What is a Proper Cob

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rocketdog69

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Hi there

Can anyone help me. I atended my first affiliated show on tuesday. I took my wonderful proper cob in the novice show cob class. Big mistake!!! For some reason or another I'd entered the wrong class. I found myself in the small chunkyish thoroughbred with hogged main class! There were some proper cobs in the class, none of them placed very well I hasten to add. All exhibits were superb horses but not what I'd always thought a proper cob was all about!

Has anyone else suffered the same fate.

Can someone tell me what the "type" of a proper cob should be???????
 
Stocky, compact, short back, short stocky muscular neck, well mannered, hansome head usually with a very slight roman nose although not always.

Native cobs - with long mane, feathers and full tail.

Non-native - hogged, feathers trimmed off, pulled tails, trimmed whiskers

My beefcake has always done well in the non native cob showing classes...so I figure he must be about the right shape...apart from his massive hooves!! haha!!
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Hi there

I have pictures but I havent quite figured out how to get them on the forum yet. Will get some advice and try and upload them tonight>

Incidentally you mentioned height, that was another thing on tuesday, if some of those horses were 15.1 or under then I'm a dutchman, they were huge!

My well respected instructor who is also a top judge has suggested I aim my boy for the HOYS Search for a star next year so I know he is a pretty smart lad.

I'm beginning to wonder why bother with all the expense of registering, entering and LHC costs when I obviously wont stand a chance and thats not because my horse isnt top quality either, its just the system!!
 
dont dispair!!!

my friends cob qualified for the HOYS final of search for a star in 2005 - you should definately go for it.

As long as your boy is well schooled, light in the hand and responsive he should pull himself up a few places when the judge rides him.

Alot of the stuff at aff shows is dependant on who you are- search for a star takes that away cause the professionals cant enter it!

Cant wait for pics of your boy
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My boy is below - he's a native coloured cob
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/sh...rue#Post3379306
 
Thanks for that, I didnt realise professionals couldnt enter.

A certain top professional cob producer was in the same class as me the other day, we'd had a heavy shower beforehand and were all wet going into the ring. Not her. She entered the ring with an old coat on (how insulting to the judge) and at one point left her horse and wandered over to have a chat with one of the stewards!!!!!

At the end of the class i was still tacking up and the line up just moved off and left me.

One steward hurridly ran over to apologise and one competitor did the same.

Just shows you how much people give a damn when your an amateur!!!!!
 
Thats just rude of the class.

You'll be fine in the search for a star where everyone is an amateur. The whole point of the search classes is to give you a chance to go to HOYS and to get feedback from professionals.

I hope you and your boy do really well
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I have been told by a respected judge that my boy is also a 'proper cob'. He is shown hogged but sadly lacks the height of many of the 'cobs' shown at county level. He is 15hh. He is only 4 so I'm hoping he may grow some, but honestly, some of these at county level must be 16hh by no stretch of the imagination, I honestly can't see how they get away with it.
The judge was also saying that most of these are just very fat TB types that have been fed up to look like cobs. This is totally true. At a big county show recently I went to look at some of the top prize winners in their stables. I was so shocked. From a distance and under saddle they looked like cobs, but one in particular must have just been a TB X. He had a very fine head, not much bone. He was hogged but his mane was very silky, fine and wispy and his tail had a HUGE extension added to the middle of it! I was amazed!
 
I know just how you feel. It took us a long time to get noticed in affiliated classes. I consider my mare a 'proper' cob, but a lot of the others (in the lightweight category especially) look like hogged out hunters to me, and way over height. Mine is 153.5cm, so she is slightly under the maximum, but she looks tiny and chunky in the line up.

We did Search for a Star last year, and won the final at HOYS (it took us 2 years and 6 qualifiers to get there). It was the best experience ever, and I would recommend it to anyone).

Don't give up on the affiliated stuff just yet though - it gets you seen, and gives you more experience in a professional class - The standard of Search for a Star qualifiers is now very high, so that ring experience is invaluable.

Just being out gets you noticed by the professionals, and eventually, you will start moving up the line. After 2 years of affiliated showing with my mare, we are starting to get some good placings in open qualifiers.

I have no idea how to upload my pictures of her, but her picture is on the Search for a Star website and also Real Time Imaging website in the HOYS Pictures.

Good luck
 
OOOOh you have hit a raw nerve with me.

Woman where I live buys a HUNTER for a pittance after convincing the owner that it was "dangerous" - owner was a complete dumb-ass - horse was the dopiest thing going - just the ownder had no common sense and it took the pee out of her all the time ...... Anyway - it is 16.3hh and I know, as it used to be in the same field as me - and is as 'hunter' as you can get - its breeding was mainly Irish Draught and even looked like an Irish Draught....

New owner - who is an absolute shark - pot hunter - hogs it out and puts it in the fecking Cob Class !!! As what she called a Maxi Cob - even Fecking Maxi Cobs are supposed to be fecking 16.3hh - and it wasnt a Maxi Cob class either - and she bluddy won !!!

Furious .... I think so ! Makes it a bluddy farce for the rest of us !
 
Was it just the one show you went to? I've just started showing my section A inhand and every show we've been to had differed wildly. The last one we went to the horse that was placed first was lame in teh trot up
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and the one that came second had poor conformation. My mare needs more muscle so I don't expect placing but there were two amazing ponies in the class that went unplaced. At the show before that we were placed third (out of 6 lol
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) because although she is 'light' the judge said she had better conformation than the other ones... It really does seem to depend on the judges at the end of the day and sadly in some cases who you know
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[ QUOTE ]
Is yours Calamity Jane?!
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You must have been soooo proud! Well done both of you!

I can only dream that I might get there one day! I'm going to try S4AS next year!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, that's us. Definitely have a go - it's fab!
 
Maxi cobs do not have a height limit, just have to exceed 155 so a 16.3 would be acceptable, they should be short legged of cob type. A lot of show cobs have a lot of ID or are pure ID so not sure why you are upset - sounds like the horse was the type for a maxi cob.

So yes she should not have won the cob class but no reason why it should not do well as a maxi cob - if the owner was that dumb then probably the horse is in a far better home.
 
THIS IS A 'PROPER' COB lol
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I would love to show our Irish cob but I will only do it locally. He is only 14.2h but i would say he is a 'proper' cob, with a real stocky, short legged, thick neck shape. he has a tail so thick its gorgeous! I have no idea of the rules regarding heights etc, what would he be classed as? a native cob? You certainly couldnt say he was anything but a cob!
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[ QUOTE ]
OOOOh you have hit a raw nerve with me.

Woman where I live buys a HUNTER for a pittance after convincing the owner that it was "dangerous" - owner was a complete dumb-ass - horse was the dopiest thing going - just the ownder had no common sense and it took the pee out of her all the time ...... Anyway - it is 16.3hh and I know, as it used to be in the same field as me - and is as 'hunter' as you can get - its breeding was mainly Irish Draught and even looked like an Irish Draught....

New owner - who is an absolute shark - pot hunter - hogs it out and puts it in the fecking Cob Class !!! As what she called a Maxi Cob - even Fecking Maxi Cobs are supposed to be fecking 16.3hh - and it wasnt a Maxi Cob class either - and she bluddy won !!!

Furious .... I think so ! Makes it a bluddy farce for the rest of us !

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Took Benson into a few Maxi cob classes...he's 16hh dead on with shoes on so could probably get him to height if I REALLY wanted to but don't see the point in hurting him for a show class. Done the Maxi class to find he was the shortest in there...everything else was easily 17hh ish. The horse that won one of the classes was again, a certain cob producer who's cob had been champion rather a lot in the 'normal' height classes only a year or so before....hmmm....funny that!
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Show_Horse_Association

This website will give you a detailed discription of a show cob/maxi cob and working type cobs at an affiliated level, still useful to know, it will also give you the correct heighs for the types of cobs/classes.

Most cob classes at local level accept anything that is basically a cob, be shown as vanner, hogged or even the natives types if individual classes are not put on for say welsh cobs etc so there can be a mixture. You need to dress and turn your cob out to the type he is closest to.

A good cob will have a head of dutchess and a backside of a cook...for a maxi cob, some people try and make there traditional cobs looks like maxi cobs and infact they spoil them and take away there own beatiful characteristics, also they have different movement, so again you need to be careful if grooming your cob to a specific type.

I would not hog a weak neck and a small head for example.

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You could let her feather grow out, mane and tail fair bit longer and show as a vanner or you could hog and trim and go for maxi cob. I would personally like to see her as a vanner - but then I would as I like hair.
 
Cobs are not a set breed so you have no reason to be angry about a full ID winning the class if its a maxi cob, unless the class specified that it wasn't an open height class.

Polaris is a pure ID and one of the best cobs there has been!!

I have a 16.1 maxi cob and enter what cob classes I can I obviously never take him in if its a true show cob class but if its open to all heights then yes I do and we have done very well. So next year will be out doing maxis instead.
 
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Took Benson into a few Maxi cob classes...he's 16hh dead on with shoes on so could probably get him to height if I REALLY wanted to but don't see the point in hurting him for a show class. Done the Maxi class to find he was the shortest in there...everything else was easily 17hh ish. The horse that won one of the classes was again, a certain cob producer who's cob had been champion rather a lot in the 'normal' height classes only a year or so before....hmmm....funny that!

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I am pretty sure who you are talking about and actually that cob was of the correct height for standard cob classes but had a growth spurt and therefore was no long legible so moved up to the maxis - what is wrong with that that is totally viable!
 
A lot of horses exceed the maximum height by the time they are 7 and move into maxi classes. There is no upper height limit for maxis, so anyone can enter providing their horse is of cob "type" which has been described several times in this post. We have/have had a range of cob types on the yard over the past few years - here are some pics so you can see the variety. Not every judge likes every horse, and perhaps the OP had a judge that just didn't like that type. Also, I would think you should blame the steward for the class doing their walk round - the horse in first place doesn't move until instructed by the steward who should have checked that everyone was on board and ready to go.

6 year old lightweight cob (The Humdinger)
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4 year old heavyweight cob (Eric)
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5 year old lightweight cob (Incobnito)
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4 year old heavyweight cob (Strictlycobdancing)
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8 year old lightweight cob (Lord Brocket)
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9 year old lightweight cob (although he was a HW when this pic was taken) (Jeremy Fisher)
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18 year old heavyweight cob (Carntall)
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9 year old heavyweight cob (Robocob)
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