Your thoughts on the HOYS hunter class dispute?

We are now in a ridiculous situation whereby it is the intention of Grandstand Media, that run HOYS, to allocate all qualifying Ridden Hunter classes to the Show Horse Association, who do not run or have a panel of hunter judges. The association does not operate as a breed society nor promote the breeding of their own; hacks, riding horses and cobs, which SHB do. SHB have always operated as a promoter of breeding first and foremost, the latter to have a judges panel and run shows. SHB have always supported Hunters at every opportunity and include mare gradings, stallion gradings, affiliated shows and the qualifiers for both the Royal International and HOYS. So what is to become of hunters? Have the people,who supposedly support the society, finally decided to stand up and kill off their very provider of their work or hobby, breeding, passport issuers, shows, gradings and the longest serving society because the society want to protect their competitors by asking them to wear a safety helmet?? Shame on those too stupid to see what the long term effects will be. A Society with a brain trying to protect the brainless!

Very well put
 
I don't think we are very good at assessing risk in the UK and err on the side of excessive caution.

Cycling in London is a good example of this, recently something like 9 cyclists were killed in a fortnight or so and everyone went completely hysterical, even though the total numbers killed that year remained the same as the previous years (14). Depending on how you calculate the total amount of time Londoners spend walking and cycling the later is actually safer, but loads of people gave up commuting by bike.

I'd be interested to see a study into how successful hats are at preventing damage, I've seen lots for cycle helmets that suggest they are pretty much useless for anyone going faster than 3 miles an hour (obviously riding hats are sturdier, have stronger standards and protect from different impacts). I'm also interested in how much confidence people take from having a hat on.

I think your head, your choice, no one penalised for wearing a hat simples.

Do a Google search and you'll find plenty of supporting statistics. In the meantime have a look at this H&H 2003 article: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/proof-that-hats-save-lives/
 
I think it's a complete farce. Well done to everyone in a position of influence who kicked up a stink and threw their toys out of the pram because you didn't want to play by the rules - for the sake of a hat, you're now going to be costing a lot of people a lot more money and have damaged Hunter showing in the process. Round of applause.

Have the people,who supposedly support the society, finally decided to stand up and kill off their very provider of their work or hobby, breeding, passport issuers, shows, gradings and the longest serving society because the society want to protect their competitors by asking them to wear a safety helmet?? Shame on those too stupid to see what the long term effects will be. A Society with a brain trying to protect the brainless!

Spot on.



But seriously, a top of the range saddle for 55 quid and a basic show outfit for £30?

When you take into account historic inflation, a basic show outfit costs less today than it did then, in real terms.
 
When you take into account historic inflation, a basic show outfit costs less today than it did then, in real terms.

I was commenting (or trying to :)) on the difference in price between a handmade saddle and a basic show outfit then, and how much wider the price gap is now. If you had the boots (and hat) you could probably still scrape together an outfit for £30, but no way is someone making you a saddle for £55 :)
 
It's ridiculous that HOYS will effectively lose a major source of revenue for SHB and people will probably even lose their jobs over this due to lack of funds.

Imagine being the person who had to go home and tell their family they were being redundant because of the vanity of a small minority of short-sighted, vain people.
 
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