15 Likes
Didn’t you derail some other thread with your endless diatribes, belittling people for -gasp- daring to call their preferred discipline by it’s correct name?
Yes yes, we get it. You grew up in the golden era where everything was magical and perfect and all of us damn millennials have ruined it all and you’re very salty about the whole thing. 
Instead of hijacking other unrelated threads as your soapbox, please just start your own so you can complain to yourself about it. At the very least, maybe you can find some like minded individuals so you can all sit around and circle jerk together.
27 Likes
We pay a lot of money for those .75 ¢ ribbons. Leave us alone.
18 Likes
I honestly don’t get the point of this reply. That’s just what it’s called nowadays, it’s perfectly normal for a sport to change over time. Frankly I don’t think there’s enough land either for hunters to go back to how it was. Of course people still do it but part of the reason why it’s less popular is probably not having enough land. We don’t have to change the name though?
6 Likes
This is such a boring bone to pick. You know that plenty of packs now only “hunt” a scent, rather than live quarry, right?
I’ve also typically found that the people who are quickest to put down the modern hunter ring are those who have very little actual real contact with it, and are totally unaware of the level of sophistication and tact required to lay down one of those beautiful trips. My background is in eventing and I thought hunters were silly, too, until I sat on and jumped a few very nice ones. I changed my tune pretty fast.
12 Likes
Not to further deral this, but belonging to a hunt is SUPER expensive. It’s always been the purview of the wealthy. Some clubs are more accessible but that isn’t the norm. So, ragging on people for not riding their show hunters in a hunt is not only weird because there just aren’t very many left, or never were, in most parts of the country and b) where they do exist they require a lot of money to belong and time to hunt, AND good foxhunters are very expensive. So it’s not some sort of amazing, accessible wonderland full of top-notch riders that everyone can go participate in, and never has been that way. Give it up.
ETA: Where I live there are several hunts, one of which often starts off from the property of the local diamond bazillionaires. Which is next to an NFL player’s mansion. At my old barn we had a guy who kept his hunter with us and his only goal (he said) in joining the hunt was to further his lawyer career through making wealthy contacts. He was a truly execrable rider who used to do things like run his long-suffering horse into bushes and once jumped a golf cart with people in it. So…
12 Likes
I must not be quite as old as dirt as the one complaining because when I was kid, riding lesson horses once a week there were not kids riding their ponies over for lessons and shows all the time. Sure, there was maybe a kid that lived close enough to hack over, but not the norm like some people want to make it sound.
7 Likes
It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders and have a plan in place to talk with your trainer. She might have some ways that could make showing less expensive for you. You never know until you ask.
3 Likes
Totally off topic, but gosh is there a better feeling than putting down a perfect Hunter round? I ride mostly jumpers but dang when you get that perfect Hunter round, it feels amazing.
Also, uh, I could show for about 3 weeks at an AA rated show and still have not even paid the same amount for dues for a hunt club, so I’ll stick to my ‘less realistic’ but also cheaper sport.
12 Likes
The one nearest me, I think their dues are somewhere north of $700 but that was a number of years ago, I’m sure it’s more now.
1 Like
The last time I tried to join it was a minimum of $2500 
1 Like
1 Like
Rose Hill out of Rox Dene by Popeye K hunts once a week during the season. Show hunters can go hunting. Another local one was grand champion at Devon. Brunello went out some with Camden. They tend not to while they are actively showing because hunting season is when they are in FL. The modern timetable doesn’t really lend to a horse doing both until they retire from the show ring. I can think of plenty of well known show riders though that do both. And yes, it costs money, the horses cost good money, and you mostly need your own transportation. Nothing with horses is cheap so choose what you like.
10 Likes
The names of horse sports have changed over time and not just in the hunters. For example, eventing was once called combined training and then 3 day eventing and I think it’s now just eventing. It’s all just a name anyway. We could call it “pretty moving horses jumping over lovely jumps as perfectly as possible” but that would take up a lot of space on the prize list!
6 Likes
I have been reading and occasionally commenting in this forum for a zillion years, and I still can’t comprehend why people that are not at all active in the hunter or jumper disciplines care to put in their 2 cents on every single thread. The op asked a specific question- not for people’s opinions on the state of the h/j world.
OP- definitely talk to your trainer. I’m a professional and I call my program “high quality, low key”. I have no desire to “take the show on the road” and basically do our local circuit. When my friend in the area goes off to show for the summers, she sends her stay home clients to me 
22 Likes
I know you love your program and maybe there’s nothing else like it in your area, but I think it is possible to not be the only poor client in a nice show barn. I know several barns (this is mid-Atlantic/NE) that are big show barns, but that also have clients on a different track or a different track from time to time (no FL in the winter, winter warriors and the like) that go to some travel shows, but mostly local shows. These barns also have a couple trainers apart from the main ones (2-3 assistant trainers, or riders who also give lessons) when the main trainers are away or for riders doing unrated hunters. These assistants train clients who don’t go to the winter circuits or to other travel shows. They train everybody when the main trainers are not around for whatever reason. At our farm, there are adults riding in the 2’6’’ on leased horses showing locally once a month and amateurs with 1 or 3 hugely expensive hunters. The horses all get excellent care, the clients showing less don’t often get lessons with the top trainers, but something like this could be doable.
2 Likes
As one of my favorite coaches always said, “8 good jumps is better than sex!” 
2 Likes
