I had made a thread a few months ago asking about competitions, but have come to decide that I don’t think I want to get into competing in horse shows. Just knowing myself and the awful performance anxiety I get when it comes to stuff like that, plus with how expensive it is, all the long hours you have to spend at the competitions and you only get to ride for a few minutes, none of it appeals to me. Granted, I’ll barely be hitting my one year mark of having ridden next month, so I’m still a beginner, so yeah I get that it’s possible I may change my mind years down the road. But I really just don’t want to compete.
Is there anyone else here that’s been riding for many years yet has never competed/only competed a few times but doesn’t anymore? Almost all the riders at my barn have competed consistently and continue to do so or are working towards it. I definitely feel the desire to improve at horseback riding, and want to get as good as I can and ride at a high level. But I just don’t want to compete.
I feel exactly the same. I also have performance anxiety. I want to do occasionally schooling shows but really competing just doesn’t appeal or matter to me anymore. But I train to the same standards. I still want to improve.
Yes, this is exactly what I’m going for. I want to train as hard as I would as if I were preparing to compete, but without actually competing itself. I’m learning how to jump, and want to get to the point where I’m jumping as high as you see in national show levels, but not actually show. That’s what I’m getting at.
What brought that question up?
Did your instructor mention working toward’s competing, someone else said you were heading there, anyone putting pressure on you to work for that?
I would just ride at the pace you want to ride.
Some just like to trail ride, some like to learn the finer points just to ride better, some get so good they start considering competing.
You just never know when you are learning where that will take you.
I would not make those decisions now, keep enjoying the horses as the learning process you are into now.
Don’t start anticipating and fretting about if you need to make a decision to show any time soon or ever.
All of us have some thoughts that creep in and worry us as that one did you.
Think thru it, see what all others respond to your question here.
Try to find a way thru this process of deciding where to go with our riding, just as all of us have done at one point or other.
I’ve had some of my fellow riders/their family members and other people outside the barn I know ask me if I was into competing, with some of them saying to let them know if I ever did so that they could come watch me. And after having been asked about it yet again by a mother of some other girl who rides at my stable earlier today after my ride, it’s gotten me thinking more and honestly this is just how I feel. My instructor has never talked about this to me. Granted, I’m older than a lot of the riders there, I’m a 25 year old woman. So that’s another factor that’s influencing me as well is my age, and that it’s harder for beginner adults to compete as opposed to kids. So yeah. I wouldn’t say I’m being pressured, I just get asked about it from time to time and it seems that it’s almost expected/assumed that equestrians compete at some point of their riding career. But I don’t want to, just wanted to see if anyone who’s a lifelong equestrian has been riding for a long time yet never competed either.
I don’t enjoy competing myself. I do like the horse show atmosphere and helping/grooming for friends. I would make a fabulous ‘owner’ – going to the shows to watch “my” horse compete with someone else riding.
Humans are weird. EVERYTHING has to be turned into a competition. I mean, we even have competitive trail riding!
There is room in the horse world for all types of people, there is no need to compete if you don’t want to.
I have been riding for 25 years and don’t show except for the little fun shows and combined tests we have at the barn for lesson students, boarders, and some friends from other local barns. I’m not hyper competitive, don’t own my own horse, and really can’t afford showing anyway. I know lots of people who take lessons or work on skills in a discipline like dressage or jumpers but don’t show, or only show at little local things, or let someone else show their horse, and of course you also have the people who just want to trail ride or pleasure ride.
You are still very early in your riding journey. There are plenty of equestrians that don’t do horse shows. They ride for the love of it, the partnership with the horse, how it makes them feel, the accomplishment of learning something new or finally having a light bulb moment on something that was eluding them.
I’ve ridden for about 35 of my 55 years on this earth. Started at about 6 or 7. I have shown off and on over the years, but I’d be hard pressed to say I did more than 1 or 2 shows ever in a one year period (save for my time in college) and would literally go years with going to a show. So defiantly not a “shower”. My main competition is with myself - learning, improving, trying new disciplines, expanding my horse knowledge… not competing against others.
There is nothing wrong with not competing. When someones asks, just say that’s not your priority or that you’re not concentrating on that right now. Its great though, that you have family and friends that are supportive of your riding. I would have given the world for that as a young person!
I hate, hate, hate showing. HATE everything about it. After showing 15 + years I still get terrible show nerves so that’s a big part of why I don’t like it. That said I force myself to do it. In part to do something outside of my comfort zone, to have realistic feedback on my horses training and to achieve personal goals. I’m not an overly competitive person and don’t live and die by the color of ribbon I walk away with. The nice thing about dressage is there are lots of ways to set meaningful and achievable personal goals such as performance certificates, medals, All Breed Awards etc. The last goal I am striving for is a silver medal and then I will happily retire from showing. Like you OP the real joy for me is the training process and learning new things. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to compete!
I have done some fun shows and a youth, but mostly I enjoy my horse. I have dabbled in dressage. I like to drive and do trails. I also really love to do liberty training. To me it is all about my relationship with my horse. I enjoy him for who he is and doing fun things together.
If all I get to do is go out and groom him and let him graze, to me that is a wonderful day with him.
I also do enjoy setting goals for us and meeting those goals, but I don’t need a judge to tell me that I am doing a good job, my horse is perfectly capable, and an even better judge, of telling me i am doing a good job. Enjoy doing what you want with your horse.
I love and adore showing, I’m already looking forward to next year. My SO is not into showing at all. He does a little bit, so his horses have a bit of a show record but that’s it. He’s a great rider but doesn’t enjoy showing all that much. We ride in different disciplines, and while I do ride his horses a bit when he’s busy I don’t ride them nearly as well as he does.
As the sister of someone who competed a lot, I got asked regularly if I showed. I tried it a couple of times, but really didn’t like it. I am not really a competitive person and had awful show nerves.
Fast forward, I have a daughter who loves showing, so I became a very experienced show mom. I tried showing some again as an adult. Still have no competitive desire and show nerves are still present, so I still don’t like it.
What I do really enjoy is watching her or one of the students showing my horse. I think that is really fun
I’ve been riding my entire life and have not once competed, and nor do I particularly want to; I am a very anxious person, and unfortunately my horses pick up on it, so I can’t imagine it would be a very enjoyable experience for any of us.
I had a very nice show horse, then had to have several surgeries.
I was not getting anywhere near being able to show.
A friend trainer took the horse and did well, won year end, etc.
That was fun and some would ask, don’t you want to be the one showing?
Never gave that a thought, it is what it is and fine with me.
Horse was improved and then sold to someone that could keep showing him.
If you like horses, you like horses any one way you can be around them, for some competing, for other however they may figure works best for them and their circumstances.
In the OP’s shoes, I would not decide quite so early in her path to working with horses what she may want to do later.
At one time she may have a horse she feels it would be fun to show, or maybe never and either way is sure fine.
I did some competitions when I was younger, but the stress of trailering really gets to me. The thought of riding in the show isn’t so bad, but getting there/getting ready I just can’t handle! I also have black tack so I couldn’t show anyways. My weekends aren’t long enough for that amount of stress! I like to practice in the arena, and I love to go out on trails… my horse agrees!
I thought this way for many years. In some ways I was in error and should have spend more time at lower levels of competitive events. It would have been beneficial to me and the horse.
You DO have to make a sharp distinction between the “Saturday night horse show” and rated shows with points or other honors that can bring regional or national recognition. If you are mixing with folks who are looking for some companionship and training opportunities in an area then the “fun” type show can be beneficial. If you are mixing with folks who follow the Lombardi-Ghegis Khan Theory (winning is not just everything, it’s the only thing; and it’s not enough that I must win…you must lose") then your experience can be very different from the first alternative.
Since I’ve started doing the Cavalry Competitions (at 60 plus) I think I’ve become both more knowledgeable and more skilled and more effective and sensitive as a rider as I have to DO something and sometimes the horse is not all that thrilled with it. So I’ve got to figure out how to get the horse to respond positively, or at least effectively, and the result is objectively measurable (complete a course on time, target scoring, etc.). Some are subjectively measured (Military Horsemanship, which is a dressage test). Some times it’s a composite (a saber charge where you measure the hits but get graded on the quality of the movement). I’m sure that there are other competitive environments where you have to demonstrate, and get graded on, the performance of some event or set of events but are not going to generate big prizes or national level recognition (the sorts of things that drive people to cheat).
Rather than just “Say No To Competition” maybe saying no to any form of competition is not beneficial to either you or the horse, and may even have longer term negative consequences in that you are not being challenged to become better with your horse. Find events that have a competitive base but follow the Golden Mean of Moderation In All Things, Including Moderation.
I don’t compete, but it’s economic, not performance anxiety. I’m paying my trainer more than enough money to tell me what I’m doing wrong. I don’t need to pay a judge, too.
The only competitions I would go to were 3 day events, because how often do you get to school someone else’s cross country? And a few schooling shows (when I wasn’t running them) because someone else set the course for me. I set up so many courses for other people, for about a year after I quit, it was MY TURN.
But, no. I don’t spend money to compete in general.
ETA, I should say, I didn’t compete – back in the day. I don’t even lease now, just take lessons.
I know many people who don’t show and many people who do. I always go back and forth. As a junior I showed a lot and did IHSA in college. Then I took a long break. Now I am at a place where I do want to show again next summer. Don’t let your age stop you. Many schooling shows in my area (I haven’t showed or been to a rated in a hot minute) have classes for beginner adults.
