Horse Gossip Thread

[Celtic Hill]

I rode western pleasure for a year, i hated it. I don't mind a jog, especially one on an arab or morgan where there is collection but it's slow...QHs are a different story.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I personally love watching saddle/pleasure type breeds do western pleasure. While slow, they at least pick up their feet and arch their necks.

Years back, a friend of mine and I took a teenage girl who used to ride my Arab when I was pregnant to an A rated Arab show near Lansing. This teenage girl had an Arab gelding she had tried to show at small local shows. While they did OK in English, they could never place in western pleasure. At this show, watching the western pleasure class, her eyes got huge and she said in a small, breathy voice "This is why Midnight didn't do well in western ... he looks like THESE horses."

 

[Celtic Hill]

Yeah, Open shows have horrible judges. I showed my ISH in model horse class, and the judge told me to go to a hunter inhand class....i was like this is MODEL horse! not a quarter horse class.

 

[michickenwrangler]

June 2008, there was a small horse sponsored by a northern Michigan horse club at the county fairgrounds a few miles from the barn. A group of us decided to go. C took her walking horse mare (pic of them both on the TWH thread), a young rider took her pony into walk-trot and I took my purebred Arab in to Pleasure Horse halter and decided to let my daughter do leadline.

When I took my Arab into the ring, the judge had a fit. "Why don't you have a hat or helmet on."

"This is Arab halter, I don't need one."

"Yes you do. Organization rules."

"No, organization rules state it's per breed regulations."

"No they don't. Go get a helmet on, we'll wait."

"Fine, I forfeit."

"No, go back and get a helmet."

As I gladly would have walked away, I had a feeling she was going to wait until I returned, so as to not hold up the show, a teenage girl who came with us ran back and grabbed my helmet. I ended up placing first because I was the only one in the class.

Following the mares came pleasure geldings. A woman I know was the only entrant in that. When the judge berated her for lack of headgear, they had a similar but more vehement argument. The judge finally asked, "What is it with you Arab people thinking you don't have to wear hats? Where did this rule come from?"

The entrant with the Arab gelding retorted, "I'm vice-president of the organization and I am QUITE familiar with the rules!"

Now a few classes later, one of the stock horse classes had to be redone because the judge didn't know that stock horses were allowed tail extensions.

Judge did apologize to me during leadline about the helmet thing though. Other Arab lady left in a huff after halter classes.

When C was ready to ride, she was mounted on her horse outside the gate as the class inside was getting pinned. While she and I chatted, we heard her name and horse announced over the loudspeaker as second place! Thing is, she wasn't even entered in the class in the ring! I jogged over to the announcer's stand to tell them their error.

That was the worst horse show I ever went to.

Now, my friend with the paint that does dressage, she came back from a dressage schooling show just ranting about the judge. The judge gave her guff on spur length, gave her a score of 50% on a Training Level test but in the comments wrote "Ready to move up." ??!!

Apparently she did this to a lot of the competitors because the show managers the next day made a public apology for the judge and assured everyone that they would never get her for a judge again.

It was the same dang woman.

This same dang woman is now the horse superintendent for our county fair!

 

[vmdanielsen]

OH! if only dressage was so easy as to memorize a test!!! Why then, am I working so hard on 10 meter voltes....not even 5 meter voltes? Because, I am not riding circles but egg shapes, squarish circles and just plain bad circles. I am happy after do a few shoulder in strides, come off the shoulder in and get a few nice straight, powerful strides of engagement. All horses and riders benefit from proper dressage work, but only when you have a kind, knowledgeable instructor that knows the difference between, true balance and the push and pull method seen so often here in the states. OK, off my soapbox........(I really love dressage)

 

[Celtic Hill]

Re: Open Shows...


I went into a showmanship class at my 4-H class i walked in and the judge came up and told me i needed something on my head ( i was wearing a suit) i kindly said to him "Oh? We don't wear hats when we show warmbloods" he continued to say "Do you not know what your doing, is this your first time?" I turned to the rail and was like "Someone go get me a helmet" I walked out of that class with a first went back in for the championship round and won... No it wasn't my first time, infact im a showmanship nazi. I really didn't have a standard to go by because warmbloods dont do showmanship, I now have a paperboy hat that goes with my suit...

The same judge was harassing me in the line up about how i back, about my heels, nity gritty stuff, and i kept responding "Im ride dressage" Needless to say i did really well, but open shows are just no good.

 

[michickenwrangler]

More fun at open shows.

The bay mare I have in my avatar, I took her to a county fair show when she was young. A friend of mine who I bought the horse from (this was a horse she bred and raised) and her daughter went with me as helpers. In the halter class, the judge walked right by her without looking at her while my friend was in the stands, shouting "He didn't even look at her!" While her daughter-red-faced- was grumbling, "Shut up, Ma! You're making a scene."

A few years later, a gal named B from the walking horse barn went to the county fair show with her friend and her mother (I was there too with my mare) and the friend and mother had bred and raised the horse that B owns. B took her horse Bart into 3-5 yr old gelding halter, he got second. Got to go into the championship class. I took my mare into mare halter 6-10 years (horse age). It was a big class and we didn't make it to the shortlist so we left. The dang color class took for-ev-er for the judge to place. After that, the champs. B took Bart in. Meanwhile, I was on the rail holding my mare with friend and mom who bred and raised Bart. Soon, I heard the mom shouting "She didn't even look at him!" followed by "Mother, you're making a scene."

Turned out the woman who won the championship at the fair that year was the superintendent for that county and she got to pick the judge.

I've noticed that stock horse people get VERY excited about showmanship. I don't say this to insult any showmanship people, but to me, it is very boring and tedious and basically a fashion show with a horse.

Actually, the one thing more boring than showmanship is stock horse halter. I was very used to Arab and Saddlebred halter classes--with horses trotting in with tails streaming and manes flying, snorting and blowing and the crowd cheering--so my first experience with stock horse halter was not a fun one.

Back in 1995 when I was a teenager, I was at the MHSA All-Breed Youth Show at Michigan Fairgrounds in Detroit. The stock horse halter class consisted of 60 chestnuts that all looked identical (to me at least) and the dang class lasted 4 hours! Watching these horses mince along was nothing like watching flashy pleasure type horses and akin to watching paint dry. The girl next to me said, "No wonder they all have to have such fancy outfits. It's the only way judges can tell the horses apart!"

 

[EweSheep]

My pet peeve about any shows, mostly halter classes, that the handler has to announce this horse is from the famous Bask or famous Impressive, etc. or the owner's name so they can be placed in the ribbons, even the judge do not have to even look at the horse thoroughly. I've seen too many odd looking horses placing higher than what it should be for the breed's traditional trademarks. Try placing an Arabian that looks like a Saddlebred in an Arab halter class!

 

[welsummerchicks]

If they're so meaningless and poorly judged, why participate?

But...that's why I like dressage. There's a written standard, and you get a paper back saying where you messed up and where you didn't. Even if you don't agree, and think it should look MUCH more like Western Pleasure or Hunt Seat at least you have some sort of paper in your hand that tells you what the judge was thinking.

And...in dressage, it doesn't matter what breed it is, or how it did in a halter class. You can get beat by a one eyed one eared pink and blue mule if he does a better test. Faded horse's coat, what color the horse is, where the white is on him, what clothes, what brand of tack, what blood lines, doesn't amount to spit.

Except that what they DO score high on, is a whole lot harder to produce than the latest tack, latest jacket, latest color.

 

[RabbitMage]

I don't think I'd mind doing away with halter classes altogether. It seems like the horses in those classes-at least the ones that do well-are caricatures of what the breed should actually look like, as opposed to actual usable, functional animals.