WH classes - correct attire???

[ncarter]

Thinking about trying some local WH classes this year, could you please advise me what I should be wearing and also what tack I should be using.

Do the judges ride your horses?

Do you have to untack your horse?

Thanks all.

Sorry for the apparant ignorance!

 

[ridersince2002]

You should wear tweed jacket and tie, and beige/cream breeches or jodhpurs, and long boots.
Just your normal saddle is fine for local.
Bridle- either a pelham or double bridle or a snaffle, and i think whatever noseband your horse goes best in is fine. Make sure the colour of your saddle and bridle match! Also, a discrete numnah should be worn, or none at all, but i dont really like seeing horses jump without numnahs.
It is fine for you to use a martingale unless the rules state otherwise.
Horse is allowed boots for jumping phase but must be take off for individual show.
It depends what class your doing as to whether judge will ride or not- if its m&m workers then they generally do not ride them as there can be such a variation in height- even if they spilt large breeds and small breeds m&m you can still get 12.2hh new forest ponys in the large breeds. And if its a novice class then i wouldnt expect it, but i have seen judges riding the exeeding 153 (which isnt an m7m class) class at locals.
Sometimes they do strip, sometimes they dont. I would make sure youve got someone with you as a groom to come and help you just incase.

 

[ncarter]

ridersince2002 - Wow - thank you for this, it is really useful. I love your siggie pics by the way.

A couple more questions:

I have cheap long rubber boots or nice ariat leather/suede chaps and jod boots - which would be best?

I have a hacking jacket that is not tweed material, it is much lighter fabric but is the green-brown tweed colour with a fine herringbone weave - would this be OK?

The place I am thinking of going has classes on heights, and ALSO M&M classes with heights. If I have a Welsh Sec D can I do both classes? What do they look for in an M&M class and a non-M&M class? (I have not got the beautiful flowing mane - winter rug damage!!!)

For all those thinking I am a cheap skate - I am trying to do it on a budget as I don't want to spend a lot of money getting all the stuff if I end up not really liking it!!!

 

[Spotsrock]

It is not cheap to spend a limited budget on ur horses welfare than fancy boots. I'd go with the rubber for local as in my experience they dislike chaps. Mr sheen type furniture polish used to make mine shine as a child! Good luck and enjoy

 

[ridersince2002]

Rubber long boots is fine! You dont need all the fancy stuff for a local show
Hacking jacket should be fine if it has a tweed pattern, especially on a warm day because if you get nervous you dont want to start sweating

Judges will be looking for manners and way of going, be careful in the jumping phase as if you dont go clear you wont go back in to do your individual show (depending on number of clears) and they usually judge you on your horses way of going during the jumping aswell- try not to have a rushing crazy beast, but they will obviously understand that not all horses will go round a course of jumps in an outline!

To be honest they shouldnt mind about the lack of flowing mane- especially in the non-m&m class where lots of peoople will plait. But out on a hunting feild you wouldnt want to see long flowing manes anyway!
With the m&ms they look for a nice example of the breed, as well as way of going and manners, non-m&ms its obviously way of going an maners, not sure about anything else, but they seem to like the hunter type horses- my friend got champion WH at a local show on her 5 year old KWPN showjumper!

Theres no reason why you couldnt do both, but listen to the judges comments so you can improve for next time, they really do know what they are talking about!
But always keep a smile on your face, you have horses to have fun with, not as a rosette machine