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Re: [RC] Letters to the World -- showing - Chris PausNot to mention the cost of showing class A! My husband thought it might be a cheaper hobby for me than distance riding til I took him to a class A show. The first thing he said was, "these horses don't look anything like the ones in our pasture." Well duh! Our horses aren't bred to be works of art, they are bred to be good, sturdy, sane, friendly riding horses! The second thing he did was add up all the fees associated with showing. The class fee itself wasn't so bad, about $25. Then there was the USHSA fee, and the vet fee and the stabling fee, and the "non" stabling fee if you didn't stable your horse overnight, etc, etc... we figured it cost several hundred dollars per day to be there at a minimum, without the fancy stall digs that most barns have. Looking at the show bill, there were only a couple of classes that I would be remotely interested in showing in, pretty expensive for 5 minutes worth of riding. At least with distance riding, we get to see some nice scenery, spend some quality time with our horses and friends, and make a nice weekend of it. chris I will grant that in many cases, it is actually ignorance. Our judging pool is by and large poorly educated about what constitutes functional conformation, let alone classic type, and tends to "objectively" put up the horses with the most extreme aspects of certain body parts that match what they see in the major magazines and at the other shows. ===== "A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot Chris and Star BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus ============================================================ This weekend, many of you are at rides...25's, 50's or 100's. You are the lucky ones. I know you did whatever you had to do to get to 'em. I know that each of you go to 'em with different so-called "goals" in mind...but I also know that each of you cares for your horse and realize that "carrying you" is the least of what he/she does for you. LIFTING YOU is the true effect. ~ Ryder ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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