Showing - why is it so ridiculous?!

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MagicMelon

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I went to a show recently - just a riding club show so nothing special, however surely standards should still be in place. Basically in the "ridden hunter & hack" class a cob was placed above me (on a stunning proper hunter who went beautifully)... now, I'm no showing pro but how can a heavyweight COB be placed well in a hunter & hack class?!?! I felt I should have entered my hunter in the M&M class after that - probably would have won it, lol. I really had to bite my tongue with the judge to not say something about it, should I have done? I was just so shocked I was speechless! Don't mind being beaten by something which is the correct type for the class but I just don't understand this at all!

I'm so glad I'm more into my BSJA & BE...
 
Agree. Used to do a lot of showing on my cob and used to get pretty despondent sometimes. He was fit, correctly turned out and had nice paces, oh we used to do some dressage as well, so at the time I could ride fairly ok. Used to get beaten fairly regularly by riders on overweight animals, not correctly turned out, and some of them didnt even do a proper show. We won some, lost some and in the end I gave up as I got so fed up with the 'Faceyness' of the whole thing.

Ended up sticking to dressage and hunting. Far more fun.
 
Gawd knows - to be honest, I am more stumped by the title of the class (Hunter and Hack) than by you being beaten by a cob! Hunters and hacks are complete opposites - it would make more sense for the cobs and hunters to be in together - at least cobs were originally intended as proper hunting horses!

At a local show, there is often the risk that Aunt Petunia's gardener could be judging your class as his grand father used to put horse poo on the roses ... at other local shows, you have proper panel judges and can get some great feedback from them!
 
Local Shows are worse for facey judging than Affiliated Showing! Riding Instructors judging their pupils. Judges who generally don't have a clue what they are actually judging thus don't know what the correct type and turnout is. Judging on which horse looks the happiest - normally because it is generally doing as it pleases and the rider really should have Daisy Reins on. Etc..

Not all local shows are like this but a fair few are I'm affraid.
 
our local show is generally ok but in the two times ive been,

ive had a person who did the ridden hunter class on his hunter and came 4th, then did that ridden horse class and came second. i thought these where two differant types of horse class.

ive also had a horse who reared and wasnt plaited(trimmed ish type) and with boots on beat me in the coloured class while i won the riding horse class against 7 others, it doesnt make any sence
 
Hmm did some showing today and pretty sure I was marked down because he was foreign. Had a interesting day and enjoyed but will be sticking to eventing and dressage from now on.
 
Basically, local shows are a law unto themselves. Research before you go - some manage to get good judges, others use complete unknowns who wouldn't know a good example of a hunter if it was swimming in their soup. Take local results with a pinch of salt - and be prepared to have a giggle about it and chalk it up as experience!
 
Schedules normally print the judge, the more you do the more you know which ones to avoid. Quite often I won't enter a class as I know the judge doesn't like my horse, it's not that I am a pot hunter, I just can't see the point in wasting my money, diesel and judges time to enter a class they are judging it is also disheartening
 
See this is why we don't do showing either - I would be the one that's not got a clue about which classes to do & would be in all the wrong ones!! Our Cob hunts & hacks so I would chuck it in a hunter & hack class!!! Will happily stick to BS lol :D
 
I went to a local show last weekend just to give my mare in some experience in something she hasn't done before. I didn't care where I was placed providing my mare behaved but was very confused as to why a coloured cob won the show hunter horse/pony class and a horse that could barely trot was placed second above a really cracking little show hunter pony.
 
maybe the class was not what you thought it was, it could have been a class for horses suitable for hacking and hunting not a show hack/hunter class. In this case a cob might be just what the judge was looking for a good hacking and hunting horse. Quite a few cobs are now seen on the hunting field.

There is a local show near us that has a hack class but it is for horses and ponies suitable for hacking not a show hack class. Some local shows have these sort of class which are not really show classes in the traditional sense. There is a fjord locally who often wins the working hunter class it is probably a fantastic hunter but not a traditional working hunter stamp.
 
ps

i love showing as i think its a nice measure of if people can ride and produce a nice horse, just wish it was a bit more standardised xx:):)
 
Only done it once myself , put on so much show shine that my saddle started slipping of to the side and we struck of on the wrong leg in canter. I couldn't stop chuckling - which probably didn't help. Needless to say I came last but my Ikle hores was well behaved, and I got a strange sense of well being knowing the girl who came above me could go home thinking "Well at least I didn't came last!"

Also people think I'm camp enough without entering beauty competitions. Will be giving it a miss in the future, but if you keep doing it, remember "its not the winning but the taking p..."
No ? OK I'll shut up
 
I'm not a huge fan of showing, but for some reason mum loves it so we do our once a year outing to some local thing. This year I was happy enough, only a few in the class, 7 or so, pulled in third which i was chuffed about...but we go no comment, not a word! No one did!

How can you judge a class but not have anything to say at the end, she may have well of picked us out of a hat!
 
madeleine1 said:
our local show is generally ok but in the two times ive been,

ive had a person who did the ridden hunter class on his hunter and came 4th, then did that ridden horse class and came second. i thought these where two differant types of horse class.

ive also had a horse who reared and wasnt plaited(trimmed ish type) and with boots on beat me in the coloured class while i won the riding horse class against 7 others, it doesnt make any sence
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This one's a bit complicated. Riding Horse is the finer type, but ridden horse is a class open to any type of horse that can be ridden, so the hunter was perfectly correct there :)

But, regardless, you do often see the same horse winning both classes!

Local showing...it's always an interesting experience!
 
Eurgh - I feel your frustration! The other day I was beaten (on a proper middleweight hunter with lovely comformation and presence) in a hunter class by a scrawny thing who went round with its head in the air and the girl was dressed for SJ... I was going to question the judge to see how we could improve, but when the rosettes were handed out the judge and the SJer girl on the scrawny horse were discussing dinner plans for the forthcoming week as they were friends....

I rolled my eyes are retreated quietly!
 
It isn't all bad- the last "local" show I went to was actually judged by a HOYS level judge, it was a lovely surprise to hear constructive critism for everyone in the class, really felt like I got my moneys worth.
Agree though that in general local judges aren't great.
 
The worst I had was at the trailblazers finals at stoneleigh last year. I was in the ridden show horse class on my small riding horse type mare, lovely little mare, always does very well in riding horse classes, nice paces and beautifully schooled ect.

We placed well the first day. Then the next day, under a different 'HOYS' judge, we came 10th out of like 12...A big chunky cob came third, despite I actually heard the judge say "Well thats not a show horse is it?" when it did its show, not on the bit or anything like that. But he was just a seriously bad egg, you could smell alchohol on his breath and he only watched half my show >.<
 
I would say the answer is in the title of the class - Hunter & Hack, they were looking for a horse suitable for general type of horse for hunting or hacking. A cob is perfectly suitable for hunting. If the class had been titled Show Hunter and a cob beat you, you might have reason to complain. This is why people pay extra money to enter affiliated shows, but even then they complain that they don't like the result.
 
I went to Equifest to groom for a friend last weekend and was disgusted at the judging so it isn't just local shows.

She had only just gone into the ring and was doing the first trot round before the judge called her and several others into the middle to say that their horses seemed to be feeling the hard ground a little behind. They were given the choice of withdrawing quietly or being placed last so they withdrew.

We have a video of her going round and there is no way her horse was lame. She's since been told to avoid that judge, apparently he often tends to "thin the class out a little" and prefers "faces" with blond hair and lots of make-up. Sad that her first foray into showing at this level ended like this.
 
The term "Hunter" and "Hack" does not mean a horse suitable to go hunting on and hacking on.

A hunter is a type. http://www.theshowring.co.uk/hunters.php

A hack is a type. http://www.theshowring.co.uk/hacks.php

A cob is not a hunter nor a hack so shouldn&#8217;t have been in the class.

Local level shows don&#8217;t tend to get panel judges so classes can end up in confusion! As long as you know your horse did a good show and YOU were in the correct class then that should make you happy :)

Although hunter and hack is a particularly strange class to have as the two types don&#8217;t really go together at all !
 
I gave up showing since i did first ridden classes on my 12.2 :D But every now and again i do the odd working hunter.

Now the reason i do this class is that at least you stand a chance if you go clear. The way i understand it is that they choose the winner from conformation etc from all the clears.

I've only done one on my boy a couple of years back. There were only 2 of us clear, so we were brought in 1st and 2nd, all fine then after the individual show we were both dropped to 4th and 5th with someone on 4 faults winning.

But i'm trying my arm again this monday (only because i can only enter one jumping class so it was just something else to go in) so we shall see what happens this time.
 
wellsat said:
I went to Equifest to groom for a friend last weekend and was disgusted at the judging so it isn't just local shows.

She had only just gone into the ring and was doing the first trot round before the judge called her and several others into the middle to say that their horses seemed to be feeling the hard ground a little behind. They were given the choice of withdrawing quietly or being placed last so they withdrew.

We have a video of her going round and there is no way her horse was lame. She's since been told to avoid that judge, apparently he often tends to "thin the class out a little" and prefers "faces" with blond hair and lots of make-up. Sad that her first foray into showing at this level ended like this.
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Sounds just like the people from down the roads expiereances. None of them are going again after the bad weekend they had with judges not knowing what they were judging and the stabling was equally badly organized. Its a shame as I qualified this year and was going to go but decided to go and watch to see if we would be up to standard but I doubt we will go next year either after all the complaints.
 
My "favourite" bad judging experience was watching a Spanish specialist show at a local centre. The organiser obviously couldn't find judges who understood or had any knowledge of the Spanish horse, judges ended up asking competitors & spectators their opinion and placed very nice Irish hunter types first.
The serious Spanish owners, horses very correctly turned out Spanish style, in full Spanish riding dress, were not best pleased!
 
Think I'd better leave this thread quietly then!

I was once shocked to win a working hunter class on a not very well trimmed and hogged maxi cob whilst wearing a black jacket and skull cap because the judge thought "we looked as though we were both enjoying ourselves"!

We did put in a storming clear round at hunting pace (the big lad needed the momentum to get him over the fences) and he did show a decent gallop as well as doing a polite show. But the other two clears were much more true to type and better presented.

The judge said that when he judges he liked to pick one that he would want to take hunting himself and the big lad looked "great fun".
 
KristmasKatt said:
Think I'd better leave this thread quietly then!

I was once shocked to win a working hunter class on a not very well trimmed and hogged maxi cob whilst wearing a black jacket and skull cap because the judge thought "we looked as though we were both enjoying ourselves"!

We did put in a storming clear round at hunting pace (the big lad needed the momentum to get him over the fences) and he did show a decent gallop as well as doing a polite show. But the other two clears were much more true to type and better presented.

The judge said that when he judges he liked to pick one that he would want to take hunting himself and the big lad looked "great fun".
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See now that wouldn't bother me because you went clear, did a nice show etc. I don't care what jacket either because i showjump so wear my navy jacket and velvet hat, and your horse obv could go hunting. It just annoys me when someone has tonnes of faults yet gets placed above the clears. Why have the fences in there then?
 
We did look scruffy though - I'd post a picture but I'm too embarrassed!

Hogged with his forelock left on, and growing out a bit, legs going through a bushy phase, tack a bit dodgy, noseband that wouldn't fasten properly round his big carthorse head. And his confo was ummm well shortlegged carthorse....

Second placed was a very smart warmblood well turned out who went clear and did a nice show.
 
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