Most riders find shows to be marvelously satisfying and inspiring experiences. However , participation in shows can bring along a lot of confusion and stress. Rather regretfully, a lot of novice riders begin showing even when they are not completely conversant with the rules and regulations that apply to show classes. Due to their over enthusiastic and under prepared approach, these new riders fail to grasp the reasons behind the allegedly illogical harshness of judgment of some show classes and similarly illogical easy-going judgment of others.
Basically, judging gives merits and demerits for 2 types of rider or horse action: doing something pertinent with true quality and doing something that’s taboo without or with quality. You might say that often the winner is the rider and pony pair that commits the least number of blunders. Some blunders are way more major than others: a rider’s heel rising and his leg shifting back while the pony is taking jumps could be a lesser sin than a rider who lags. Some of the deadliest sins concern dangerous riding, abusive riders or obstructive riders.
In equitation hunt seat divisions, judges give scores for rider control and position. Other considerations that count are leads, diagonals and the disgraceful rider’s crime of dropping the head to determine the correct diagonal or lead. In divisions related to equitation over fences, the punishable transgressions include break in gait, refusal and erroneous leads.
Judgments are made of the horse’s motions and perspective in hunter classes like hunter hack, hunters under the saddle and over fences. The hunter needs to give each impression of a participant who is enjoying himself, with apparent awareness, quietness, relaxed attitude, balance, contentment of expression and eagerness in process. It doesn’t need to be said that the pony should not be stiff, not to mention lame. He displays great balance. His back is soft and round and he travels on his bit; he shouldn’t be hollow backed, nor should he evade contact from the rider. Penalties are prescribed for swishing tails, pinned ears, spooking, kicking, bucking and failing to keep up a consistent gait full of rhythm. Over fences class players are penalised for dangerous or defective form like dangling legs. The best hunters over fences jump with great calmness and rhythm; they do not dash right to the base and scramble over. They tuck their legs up and maintain soft roundness in their necks and backs while going over fences. Bucking, refusals, knocking down of rails and lead change misses invoke penalties. Elimination is the result for horses showing potentially hazardous behaviour like lameness, rearing and kicking.
Riders must be fully conversant with the permitted/not permitted equipment lists for the classes they want to participate in. Simply by way of illustration, rules about bit use are harsh in dressage shows; riders are required to ensure that the bits they use are regulation types. In a fairly similar way, martingales are taboo in hunter under saddle classes. Boots are allowed for horses in equitation over fences and jumpers, but are banned in hunters. Some bits are acceptable in jumpers although not in hunters over fences.
Before you take part in any class in a show, save yourself tons of confusion, heart-ache, penalties and money waste by boning up on all applicable rules, regulations and guidelines. Remember that old saw about an ounce of prevention?
Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers read more
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.