Maybe the logo is a bit too similar to the organization they are trying to compete with?
Looks like their first show is Jan 11-12 at Katy. Are others shceduled?
Horse people âweâre tired of all the price hikes and unenforced rules and we have nowhere to cheaply show our young horses. we wish someone would create a new show series.â
Also Horse People âNo, not like that.â
Tough crowd, horse people
Though, some of these are valid questions
Certain people â Business opportunity! Collect fees and email addresses!
Whatâs the rather old saying? âIf you canât blaze them with brilliance, then baffle them with bullshit.â
There is so, so, so much of that in the horse world. Because there is so little oversight and enforcement outside of major organizations. COTH alone has many outings of fraudulent or semi-fraudulent âtrainersâ and âprogramsâ and even one full-blown but non-existent lesson & show facility. With bogus promotional photos of âcustomersâ showing their horses, all ganked from the web, as was revealed by COTH. And one or two fly-by-night âtraining barnsâ recruiting customers to âpay up-frontâ. Although not so much in the last few years, I suppose. Although there is the one âtrainerâ not so long ago that was starving horses âin trainingâ ending up in a horse death and an enraged owner.
Or maybe this group just got out over their skis, going public before they were ready. That happens, sometimes.
Yeah, but coming from a 25 year career in logo design I can see why they went with this:
- You need a horse reference in your iconography and this horse is very different to the USEF
- The colors of the US flag reference the location of competitions and the âUnitedâ in the name
- As for the wordmark being red + blue in that order, in a (similar but different) sans serif title font, Iâd have to assume an intentional choice thatâs pointed.
Maybe itâs the word 'flakey" that I donât associate with any of this. Here it means unreliable or, more rarely, unconventional - maybe it has a different meaning elsewhere.
And maybe itâs the dig at a group who are trying to start something new that the US horse industry really needs that Iâm responding to. Why tear them down?
This is getting some buzz. From my FB feedâŠ.(I cut out the identifying info but it came across from a friend)
I actually hope they are successful. I wish we had these in middle TN. Maybe some day if they are successful! I wish the organization much luck.
Drug testing and keeping Safe Sport banned people out need to be addressed.
Otherwise it sounds like a good idea. I hope they are successful.
Thatâs what Iâm hoping - we could really use an alternative to USEF. Some regions already have it for the 3â3" and under crowd, some are pretty sparse.
I remember the excitement around NSBA with the whole WEC thing.
I donât see any evidence of this yet though, but at least you donât think itâs a scam anymore
Never, ever assume what I think â please.
I did not say that I no longer thought it was a scam â or that I definitely do think it is a scam. I think that all of my posts are clear that it might, or might not, be a scam.
Their approach to the public as we have seen it in this thread still raises multiple major red flags for me. Much of what they are doing is exactly what scammers do. Everything in my initial âred flag warningâ post is still true. Especially, even now, still not one human name appears on the website. Not one verification of credibility. No bona fides, whatsoever.
Who launches like that, with no bona fides? Scammers who canât get those verifications, thatâs who. Seen it. Doesnât mean they are scammers, but most definitely puts up a âcautionâ sign.
It is also possible that they are well-intentioned, but are not handling their intro to the GP in the best way.
This club launch may be real. But it may not be.
Everyone loves the idea, including me. But this is the very thing that scammers rely on the most.
Scammers are not the best liars in the world. What they are is the best at identifying something that other people want enough, those people will talk themselves into it, ignoring obvious concerns.
All scams depend on the targets loving the idea. Loving it so much, they put aside their caution. Targets follow leads that they normally would not. Because they want the thing to be true that badly. I am seeing a lot of that in comments in this thread.
Is that what is happening with UDJC? I have no idea. But there are still a lot of red flags all over it.
Maybe the originators are honest, but just clumsy, and/or donât know as much as they think they do about public communications. Maybe they stay inside their own information silo where no one challenges their missing pieces. Maybe they love the love that their idea is receiving so much, they are feeding off that and ignoring every other need.
They still arenât passing the public image competency test.
Excuses donât launch organizations. Execution does.
Great SW still doesnât have UDJC dates up. UDJC should never have gone public until Great SW had those in place on their public website. This is core public image 101, and they donât seem to know it. Whatever the reason.
Their show is now actively being advertised in very active FB hunter/jumper sales groups for TX. If itâs a scam, Iâm sure someone will out it soonâŠâŠ
If anyone in this thread shows in the show, or just goes to take a look, please post your photos in this thread. And your comments. Then we will definitely know more.
If I can reasonably go check for myself, I will. I am scheduled for work on both days so not sure if I can. It will be at least a 45 min drive from where I am â close if Iâm showing there, a bit far for a check-in. Especially if I canât get there until later in the afternoon after they may be done. As a first show it would probably have limited entries.
My take is that itâs a good idea, especially in areas that donât have similar offerings. Or if you need something that will produce a show record for a sale horse.
I probably wouldnât pay for another set of memberships in order to do it and would ideally like to see one or two shows in person or hear about it from a reliable friend before forking over memberships. But someone who wanted to do several of them might.
I wish them success. I understand the warranted need to protect ourselves. But my goodness. We canât cry about the current showing conditions in the US and at the same time make someone trying to do something different feel unwelcome.
Iâm not in Texas and have no dog in this fight, as it were. Iâm just curious.
Does this venue often miss a calendar update? Perhaps a late booking? They have other events for 2025, but not this one. Maybe a Facebook page that updates more than the site? If I was in any way relevant to the show ground Iâd reach out to them and just ask. Maybe someone can. I know that depending on the organization these venues can be tough to communicate with but ours are pretty good at answering the phone or email for basic questions like âis there an event for X organization on Y date?â.
I will say that if this is a legit org, and wants to be taken seriously, some PR and media literacy improvements need to be made. Both on the site and in online communication. Itâs a skill, and a valuable one, but so far this has been a clunky start. It would be one thing if this was another unrated circuit pulling from local barns for fun shows, but itâs another for something that is marketing itself to a higher level.
ETA everyone starts somewhere. But I too am a little wary of the site, and if I was in the area and interested in the show I would be calling the venue and likely not attending the first event(s). Iâd want âproofâ itâs legit before sending any entires/memberships/etc. That also makes it hard to get this off the ground if people are too wary to sign up! An organization needs to build some confidence first. Itâs very common for local small unrated circuits to grow into state/regional circuits as more people get involved and demand goes up, but those have proven themselves as reliable known entities. They didnât come out the gate with little info on who runs it and what is being offered.
I would not be as worried about that. The local connections seem solid enough that I donât think getting shows accomplished and drawing entries will be a huge hurdle for them. Itâs the âorganization and growthâ beyond a show series that I think will be the hard partâŠâŠ
So many people lament the costs here and how hard it is to develop a horse and get miles, and itâs all so much cheaper and better in Europe. And why canât we have an organization for national competition thatâs separate from international? And what happened to smaller weekend rated shows? Why does my show bill need to subsidize the requirement for 6 rings each with separate schooling areas and a Jumbotron?
So here is an attempt to provide a European type model at known venues with standardized class specifications over a weekend, and here people are all like, no we donât like that! People will cheat! Or itâs got to be a scam!
America at its finest đ«€