Sunday, June 29th, 2008
mind not the ugly weanling
Among many problems inside American Sport Horse Breeding programs, breed shows are absolutely not helping those problems, and in many cases, breed shows are harming the breeds involved.
Winning yearling breed show attributes are often mutually exclusive from lifetime quality care and training practices. Too many people equate a breed show winning yearling as a potential winning sport horse. Additionally, young horses “promoted” at breed shows are generally not being raised with their future in mind.
A valid reason to enter a young horse into a breed show could be to acquaint them with the sights and sounds of a horse show. Seeing a new place and being away from friends is especially important for raising an even tempered horse. For the young horse, the earlier new, “scary” things and environments happen, the better. An in-hand class at a horse breed show could go a long way toward creating this positive, “scary” environment.
But at sport horse breed shows, witnessing in-hand classes of young horses is difficult. On parade are a bunch of immature horses who will grow up with health and temperament problems based purely on their preparation for the show. It’s this short-sided nature of the young horse’s care and training that reflects poorly on the reasons most breeders enter the breed shows.
What am I talking about? All over the place, many young horses for sale will undoubtedly carry the title of “in hand winner.” For a young horse, this dubious title shouldn’t speak volumes to anyone. A winning yearling at a breed show is fat, shiny, and “conditioned”. A yearling shouldn’t be fat or conditioned. Young, fat horses grow too fast and put unnecessary weight on undeveloped bones. Horses that grow too fast are at severe risk to developing OCD. A yearling could be shiny, maybe, but most yearlings should have some coat bleaching do to being outside all the time.
But yearlings can’t win ribbons with sun bleached coats, so inside, in a stall, they grow.
I have heard horror stories of young horses trained for breed shows possessing terrible quirks that are hard to get rid of. One horse I knew was shown extensively on the line, at Devon, and as an adult this horse was a bit of a lunatic on the ground. As a yearling, this horse had been so conditioned to trot big in hand and take off fast that seven years after having ever been at a breed show, the horse was still miserable to lead. One sound, cluck, clap, hoot or holler, and this horse would attempt to take off like a bat out of hell. This particular horse didn’t win in-hand, but it placed in the top 5 and also had an OCD lesion removed from each hock. Lameness was always a problem, but the horse sure was pretty!
There is no doubt that movement can be seen at a young age, though maturity does tell the true tale of how a horse moves. I knew a gangly, ugly, yearling filly that moved like a Saddlebred who went on to compete at a very high level in dressage. That filly would have not only lost in hand at breed shows, she would have been laughed out of the ring. Why she moved like that as a youngster is beyond me, but she moved beautifully as a 4 year old and on!
Remember how junior high dorks grow up to be wealthy CEO’s with good looking spouses; think of young horses the same way.
so fugly they're cute. let 'em be.
As a breeder and an owner of a young horse (under 4 years), sometimes it’s hard to wait and “do stuff” with the young horse. But, patience is a virtue, and it usually pays off in the end. Allow that weanling, yearling, and two year old to look scrawny, gangly, sun bleached, and awkward. It’s okay; many a fantastic sport horse was an ugly duckling at one time or another.
When purchasing a young horse, don’t take any breed show wins as guarantees to success; instead look at lineage success, the individual horse in question, and most importantly, get x-rays! Joints of young horses can show a lot about future soundness problems that might crop up.
Until a horse and rider earn ribbons for performance, there is no guarantee a horse is worth the asking price. And just because a stallion has produced 20 in hand winners doesn’t mean that stallion produces performance sport horses. In order to get an accurate picture of a young horse’s potential, look into the performance of the mature progeny of stallions. Maybe their offspring are really pretty, but pretty doesn’t matter if they’re a mess under saddle.
With young horses, don’t get fooled by ribbons, championships, and fancy foals! On the end results of breeding matter, and those end results are not determined, not even commented on at breed shows.
All in all, breed shows tend to bring out a different kind of horse enthusiast. Those die-hard breed-showers are usually focused on:
- inflating horse prices, or
- seeing their “baby” win
In-hand classes at breed shows may be interesting for mature horses; there, experienced judges can make observations about temperament, conformation, and ability as it relates to the breed, but breed shows have it wrong when looking at young horses.
If you do choose to show your young horse in-hand, take precautions by limiting any “work” to simply manners and experiences, and let young horses be young horses by being outside as much as possible. And this is so important; do not over feed a growing horse. Follow your veterinarian’s advice and consult the stallion owner as well who may have experience with “growthy” throws.
With young horses, too big, too fast, and too fat are problems that cause long term health and fitness issues. Unless American Sport Horse Breeders stop focusing on the outside of their young babies, the horses and breeds themselves will only keep on loosing.
But then again, if it’s ribbons you’re after, horse breed shows are for you.
Just take that “sport” off the “sport horse” you’re peddling; we can call it even.
Tags: horse shows
Posted in breeding | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Citizen Horse asks the question, are horse shows right for you?
Too many times I have been at a horse show and witnessed the unhappy horse shower. Sometimes it’s the obvious outbursts like “Why do I do this?” or “I hate showing” or “This is a waste of money!” that tip me off to the unhappy horse competitor. There are then the more subliminal signs of horse show unhappiness; crying, nervousness, withdrawal from the others in the barn, over quietness, scratching classes, anger, timidness, and general amplified horse-person craziness.
Starting with the hunter/jumper A show circuit, these horse shows are not cheap. Whether the horse show is near by or many states away, an A horse show is a huge financial investment. Based on pure finances alone, one has to ask, are horse shows worth it?
Depending on riding goals, financial circumstances, and a horse’s ability, whether or not to compete at horse shows can be easily determined. But to start, we must figure out how you ended up showing in the first place.
Great riding can be achieved without ever stepping foot in the show ring.
If you are riding huntseat (hunter/jumper), most likely you are at a hunter/jumper barn and have a hunter/jumper trainer. If you are considering showing, or are currently showing, I’m sure many, if not most, of the other boarders or barn clients are also showing. Admittedly, a trainer doesn’t make money off of board. A trainer makes a living solely on training, teaching, and showing. This puts pressure on clients and boarders to participate in a training and showing program. If you are at a barn that requires participating in horse shows and training (and many do), you must understand you’ve been directly pressured into showing by the trainer’s need for income - consider this when you think about your showing aspirations.
But before we talk about horse show goals, lets talk about goals as a rider. Whether you want to perfect your ability to navigate a course, get all your distances to the fences, jump bigger fences, or just be a more effective rider, you must understand that showing does not get you to these goals. Horse showing also does not allow you to prove those riding goals. Any of the above listed goals can be met at home; horse show competitions are not the only way to attain. You can achieve great riding without ever stepping foot in the show ring. But, if your goal as a rider is to do any or all of those things at a horse show, that’s a different story. If your goal as a rider is to win classes, divisions, or move up from long stirrup to the adult amateur, then a horse show is your platform.
Make sure horse show goals are YOUR goal and not your trainer’s goal. Moving up in divisions, especially in the hunter ring, is subjective. First, the horse you ride is more of an indicator of what division you ride in. The long stirrup division to the adult amateur division is only dependent on your ability to pilot your horse through a bigger course confidently, or your horse’s ability to navigate you through a bigger course without you being scared. Both of those hunter objectives can be completed at home.
In the jumper ring, goals are a little different. At home, you can perfect your course navigating, distances, the size of jumps, and rider effectiveness. But, the jumper ring at a horse show will definitely press you a little harder. You are riding against the clock, without pulling any rails, all while jumping a course you have not schooled over. The jumper ring can actually push you to become a more effective rider. Competing in jumpers gives you a lot to think about outside of just you and your horse.
Make sure horse show goals are YOUR goal and not your trainer’s goal.
But, you can still reach goals at home if you like the jumpers. Your goals just can’t be jump an ‘Open Jumper’ course clean and within the time, because, no matter what, at a show, it is more difficult. Show courses will be more challenging, the time is going to be a crucial indicator of your success with that course, and of course, your horse will be a totally different ride in the show ring than at home. At home though, you can absolutely set your goal to be, say: Jump a 4’9” course clean. This is an attainable riding goal at home.
Maybe you have been jumping 3’ for a while and both you and your horse are ready to jump a little bigger. That can absolutely be done at home. You will not prove that you can jump 3’3” any better at a horse show than you will at home.
Maybe the nervousness you get at a horse show is something you want to overcome. If that is your goal, then the show ring is the only place to work on that. You have to be honest with yourself about your ability to achieve this goal. Some people never loose that nervousness. Unless you own 3-5 horses, take all 3-5 horses to every horse show, and show all of them in several divisions, you are most likely not showing enough to completely eliminate those horse show nerves!
If you completely enjoy riding your horse, jumping your horse, and improving your riding skills, why do you go to horse shows? Many amateurs end up so frustrated at the end of a long, very long horse show day, not to mention week, or weeks! If you aren’t having fun, then don’t compete at horse shows. If you just aren’t having fun because you aren’t winning, that is a completely different story. If you are ONLY showing to win, you shouldn’t be showing. Winning-Only showers are people who purchase made, push-button horses, have little to no true skill or talent, and they have gobs of money.
It is completely unrealistic to be unhappy to lose at a horse show. You are going to lose, you will lose often. In the hunter ring, most of the time, it will make no sense whether you win or lose. But, in the jumper ring, if you lose, smile! Some of the best horse shows I have been to include my all time losing rides. I learned more in each one of those losing rides than every jumper class I have won put together. Whether it was rider error, green horse brain fart, or just a bad horse day, I learned how to ride better when I lost. Any jumper class I won, as fun as it was, I didn’t take all that much out of the show ring with me. Sure, it’s an expensive way to learn, but one of the best ways to learn!
You will not prove that you can jump 3’3” any better at a horse show than you will at home.
Showing should be fun, win or lose, and if it isn’t, you shouldn’t be showing. If your trainer pressures you to show, find a new trainer; they don’t all require showing, and not all hunter/jumper trainers snub you if you don’t show.
On the financial side, if your goal is to show and you don’t have the money to show; you work hard. You figure out a budget, you figure out how much you can afford. If your goal is the A shows, see if there is anything you can work off. If you aren’t at a barn that can give you that, find another barn. There are cheaper barns out there with good trainers. Although, if you are riding hunters and you don’t have a “known” trainer, there is a good chance you won’t pin very well. For jumpers, you’re more likely to find a trainer that don’t cost a fortune. But there are a lot of bad trainers out there, and even some of those cost a fortune. If your goal is to make it to an A show, there is a way, just figure it out.
Some may find themselves at a big, show required barn (the kind that make you sell your horse because THEY say you need a new horse). Don’t get sucked into this big show barn money game. You should ONLY sell your horse, or consider a new horse, if your abilities have out-grown your current mount or if your current mount has soundness issues that don’t fit into your riding goals. Don’t get bullied into providing commission to these trainers and barns.
As an alternative, B rated horse shows, local, or open shows can provide an ample amount of classes to participate in, and the cost is substantially less. If you are looking for bigger jumper classes, I don’t think a B show would qualify. But, if you are looking to work on your nerves, B horse shows are a cheaper alternative. B shows hold a much more laid back atmosphere, and they are CHEAP. For green horses or riders, B shows are a great economical tool.
In the world of dressage, showing is a good way to gauge you and your horse’s progress. In my experience, you walk away from a dressage show with some constructive feedback (maybe not EVERY dressage show). With that feedback, you can work on area’s you and your horse are weak and keep up the good work on the area’s you and your horse are excelling. But again, horse shows aren’t the only way to prove your dressage skills. You can accomplish dressage performance at home, you can execute tests, you can add movements, and you can always, ALWAYS improve. But besides your trainer, your ability to gauge you and your horse’s performance is difficult. Again, depending on your goals, a horse show may or may not be the answer for you.
Horse shows are expensive, stressful, full of ups and downs, and most importantly, they are often times VERY political. You must really ask yourself if it is worth it. You should never show for someone else’s goals; you should always have fun and be working towards improving your riding and you and your horse’s communication. If you are showing only for the horse “community” experience, leave your show barn and go find a laid back place. Ostensibly, there will always be horse show snobs that just don’t feel “cool” unless they can hang out in their barn’s decorated area, but don’t get sucked in on “being the non-showing outsider”.
Horse shows should be fun, win or lose, and if they aren’t, don’t show! If you can experience and reach your riding goals outside of showing, then why show?
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SEE RELATED CITIZEN HORSE ARTICLES:
- Hunters, Not a Sport
- Dressage Queens
- Sport Horse Breeding Chapter 1: The Mare
Tags: competitions, horse shows, politics
Posted in horse people | 3 Comments »
