Organ music!!! Our local circuit used to have an organist who played during all the classes. She would travel the circuit in her truck/organ vehicle… I can still hear the go-to-canter transition music. I swear, every time I hear an organ playing I smell that special horse show dirt-manure smell, you know it when you smell it. Man, I really, really dug that. Bring back organ playing!!!
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This was my home show for many years recently before I moved out of South LA County. I rode in PV (Portuguese Bend specifically)
I would LOVE to see this poster - pic please!!
I have a video of me doing my first show as an adult re-rider on an old schoolie at Portuguese Bend - chipping all over the place in the .70s after not jumping for nearly 15 years in 2016 or 2017, now I cannot remember.
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Go to a saddlebred show. We still have the organist.
There was a discussion last weekend about how you used to be able to get recordings of some show organists. Some used it while working horses for the Pavlov’s dog theory - when the horse hears the organ, he gets ‘up’.
I remember some of the 1980’s horse shows - back when shows had every breed. Mom managed a few of them. There are plenty of pictures of my sister & I giving out ribbons & trophies.
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George and his assistant Mike very kindly let a couple of us walk up the ramp with them from the street one time, even though they were wearing formal evening attire, and we most definitely were not. Bless them. 
I also have a very fond memory of seeing somebody dragging the ring there, wearing a tux as he drove around on the tractor.
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I miss the “back to back” rounds, another round, flat and BOOM- home we go.
My co-barn worker and I were there grooming for Barney Ward and hung out with George and Mike. I remember Mike was quite handsome.
Isn’t that what they do NOW?
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Not the best pick because of the evening light (took it in the patio) but trust me it is not faded. PB was a fun show.
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He was. Very nice guy as well, I believe.
I’m sorry to say I think he passed away quite young.
Wish I could say the same things about George. I’ve seen some things.
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They do it now but not the BOOM go home- though I guess you could. We used to be able to trailer in to rated shows (B,C) show and go home. Now the shows are mostly a week long, most trainer go for the week, the days of hauling in, showing and then heading home are long gone.
One of the things I miss about “back in the day” was the prize lists/show books. Everyone entered the their classes at the time of entry, and they printed out each class with all of the riders/horses with details about each. One class/division per page with room for placings and notes. When you checked in you got the book that had the schedules and then all of the info about all of the entrants. I remember watching classes and writing placings and all sorts of notes at every show. It was just one of the little ways that I think made it feel a little more like you knew who was there. Also there were always a ton more horses at the shows than there are now. My Junior Jumper classes back then (late 80s/early 90s) ran at every single show with 10-20 entrants (and a lot more at the bigger shows!).
Now they’ve incentivized/enabled “day of” (or I guess “night before”) entries to the point that no one knows who’s showing in what until they get to the show!
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I am mostly an eventer, but I do some h/j shows (both recognized and schooling), and I still do it that way.
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I grew up in Rolling Hills. We lived a block from the Red Barn and a block in the opposite direction from the Empty Saddle Club.
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At the rated HJ shows, you can do it that way, even at WEC. My point was, at least in my old zone in the late 70s and 80s, trailering to a one day rated show with your trainer was far more common. We had a choice of several shows on any given weekend in any direction by driving a few hours. It was not always a week long event for a trainer. I’ll stop commenting because it obviously isn’t making sense.
I think MY point is that “back in the day”, you HAD to stay all day, even at a one day show.
In one division (say pony hunter), one jumping class would be mid morning, your second jumping class would be early afternoon, and your under saddle class would be late afternoon.
The “back to back classes” is very much “nowadays” in contrast to “back in the day”.
But I think MY “back in the day” (mid 60s) is further back than YOUR “back in the day” (late 70s).
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I remember the programs. The Pony Club shows listed the entrants in each class – horse’s name, owner’s name, rider’s name. You knew what and whom you were seeing.
The big Atlanta Horse Show had a big thick glossy program booklet, and had a variety of classes – hunters during the day, then at night Saddlebreds, including fine harness; Tennessee Walking Horses, Morgans, Paso Finos, roadsters …
That show ended Saturday night and on Sunday was the Sheriff’s Posse show, all western, including palomino parade horses all decked out in their black and silver tack.
And, yes, the organ for the night classes.
My mother would drop us off at the Pony Club and other hunter shows during the day.
This was back in the '60s.
When I came back to it all, in the '80s, hunter shows and divisions had changed so much it was like a completely different discipline.
The Portuguese Bend show very much exists though it migrated from Portuguese Bend to the Empty Saddle Club at some point before 1982 (when I moved to the area that year it was at ESC) and then from there to Ernie Howlett Park in the early 1990’s (I remember showing my horse Cool at both venues and I got him in 1990 and converted him to a dressage horse in 1994).
They still have the poster contest. For at least a few years it was a competition between local students but I’m not sure now. They generally have copies of the old posters on display along with the perpetual trophies.
They run the three PCHA 3’3” medal finals there (14/u, 18-34, 35/o) and that plus the locals plus some jumpers for the classics is much of the show at this point.
Although the volunteers in their blue-checked shirts are very much in evidence selling food, organizing prizes, and generally helping it’s been managed professionally for a number of years, though not by one of the groups that manages multiple shows.
The food is good, but not as good as it used to be. No more of those potatoes.
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In California in the 1960’s there was a lot more western and saddle seat. Our local group in Malibu ran shows at the infamous Crummer field. There were two English classes, English Pleasure and English Equitation, and saddle seat people on Arabs dominated because they had the nicer horses. Once a year they ran an LA County rated show to make money. At that point, the organization was mostly western. Now it’s all HJ. I didn’t do a ton of showing at rated shows, other than the county-rated ones, but did get to go to Turkey Show a few times. We commonly rode to the local shows.
English and specifically HJ started to get more popular as the 1960’s progressed and into the 1970’s. Many of the Crummer Field shows were 50/50 ish English and Western and they ran rated shows that were all HJ.
When I came back as an adult in 1982 there were a lot more warmbloods. Clothes had gone back to more conservative (it was getting fairly wild by the time I finished as a junior). I was in Palos Verdes at that point and was still able to ride to the shows. The local circuit wasn’t rated but had pretty high quality horses and riders because there simply weren’t as many county and other rated shows. The medal class ran at 3’3” and could get 20+ entries. We mostly did our own care and grooming at shows. Lots of horses lived in backyards and we rode to lessons a few times a week.
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Is that the one that always looks like a quagmire when people post old pictures from there?
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