Wondering if anyone elses local shows are a bit biased?

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Umbongo

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Hi!

Well I'm looking for a horse to buy and excited about starting to go to the local shows. Less local ones are a bit harder to get to due to lack of travel etc.

Now don't get me wrong, I love going to shows even if I come last, but I was interested to hear what other peoples locals are like?

At ours we have:
- The showing classes that are dominated by the "professionals", I think even Bobby Dazzler entered our coloured cobs class.
- The showjumping is always won by the same family who have a string of jumping
ponies and enter every class no matter how small in order to claim the rosettes.
- The veterans classes are won by the oldest horses, despite them looking like a hat rack and about to drop dead (my friend enters every year, her horse is now 28 years old and looks about 5 years old, but is always won by the local 30 year old hat rack).
- And hunter pony classes that are won by the kiddies even if you do better, because the judge can't bear to see children upset.

I love going anyway for the atmosphere and the experience, but it does put a bit of a downer on things sometimes! We are looking to expand to other shows but travel is a bit difficult at the moment.

Don't get me wrong I am NOT complaining, I'm lucky in that my local is held right on my doorstep and I get to go and have some fun. Just want to hear others experiences and that it is not just my locals! :)
 
Don't get me started on the shows in my area. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
I know i have the best pony in the world and if the judge can't see it thats there problem ;) :p :D :D :D
 
At one of my local shows in the showing classes it dosnt matter if your in the coloured class and your horse is bay - aslong as you know the judge you will get 1st place. Abslouty sucks! There are a few shows that arnt even worth going to if you dont know the judges. And we've even had them meddel with the showjumping points system so the judges friends daughter wins the class :O Thankfuly we have quite a few local shows round us and most of the other have a 'level playing field'
 
Ah yes I forgot about the people that buddy up with the judges too! The dressage at this show can be bias. One girl last year when during a trot up one side, horse spooked and she ended up trotting outside of the markers which was blindingly obvious and she was racking up 9's for her movements! Found out after wards she was the judges niece!
 
What I want to know is how they can charge so much for shows now? I remember when clear round used to be a £1 including a rosette!! Now it's nearer £3?:eek:
Also I know it's not about the winning but also back in the day you used to get trophies and very often prize money to 3rd etc, but now all you get is a rosette:confused:
Howcome they now charge more for entries but give less back?:(
 
lialls said:
At one of my local shows in the showing classes it dosnt matter if your in the coloured class and your horse is bay - aslong as you know the judge you will get 1st place. Abslouty sucks! There are a few shows that arnt even worth going to if you dont know the judges. And we've even had them meddel with the showjumping points system so the judges friends daughter wins the class :O Thankfuly we have quite a few local shows round us and most of the other have a 'level playing field'
Click to expand...

How can you meddle with the points system???? :eek:
 
ldlp111 said:
What I want to know is how they can charge so much for shows now? I remember when clear round used to be a £1 including a rosette!! Now it's nearer £3?:eek:
Also I know it's not about the winning but also back in the day you used to get trophies and very often prize money to 3rd etc, but now all you get is a rosette:confused:
Howcome they now charge more for entries but give less back?:(
Click to expand...

Not only is it nearer £3 to do a clear round, but sometimes you don't even get a rosette!
Show I went to 2 years ago had a clear round which I did as my mare was being a cow and wouldn't do the actual 2ft 3 class. But they had limited rosettes so could only give them out to the young children so they didn't cry! and even then they gave them out to little kids who didn't even get a clear round just so they wouldn't be upset!

I still paid the £3 to have a jump...but I wasn't happy about it!
 
ldlp111 said:
What I want to know is how they can charge so much for shows now? I remember when clear round used to be a £1 including a rosette!! Now it's nearer £3?:eek:
Also I know it's not about the winning but also back in the day you used to get trophies and very often prize money to 3rd etc, but now all you get is a rosette:confused:
Howcome they now charge more for entries but give less back?:(
Click to expand...

Good old health and safety has shoved up the prices. Shows and riding clubs can no longer absorb the costs. Insurance is a heavy burden on our RC events, plus 1st aid cover and risk assesments, we also have to hire loos for the day. Rosettes and trophies cost a fortune and getting sponsers is getting harder and harder with the recession. I don't think we are too expensive £2 a clear round £3 with a rosette and showing at £6 per class for members £7 for non members. I'm afraid it's a sign of the times.
 
Ha!

A bit biased....understatement of the year:rolleyes:

Took our little highland out to a show a few weeks ago....now, I know he's not HOYS standard...but..took him in the condition class and he came 6th...the winner was a small fat round welshie- no discernible muscle. Owner is well known locally and wins regardless of what is actually on the end of the lead-rope.

Found out afterwards the 'judge' was a hairdresser who doesnt even own a horse:mad:.....and this is £6 per class:eek:
 
Also why is it that 5 years ago my local RC show was for everybody, regardless of what your horse looked like. It didn't matter if you didn't have a canary johds, so long as you were tidy, people would hack over, and everybody had lots of fun. I went to the same RC show last week, everybody it would seem was proffessional. I was told my black tack was unsuitable, and my horse (which is currently eventing at Novice level) didn't have enough condition. The horse that won the condition class was a solid lump of fat which waddled round the ring, and would probably have had a heart attack if it had to carry on working for more that 10 mins!!!!! This is a local RC show FGS, it is supposed to encourage people to have a go. There were horses and ponies there which had qualified for RIHS and HOYS collecting all the rossettes, and the judges looked down their noses at us humble folk on nice, well behaved, fit horses and ponies, rewarding those which looked to have been held in sidereins for most of their lives and were obese, and had fancy browbands!! Rant over!!!!
 
Also rosettes used to go up to 10th place and often everyone got a rosette as there was only 10 in the class. Now one show i went to last year there was 45 in one of my classes and rosettes only went to 6th place?

Another show i was at (I wrote a letter to Horse and Hound as i ws so discusted by this) A woman was hitting her horse over the head out side the ring :(. She then whent into the championship and beat the horse again infront of the judge :eek: She got pulled in resurve champion :eek: :mad: :mad:
I went to complain and all the organiser did was talk to the woman she got to keep the resurve champion title :mad:. There was lots of kids who witness the womans behavour and saw her rewarded for it. Needless to say i'm never going back to that show again.
 
And in our ex-racehorses classes, I have noticed a trend. Grays come first, then bays, then chestnuts last. No matter how well behaved and good condition the chestnuts were or how horrible the grays were! Judges preference for coat colour :( (I don't know how to do angry faces!)
 
It would appear that none of you moaners on here have actually ever helped to organise and / or run a show? If you got off your backsides and put yourselves on the other side of the fence and found out how much effort is needed to put on a show, try to find people to judge, steward, score, do parking, put up poles, run refreshments, do secretary, do announcements and all the other myriad jobs you might have a different view and be just as fed up as I am to hear "It's not fair" all the time. If you actually bothered to have some input you might be able to influence the choice of judge to one who, in your opinion, is not biased.

As it happens I have just recommended that we up the price of our clear round from £1 to £2. We were losing money with every clear round.
 
heather_bambi said:
And in our ex-racehorses classes, I have noticed a trend. Grays come first, then bays, then chestnuts last. No matter how well behaved and good condition the chestnuts were or how horrible the grays were! Judges preference for coat colour :( (I don't know how to do angry faces!)
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I took Lucy into the ring once as i walked passed the judge i heard her say "yuck chestnut mare" I turned streight round and walked out the ring.
 
jemima_too said:
It would appear that none of you moaners on here have actually ever helped to organise and / or run a show? If you got off your backsides and put yourselves on the other side of the fence and found out how much effort is needed to put on a show, try to find people to judge, steward, score, do parking, put up poles, run refreshments, do secretary, do announcements and all the other myriad jobs you might have a different view and be just as fed up as I am to hear "It's not fair" all the time. If you actually bothered to have some input you might be able to influence the choice of judge to one who, in your opinion, is not biased.

As it happens I have just recommended that we up the price of our clear round from £1 to £2. We were losing money with every clear round.
Click to expand...

Actually I do help at our show as it is on the land I keep my horse. We all help set up the rings, jumps, the stalls etc. But we do not have a say in suggestions for judges. And whether I did or not judges should not put horses in first place just because they prefer grays despite them having **** confirmation, badly behaved etc, or don't want to make the child cry.
 
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I think sometimes they just ask friends or friend of a friend to judge, rather than getting someone from a different area, where the judge will not be familar with their riding club and the people that live/ride/compete etc in the surrounding areas local to the show.

Shows need to pay for judges, they also pay the fuel money, so the futher they have to travel, they more they shell out, so you can see why sometimes it can be a bit of a fiddle at times! and some of the judges ...well I'd be suprised if they could name one of our own native breeds or what the standard is.
 
ldlp111 said:
What I want to know is how they can charge so much for shows now? I remember when clear round used to be a £1 including a rosette!! Now it's nearer £3?:eek:
Also I know it's not about the winning but also back in the day you used to get trophies and very often prize money to 3rd etc, but now all you get is a rosette:confused:
Howcome they now charge more for entries but give less back?:(
Click to expand...

£3? that's a bargain!! the cheapest place near me that does clear rounds charge £5!! some places charge the same amount for clear round as they do for a class! and you still don't always get a rosette!

i went to a show with my friend the other day and they only placed to 4th even though they had around 30 in it!
 
jemima_too said:
It would appear that none of you moaners on here have actually ever helped to organise and / or run a show? If you got off your backsides and put yourselves on the other side of the fence and found out how much effort is needed to put on a show, try to find people to judge, steward, score, do parking, put up poles, run refreshments, do secretary, do announcements and all the other myriad jobs you might have a different view and be just as fed up as I am to hear "It's not fair" all the time. If you actually bothered to have some input you might be able to influence the choice of judge to one who, in your opinion, is not biased.

As it happens I have just recommended that we up the price of our clear round from £1 to £2. We were losing money with every clear round.
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Actually I find that a bit rude. I was on the committee of the RC I commented about in my post for 4 years until I moved away 5 years ago (I came back last years, so this is the first time back to the RC show since). I organised alot of shows in that time, and my main priority was to encourage everybody to have ago, regardless of weather their horse had the correct breeding, or correct coloured tack. I know how much organisation a show takes, and I am also aware of the costs involved. My point was the fact that local unaffilliated shows no longer encourages you to 'have a go' as unless your horse is HOYS standard you are looked down on. Showing is not my main discipline, but I went to support my local RC, and to be honest I felt the judges were very dismissive to the point of being rude, and just handed all the rosettes to the fattest pony regardless of how badly behaved it may have been!!
 
jemima_too said:
If you actually bothered to have some input you might be able to influence the choice of judge to one who, in your opinion, is not biased.
Click to expand...

A judge who actually owned a horse would be a good place to start....but as they ask their mates....then thats what you get.

Few years ago.....we had regulars from a well known drinking establishment judging bonny pony......all invited by a member of the commitee.;)
 
well i meant roughly £3 that's the cheap places but most places do actually charge £5 for clear round.:(

Yes obviously rosettes etc do cost money but they are actually very easy to make :D
 
I will kinda second jemima there. though after many discussions decided clear round was still viable just to run.

If you get a really good show day you will clear a fair amount of money.... however if it rains, or isnt good beforehand you might put in a lot of effort to break even. Shows run at show centres in the winter we would often make about £100 for a 12 hour show day (I think at which point I said I would rather put 20 quid in the pot and not bother!) :D

so costs off the top of head

venue hire. Anything from £100 + bottle of whiskey for a field upwards
rosettes bout 85p a pop for not great ones.
Jumps..... yes well require purchasing (£££££££)and then if nice insuring for the year.
we went cheap on the PA system last year buying a small one it wasnt ideal but previous years about £800
toilets think bout £200
first aid. At least 2 people, trained first responders were £10 per hour last time I think but as I knew one of them got a bit of a deal.

and of course you need to own some stakes and plenty of rope and we use a caravan/gazebo combo for secretaries etc.

judges require sometimes travel, thank you gift, lunch

numbers, dressage sheets. List is pretty endless oh and lots of thankless volunteers :D :D :D

you know what, I am so not missing having to sort it out this year :D :D :D

eta and yup you are lucky if you can actually find enough people to judge even pulling in lots of favours, most good judges get very booked up throughout the summer months.
 
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charlimouse said:
Also why is it that 5 years ago my local RC show was for everybody, regardless of what your horse looked like. It didn't matter if you didn't have a canary johds, so long as you were tidy, people would hack over, and everybody had lots of fun. I went to the same RC show last week, everybody it would seem was proffessional. I was told my black tack was unsuitable, and my horse (which is currently eventing at Novice level) didn't have enough condition. The horse that won the condition class was a solid lump of fat which waddled round the ring, and would probably have had a heart attack if it had to carry on working for more that 10 mins!!!!! This is a local RC show FGS, it is supposed to encourage people to have a go. There were horses and ponies there which had qualified for RIHS and HOYS collecting all the rossettes, and the judges looked down their noses at us humble folk on nice, well behaved, fit horses and ponies, rewarding those which looked to have been held in sidereins for most of their lives and were obese, and had fancy browbands!! Rant over!!!!
Click to expand...

Hence why me and my welsh cob now do dressage!! I am fed up of being told he doesn't have enough condition - I keep his weight sensible, I want him to last for more than just a couple of years - and isn't on the bridle - he is, just not overbent???? I also do alot of hacking out so he's quite altheletic for his type, yet the judges seem to think he is thin...
 
Sorry, but as for costings etc......the shows I'm talking about are held on a yard...the jumps etc were all available. All they had to supply were rosteetes and small trophies.They actually made 4K PROFIT last year out of 3 shows.

You are telling me they couldn't afford a bit of petrol money to get some decent judges???
 
The venue for this show is free as the lady who owns the farm is lovely enough to donate it for the day. The organizers give her a bunch of flowers!

Not saying a show isn't stressful and expensive to run, but they do discourage a lot of people to go now as the judges look down on you if you don't have brown tack, you can't win a showing class if your horse isn't obese, little kiddies win everything or they might cry :)
 
Just want to clarify i'm not talking about riding club shows/ local shows really, I mean the big places that hold there own shows so no hire cost or jump cost or pa cost they already have all this. Yet they still charge an awful lot for classes:( with little reward for the sucessful people which normally only go to 6th for sj classes :( yet have 30+ in each class
 
I went clear and was the fastest in a showjumping comp (by a long shot wasnt as if my watch was out it was onyla little class and was blatently obivous he was fastest) and i didnt even get placed!! (and i did the right course lol)

No idea what happened! I asked the judge and she said she didt know :confused::mad:

Made me so angry to think they just make it up as they go along - youd think sj-ing would be unbaised!
 
They still have a lot of overheads though ldlp.

We tried very hard to get one local large centre to drop its hire prices as shows were very popular there but they said they couldnt and we couldnt really warrant upping the entry fees for an unaffiliated show to the point at which it was viable.

To open up and switch the electricity on wasnt worth them doing it for any less.

I tend to pick and choose quite carefully now and only go and do stuff I really want to do tbh.
 
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