Slightly peed off!!

[trojanwarrior]

Took Warrior to Midland Counties show today for the pre-veteran ridden class. I was really impressed with his behaviour the whole time he was there. He was hoof perfect in the ring & he looked really good, but sadly he wasn't placed . Why? Because he wasn't a bad mannered, overweight large hack/small riding horse!

During the first class canter, one horse had a bucking frenzy & tanked off along with other horses. Warrior was one of few that didn't try and take off, just kept his canter rhythm the same as if nothing was happening. Yet the horses that misbehaved were all placed & some in the first three. During the individual shows some of these placed horses took the opportunity to run off with their rider, canter disunited & canter on the wrong lead without being corrected. One placed horse was also unlevel behind. Oh, and some of them were so fat (but not as fat as the l/w cob in the class next door, but thats another story). They had solid crests and gutters on the top of their bums. Not healthy at all.

I know my horse isn't a show horse, but he looks really good for an 18 year old hammered hunt horse even with his lumpy knee & scar (they're not supposed to mark a horse down for past injuries in veterans). He's fit, well muscled, fab coat, goes nicely (but he's no dressage horse!) and actually had manners for a change today. So I was a little disappointed to say the least when he was completely looked over today in favour of fat, bad mannered horses

Sorry for the rant!!

[zara]

Sorry to hear that you hada bad experience today but I'm afraid to say thats showing! I went to a show today and was abslolutely appalled at the level of turnout and general horsemanship, i was even more horrified by some of the results! Please don't take it personally, showing is far too subjective to lose slep over, just be happy that your boy behaved well and you enjoyed the day out Zxx
ps have a Karma for getting out there x

[duckles]

That's dreadful Warrior. Some people have no judgement. I have never done showing but I have heard that judges are very biased in favour of certain people, breeders etc While I think it would be basic in a ridden class (not to say a veteran ridden class) that the horse is mannerly and controlled, obviously the judges were looking for other criteria - but you would wonder what!! Pay no heed, at least you can be proud of Warrior , his behaviour and your training.

[racaille]

What a p*sser! I know nothing about showing but I can't understand how a badly behaved horse gets placed. In fact, I will try not to rant, but I hate this 'form over function' mentality, where looks are everything - but even then, you said a lot of the nags were fat! What the?
It's a version of a problem I see a lot: an inexperienced person buys a horse straight off because they like the colour, or it is pretty etc without giving a second's thought to whether the horse is right for them/their level of riding/what they want to do. I'm not dismissing the love-at-first-sight thing, but certainly down here there are a lot of mismatched horse/rider couplings. grrrr

[haffyfan]

This a prime example of why I hate showing.....manners, presentation and to an extent even conformation don't count it's all about who you know and if your face fits!

Well done though, I guess your very proud of him just a shame there isn't a fair way for showing to be judged like there is with the jumping.

[trojanwarrior]

Yeah, that's showing . I was under the impression that the VHS qualifiers would be more fairly judged than a normal hunter or cob class as each horse is marked as an individual on its manners, movement, condition, way of going & turnout. Obviously if the judge wants, they are able to fix the scores so their favourite wins.

Fingers crossed the judge at our next show opens their eyes & judges fairly.

[FirenLady]

that sucks. Its good he went well though. Dunno if its the same in Horse shows but dog shows, the judges also show. and they do each other "favours". To be non biased you need to have judges that dont also show/compete themselves in the classes.

[chiefsmyboy]

I was stewarding the veteran ring with my friend at the Midland Counties but had to leave halfway through the judging as we'd been on since 8.00 am and needed food! I remember there were quite a few naughty horses in that class, the judge passed comment on the naughty horse who took off with its rider which I don't think got placed. The judge did say that the criteria for the VHS marking has changed. It only has 2 marks now which are: suppleness/manners and turnout. She also said she felt it unfair marking it this way.

It doesn't matter if you didn't get placed at least he was a good boy and did you proud in front of all them other naughty horses.

I wish I knew you were going as I would have come and said hello. Did you take him in the In-Hand Veteran class as we'd come back then for that class.

[trojanwarrior]

I remember you!! If I'm thinking of the right person, you left during the preliminary line up. We were the ones on the end i.e. last .

I'm think the horse that peed off bucking did get a placing but not sure where. The VHS have broken it down into two marks this year but each mark is made up of three or four criteria. I'm not sure how one of them, type, is judged.

I don't take him in-hand because I can't keep up with him!!

[maximum]

pfft thats why I dont do showing!!

[chiefsmyboy]

It's a shame we went for food as I would have got chance to talk to you as I would def have recognised warriors name - what is his show name. I was the one dressed in brown taking the judge's marks down an dmy friend sending each one out to us.

We were a bit pee'd off actually as we would have liked to have stayed for the whole class being as though there were so many naughty horses but we were told go and get food. Just as well really as we were there quite late so don't think I would have lasted that long without food!

[spotti]

Well that sucks!

I've never shown a horse (might do one day with Faith, but haven't yet) although I have shown something...highland cows! lol!
The judges were the same in that though - always had their favourites and seemed to place the handlers who had naughty cows but managed to not let go of them. How unfair is that? I ALWAYS had a naughty cow, yet I managed to kep it under control and so didn't get placed! On the times I had a slightly better cow, I got a 4th and a 3rd, but that was only because all the rest of the cows had gone mad!

I would have thought they'd have certain criteria to look out for, and judge fairly!
I guess that's why people tend to go for an event (sj/dressage/xc etc) instead of plain showing because it can't be as biased i.e. if you knock a pole then you get faults, but it doesn't matter as much if your horse throws in a buck as you're cantering round.

Well done to Warrior by the way ;D

[duckles]

Spottilover- what does a naughty cow do??? Can you train cows in behaviour or are some just more docile than others?
Agree with you about the showing though

[only1wu]

It's not what you show, it's who you know.

I'll never forget taking my (at the time) totally un-horsey husband to a show. He is a scientist. He watched the proceedings in the first class and then pronounced. "The judge is an ***hole. Why do people want to do this?"

Why don't you take your lovely boy on some pleasure rides, a modest bit of cross country or even have a go at Le Trec?

Good on you for having a go, though. Keep smiling.

Wu

[trojanwarrior]

We've got another couple of VHS classes lined up, one the end of this month, one in July & one in August plus the regional finals for the VHS showing that he qualified for in May. Must need my head read!!!!

Wu - unfortunately I can't take him cross country as he's a little arthritic & I'm hopeless at jumping ! Pleasure rides are 'interesting' but we do have our first TREC competition in a couple of weeks time . We also 'play' at dressage

[finefilly]

we took Emir to his first show last August. it was the first time he had been off the yard and he behaved like a star. he travelled well, went into the ring and walked round as good as gold, stood like a rock while waiting in line but was put down for being too well behaved for an Arab! can you believe that?! all the other horses were carrying on, wouldnt stand still and he got put down cos of it. SUCKS. i can understand an arab having a certain flair to it as it was being trotted around but even arabs need to told when to show off and when to behave. I HATE SHOWING!