH classes at my local shows but the entries are poor

 

[DeliaRides]

So our RC lower level showing classes, apart from WH, are doing reasonably well, as they're full of kids who want to qualify for STARS so they are there for the points. And if they're not doing well at one club, they jump ship mid season to try their luck somewhere else.

 

[Vodkagirly]

A biit further north but I think Kirklevington, Bellingham, Slaley and Glendale have workers classes.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Alot of our local venues cancel the showing shows as low entries and alot of the summer ones on grass have just gone over the years.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Most likely the cost of the jumps hire and insurance. Shoes are costly to run and after covid many have found it hard to get their footing again.

The classes have been getting less well attended over the years. 30+ yrs ago we were stewarding WH classes of 20+ but very few people enter these days. And I think some people are probably avoiding the probability of wet ground.