Confirms my thoughts that I am better of sticking to dressage and eventing. 
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I seem to remember some sort of fiasco with a medal/eq final callback or reride situation where the rider was called back on short notice (not their fault) and the horse was in jumper braids.
Threw a lot of livestream viewers off, since that’s NOT acceptable turnout for an eq horse 
they weren’t penalized for it, but it raised some questions for a bit. IME you do not go in unbraided or improperly braided - you scratch.
And yes, hunter braids are a whole different beast. And tails!
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I don’t remember that one. When did that happen?
I will say I remember the day many years ago when there was a snafu at the Maclay final, and a horse was unbraided, wrapped, and on the truck about to leave when it turned out the rider was called back for the flat phase.
There was a huge group effort on the horse to get him braided, tacked up, and ready to go in time. Luckily the horse was an extremely sweet and experienced old pro, so he just stood there like a statue while a group of people swarmed around him.
He made it to the ring by the skin of his teeth, and I believe his rider ended up third in the Maclay final that day.
The funniest part of the whole thing was the Grand Prix rider who was flatting around in the warm up area and witnessed this intense hotbed of activity. As the horse walked away and headed towards the ramp to the ring, he laughed and said, “I never thought you guys were going to pull this off!” Lol.
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I think it was WEC, one of their smaller medal things. I could have some wires crossed on the details, cause I remember the Maclay one too (or the story, I didn’t see it happen). I could be wrong but the recent one was the show where the dotted line came into play with the judges not enforcing it?
I think that was at Capital Challenge a year or two ago. Or that’s the one I recall, anyway.
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Ah see? Wires crossed lol
I certainly wouldn’t scratch over a braiding snafu.
Text
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Wow really? Even if it’s a last minute thing like that? Seems like such a waste of money to scratch over something so minor. Hunters and eq definitely isn’t for me then 
my mare is roached so I don’t have to deal with braiding.
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Same.
If I’ve gone to the trouble to get myself and the horse there, we’re going in the ring. Lol.
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Yeah you move heaven and earth and don’t walk in unbraided. it would be seen as improper attire, at least in our area, but I’d just scratch the one round or hack and get the horse prepped for the next one 
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I’ve been in scenarios in which the in-gate radioed an explanation/apology to the judge in advance of the round (specifically one horse who got body clipped at a horse show during a heat wave and the power grid went out halfway through, so he looked like a strange kind of pinto, and the other where there was proud flesh being treated on a leg but we were showing with the vet’s encouragement).
Not sure how officially acceptable that is as a practice, but in a scenario where the horse is unbraided because mistakes were made by the horse show and there was no time to braid properly, I would be shocked if either the in-gate, steward or show manager couldn’t pass that information on to the judge in order not to offend them.
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Braiding or not Braiding is customary but not required or judged. There is nothing on a judges card for attire. In general it’s best to swim w the current but it isn’t in the rulebook.
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I agree. “Let the judge know” on varying subjects was pretty common back I was volunteering-changes in line up, especially no-shows, other delays, etc. Another was “ask the judge about…” lunch, breaks, water, etc.
I don’t remember one on braiding or other appearance type oddities but definitely routine coordination was just part of the show.
I don’t think any judge should be offended by an unbraided horse. A touch surprised, maybe, depending on the setting. But not offended. Braids are optional except for sidesaddle classes, where they are actually required under the USEF rules.
I’ve certainly seen judges notified of various things by the steward or the ingate person regarding different entries, but braids have never been on that list.
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I am a semi-pro clipper and the amount of heartburn I just felt reading that bit about the power grid going out. Oooooof.
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Lol.
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This doesn’t quite square with my (admittedly limited anecdotal) experience.
We have a mare at the barn. Owner tried to breed her the traditional way with no luck for several years. Eventually the owner put her back into work as a riding horse. Then someone wanted to do ICSI with her, so the mare shipped for collection and then came back. She was only gone a couple of days with no real break in workload and seemed no worse for wear.
I wasn’t there when the procedure was done so I don’t know how painful it was in the actual moments it was being done but in terms of overall impact on her it seemed very very minimal.
I have a mare myself that I love and maybe would want a foal from but I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her in a delivery complication so I had been sort of mulling the options. I had not heard that ICSI was particularly difficult on the mare. I wasn’t really considering what KS is doing-- repeatedly using the same mare over and over again-- I was considering a one time effort to breed-- but it would give me pause if the procedure were very painful for the mare because then it wouldn’t be worth it (to me).
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And see, I get this, but then I feel bad because then it insinuates that the other mare (that’s actually carrying the foal) isn’t worth anything. Like, her life is less valued because you’re ok with and rather risk her life than your mare.
That was just my thought process when I thought about breeding mare I really liked. I ultimately decided not to, but some other reasons went into that in the end. I was possibly thinking too deeply.
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Thanks for the info. So if a horse with a not great braid job goes in the ring and puts in a lovely round, would most judges take the braid job into consideration when placing the class?
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My observation is that most mares love having foals.
