Little OT but I was reading InStride about nationals. In the article it seems a competing rider donated her horse for use in the competition and she drew her own horse to compete on for a title win? Haven’t done IHSA in a long time. Is that allowed now days?
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That hasn’t been against the rules in the time I’ve been involved in IHSA (~22 years). As long as the draw is random, it’s all good.
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Just feel it defeats the purpose of catch riding. But I guess it goes with host school riding their own horses. Just thought at this point in time we could come up with fresh horses for nationals for everybody.
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It’s is extremely difficult to find enough horses for the national show.
Honestly, my experience has been that rarely does someone drawing their own horse do particularly well in IHSA. They get caught up in trying to “show” the horse instead of focusing on their own position and effectiveness.
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My horse has featured in a number of IEA shows. I brought him to IEA Zones both because they were legitimately short on good Open draws but also, and not least, because if my sister had lucky fingers she had the potential to draw him. It didn’t work. Jacob Pope drew him, and naturally, that’s the reason he made it to Nationals.
I’ve always figured if you draw your own horse it’s more pressure. You damn well better win.
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I vaguely remember having horses like this, particularly in IEA, with height minimums to prevent exactly that.
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Interesting. I don’t know so much about IHSA, but I ride in what I describe as an adult catch riding beer league that is very much based off of IHSA (and has a lot of IHSA alumni competing in it or coaching teams or running the actual league, but also since everyone has to be 21+ there is also actual beer, hence the beer league part). And one of their rules is that an owner or a leaser cannot draw their own horse in a show.
Being a casual beer league, there’s some flexibility in that. But with catch ride leagues, I really don’t think owners or leasers should be able to ride their own horses, That said, my free lease horse got used in one show and my instructor wanted to have him be available for me despite him being my lease and I was like, “I don’t want the pressure of knowing him so well and likely still messing up! Put me on a horse I don’t know as well! Less pressure!”
(My lease wound up being a trouble maker at that show mostly because two weeks later he got diagnosed with lyme disease, which wound up explaining everything. Poor guy).
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Yup, this is accurate! It happens regionally occasionally but the other commenters are correct in that it’s extremely difficult to find appropriate horses for IHSA, so if we have a student who can provide one, and it suits our needs, we’ll use them!
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Happens all the time in IEA and IHSA. Whats funny is they don’t always win!
Also, in general the host team does well because the horses are horses they’ve all ridden and know well so it would be a fine line with leasers. Some may not be currently leasing but have in the past. Impossible to cover all situations.
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Thanks for checking in! Not yet - I emailed the regional president but haven’t heard back yet. I am sure they are busy prepping for the season!
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What zone and region are you? I’ll contact that RP and get after them to answer you - I control the purse strings 
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Haha, thanks but I wouldn’t want to throw them under the bus! 
Gorgeous pair, this is an amazing photo!
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Thank you!
I still haven’t heard back from the Region President, but I reached out to another coach, and she confirmed that while the first spring show has a “blanket” weight limit (due to smaller schoolies across the board), the second show—and generally, this region—does not. Instead, only certain horses have weight limits, and if a rider exceeds the height/weight limit, they will be assigned any horse not on that restricted list. They will still be able to ride.
Sort of related question: In your region, when do they typically send out the show schedule? Do you at least know the dates at the beginning of the school year? I’ve been struggling to get dates from the Region President here and wasn’t sure if she’s just busy or if show dates and locations are usually confirmed only a few weeks in advance. She just sent a group email last week with the schedule for shows happening this weekend and next—which seems a bit last-minute?
Show schedules should be set before the start of the year and distributed to all coaches. Please PM me so I can assist you with getting on track in your region.
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