Right. I could move into central PA and live in a home that cost $60k… and still be struggling to find a good trainer and facility (now even rarer, because we’re out in the lower income boonies where HJ is not the popular discipline). Properties with horse barns and pastures on them are still going for $500k+ in central PA.
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Who’s gonna tell her? 
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Right. I got lambasted on one of these boards in college for suggesting I buy a new saddle using a credit card but then you have folks doing stuff like that. It’s irresponsible if you’re not rich but it’s an “investment” if you’re spending fives figures.
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OK, so N = 1. So what?
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wtf? that is rediculous, how many people have they just cut off because they aren’t doing the whole trainer program where the whole barn goes to everything for the whole show? You can’t be the only person who just wants to trailer in and do a class or two at a few shows as convenient?
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People were trying to explain this was all sorts of not good. Really, really trying (She’d already put down a payment and signed a contract, supposedly.) I do not think we succeeded.
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Hey, way to move the goal posts! So now, it’s not good enough that I can afford to have a horse and show on the local circuit on a middle class budget. Now, I also have to have purchased a home in the last year on my middle class budget as well as have a horse and show on the local circuit on said middle class budget.
You all are really determined to invalidate my personal experiences, aren’t you? 
Repeating myself, yet again, I don’t doubt that all of you folks saying that your life circumstances have put horse ownership and showing out of reach are telling the truth. My issue is the repeated insistence that nobody who isn’t rich could possibly afford to have a horse and go to horse shows, because I know that claim is not correct.
I really do not understand why my existence as a middle class income person who owns a horse and goes to horse shows is so threatening to you all that you feel compelled to insist that I can’t possibly be telling the truth.
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I’m not sure anyone is saying that. I certainly acknowledge that some middle income people under very certain circumstancrs can afford a horse. What we’re saying is your situation is neither universal nor achievable for many people for reasons outside their control.
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I know it’s crazy. You can go but you have to pay the stabling which is like $280 or something silly!
So just two classes ends up costing over $500. Then I have to travel because I don’t live in horse country, and that’s about $200 in gas. So to do a few recognized jumpers classes I’m looking at $700 minimum. Insane.
If you’re managing “circuit showing” and a few weeks at destination shows I’d say you’re doing a lot better than most. That seems to go back to @NoSuchPerson’s observation that there’s an expectation that one must be with full service barn and going to big AA destination shows to participate as an amateur. There’s nothing that says that you have to travel to Tryon, Kentucky, Aiken, etc to enjoy competing on the H/J circuit. That’s a personal choice that you are making for a particular showing experience, it doesn’t mean you can’t show at rated shows for less cost.
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I am enjoying hearing the perspectives here. I don’t know. For me it comes down to a larger issue of wanting what we do not or cannot have. I wish this were not the case for me, but it is. I’m middle aged and am lucky to be happy personally and professionally, but this doesn’t stop me from feeling a little jealous when I see 22 year olds recently graduated from college spending the entire winter in Florida riding 3 or 4 horses on their parents’ dime. But this is the same feeling I get when I’m in the jetbridge at our city airport frequented by rich people and hear parents with their kids in serious conversation whether to go to Dubai for spring break or during the summer. Then I go to work and all of these thoughts seem asinine, since there people are happy to go to the east coast beaches for vacations and have never even sat on a horse. So yeah, then I feel like an idiot, and thank god for that! And then I go to a horse show and wish I had the hack winner, the 10 jumper every time, and tons of free time to practice. Its stupid and only human!
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they try the same nonsense here with “you must have a stall” - um I live 45 mins away, my trailer is a stock - my horses are just fine to hang out in the box stall in the trailer and go home after their classes, get some turnout and spend the night in their own stall with their own herdmates
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Um. Barn owner here.
WIth the rising costs of everything, it’s the only way a lot of barns are surviving. You say “more” profitable…you should say “actually profitable”.
I finally went to a full training OR lessoning model because I was not only tired of making minus $5/hour (that’s right, I was paying for the privilege of having boarders here) but I also was tired of risking life and limb to manage their horses that they weren’t putting the training into and didn’t have the qualifications to manage.
Anyhow, I just wanted to point out that this model of adding mandatory training/lessoning is a stopgap - keeping barns afloat that would otherwise go to development. It’s not trainers and barn owners wanting to make bank.
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Yeah if I can event out of my trailer then I can showjump two rounds out of it lol. Plus my trailer is nicer than the stalls hahaha
So annoying and I know I’m more privileged than most, but I just want to go to a GOOD jumper show with good jumps and footing and not have to pay $700 lol
I don’t know if any of these are near you (I think you’re east of the GTA), but have you seen what’s going on with the schooling series? Prelude (SW Ontario), Sugarbush (KW), and Niagara are doing a whole “championship qualifying show” thing this year, in Ancaster.
I went to a few of the Prelude shows last year, and compared to our dying Trillium (Silver/B) circuit, they were hopping.
Last year they actually ran more shows than Trillium, and divisions were full… 12-15 in Hack, a couple dozen in 2’3" hunters (bigger divisions, fewer people, but the parking area at all the shows I attended was sardined).
Gas aside, I can get in and out for around $75 for a division… In decent footing (not fancy), with decent judges, and decent prizes (Ogilvy baby pad, HUGE rosette, fancy belt for a division champion).
Maybe it’s regional, but in SW Ontario, schooling shows appear to be doing well. Although this is a version of Ontario that only goes as far west as London…
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This is such a shit idea. I don’t really even show but this makes me so mad. Its such a gate-keeper move and feels like nothing other than a money-grab. Does the H/J world really have its head this far up its you know what???ugh
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I mean… of course it does… have you seen how many people have not been Safesported that probably should have been 20 years ago and are still walking around the horse shows and making a fine business there? Everyone talks about it in hushed voices and sidechats, but no one is really making any moves to change it.
We’ve discussed on many threads how we pay for stalls, training, and care at both home and away with no accounting for the overlap in time or the fact that there technically is no shavings/feed/care/training going on at home while we’re away for 2 weeks. But we all do it bc it’s just what is done.
We pay out 5 figures in commissions (up to 20%) for 6 figure horses. That does not happen in the real world. My sales job in the real world does not pay me 25k in commissions for a 125k transaction. These days, I’m lucky to see a 10k commission check for that amount and even then… it’s taking upwards of 3-6 months to complete the sale, whereas there are situations where it’s taking these trainers no more than 2-3 weeks… start to finish. With padded price tags and added agents and commissions stuffed in there.
The whole thing is absurd, yet we do it because we love the sport and the animals. I wish I had a magic solution to fix it, but it seems that the customer is always going to be at the mercy of the trainers and the industry.
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That sounds super fun but that’s about 4.5hrs from me. I live in the WORST horsey area. Nothing around here and everything is 2-5hrs away 
I would move but I have an amazing farm here for myself that I would never be able to get anywhere else. Eventually I hope to bring Eventing to this area again.
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There’s a big dressage center around here that demands everyone gets a stall, even for the one day shows. Depending on where they park, some people can get away with not buying a stall and using their trailer; I’ve done it. My horse was perfectly comfortable in her trailer with hay and water available. No stall to break down or strip and I saved the day stall fee. Can’t remember what it was but at least $50.
So much depends on what is meant by “make it in this sport.” But it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the answer is pretty much always yes.
I recently came back into horse ownership after 10 years, and it is staggering how expensive everything is. I am not in a full service situation, and I am knowledgeable and able to do a lot myself. My horse was not outrageously expensive. I ride in a 25-year-old saddle and buy used blankets and show clothes, do my own braiding and bodyclipping, etc. But just basic board, vet bills, farrier, and lesson fees approach a middle-class income all on their own. Once you start adding competitions, it adds up really really fast. I have relatively modest ambitions, and I am not trying to compete at the highest levels, not trying to qualify for indoors, etc. But I do want to be competitive at my chosen level, and every time I look at my budget spreadsheet, I can’t believe it. I actually find myself inclining towards the vacation destination types of shows that some posters are decrying, because I certainly can’t afford to go to less-nice horse shows AND go on non-horse vacations.
If you want to be really competitive in the highest levels of our sport, you need multiple animals with talent, the ability to travel and compete extensively, and access to really great coaching. There is no non-$$$$ way to do that. (There is also a limit to how much you can realistically DIY at competitions if you work a normal job or go to a normal school and can’t just take four days off a week every time you show.)
I get that lots of other sports are expensive too, but there is really no comparison between riding and even the most elite, absurd levels of sports like soccer, because riding has all the expensive travel, training, and competition fees PLUS the costs of acquiring, maintaining, transporting, and housing horses.
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