Anyone know of a good, short guide or article for parents who are new to horse showing, and need to be educated on the basics of horse show etiquette, nature of judging, etc.? Audience would be parents of beginner/intermediate riders (think walk-trot, ground rails, short stirrup) who borrow lesson horses or ponies for academy shows or local shows. Thanks in advance.
If you can find a copy of Helen Crabtree’s “Saddle Seat Equitation” there is a lot of good advice for “horse show parents” that is relevant to any discipline.
I remember, when I read it years ago (it is an old book), thinking that she did a very good job of addressing the parent’s role and that it was a subject that not many authors had touched upon.
I have a copy but it is in storage. Your local library may have a copy or be able to obtain one from one of the cooperative library exchanges.
Quite good advice all around really for parents and it does touch on the proper parental attitude toward judging as well.
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Agreed! I loved that book.
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I’m not likely to try to access your link considering the effort involved. Can you make it more easily accessible?
I’d recommend “Horse Show Mom’s Survival Guide for Every Discipline” by Susan Daniels.
The Good Mudder’s Guide by Laura Cunningham, if you can find it. It came out at least twenty years ago, but it gave a very good rundown of everything a parent should know, as I recall.
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I don’t know what effort is involved. Its a link my local schooling show series has on their webpage. It opens fine for me.
the page is linked from here under SCS Basic Guide to Showing.
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It opened fine for me to a word document.
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That worked!
Useful guide and it even opened in Pages.
I tend to have documents online as PDFs so I have better control over what the reader sees and it opens right up in the browser–which this one does on a phone, though not on a desktop.
I second this. I found it helpful for myself as a rider who was new to showing, too. My mom, who worked hard to stay ignorant about horse things so she wouldn’t be asked to help, reluctantly read it and agreed that it was useful and funny.
Probably the most helpful section for my mom was the part about being careful about commenting on anything while possibly within range of a microphone on a camera, and how to express thoughts in a way that wouldn’t be offensive if overheard by the subject’s own parents. Out of control horse? “Well, that was a bold, forward ride.”
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That is an extremely useful piece of information. Even more so now that it could go around the world on a live feed. :lol:
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I totally agree about PDFs. I have no connection to this page, it’s just something I found a while back.
Any of these tell pony moms to calm down, take a Xanax and be nice?
Asking for a friend…
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The one I recommended was written by an actual pony mom, so it was full of good first hand advice. I don’t think there was any mention of Xanax, though.
@Bending Line are you me??
Literally last week I typed up a 1 page word doc on this topic to send to parents who are new to my program. And it sounds like our programs are very similar. 
The link on the South Coast Series is great. I see some additions I want to add to the one I typed up for myself.
I wanted to write my own to be specific to the shows my riders are doing and my policies. Feel free to PM me if you want a copy of mine!
Other things I included were descriptions of exactly what I expect them to do on the morning of the show (not leaving their stuff out as they rush off to load their horse, and oops forget to come back to put it all away), etiquette in the schooling arena (passing left-to-left, calling out jumps, yes I know it’s crazy in there but FOCUS for goodness sake and get your job done), expectations on cleaning up once we get home (closing up the trailer, making sure your horse gets his dinner since we came back after feeding time).
