If you followed the conversation, we were talking about horses who would never even come close to winning the hack because of how they moved. Great over fences horses, canter was fine, but had a trot like a sewing machine so we did not want the judge seeing that very sound but ugly trot before they could enjoy the nice jump.
Pretty darn simple, nothing nefarious.
Not everyone can have a good moving hack horse.
So funny how something that seems so obvious can be twisted so much.
My guess is because it isnât someone with show experience in the hunters. I knew exactly what they saying ( and groaned bc the response is not a shock) literally told my friend this when we were trianerless at WEC- trot as little as you can, get your canter ASAP, great canter- terrible trot. (not a class you needed to, lower level)
Your guess would be incorrect. I spent a couple of decades showing hunters including on a horse with not a great trot. Another decade-plus on the jumper side. Multiple Zone HOYT awards since apparently we all have to provide our credentials.
It comes from my disillusionment with the hunter industry and having witnessed what some (note Iâm not saying all) trainers/riders/owners will do in terms of drugging or other practices in order to compete their horses. With all the demonstrated bad behavior proven by drug infractions and the USEF feeling the need to further crackdown on collapses, euthanasia meds, and possible class limits the trust in the hunter industry in at a pretty low level. The industry seems unwilling to hold BNTs or others accountable, so yes, that was the first explanation that came to my mind.
I get that you are angry, but this paragraph is confusing to me.
If we were talking about drugged horses, then them not being sound would not matter, because the whole point of drugging then is to make them look sound, isnât that what all the threads say?
I guess my delusion is because we did not < insert all the things so many posters insist every/almost everyone does >.
I guess since my background is so different than yours, I wrongly assumed my training reminding me to not show the judge that horrible trot (because it was so not a hunter trot) in my over fences classes would not be taken as anything more than that.
Some people drug to mask lameness, although it seems thereâs a lot of drugging for quietness versus lameness these days.
Some people use other methods, maybe the allowed dosages arenât enough for that horse. When jogs used to be a thing some horses might get ice applied before the jog to provide short term immediate pain relief. USEF recently put rules in place regarding shockwave administration which can provide short term pain relief. People are sadly creative in this space.
I hope that those bad actors are held to account so that you can enjoy your hunter (bad trot and all 
) on a slightly more level playing field.
I can believe ghstâs original reply was a quick, jaded, knee-jerk response. That saidâŠ
Itâs a good reminder not to believe everything you hear. Say someone equally jaded overhears trubâs trainer telling her, âgo straight to canter, do not trotâ at the ingate, and all the wrong assumptions are leapt to. Now everyone going walk > canter is eyed with suspicion and gossip, an incorrect assessment of how many showing horses are lame is made, and the jadedness is reinforced without any productive outcome.
Same as someone seeing Trainer X with a syringe of adequan, immediately assuming foul intent, and incorrectly concluding that every horse with Trainer X is nefariously drugged. Theyâre left with the impression that there are more drugged show horses than there really are, which is counter-productive to the cause and often leads to baby/bathtub scenarios.
Some of the confuzzlement is possibly due to the passage of time. When dinosaurs walked the earth you could send your classic (i.e.ancient) eq horse into the finals on two bute twice a day and Adequan hadnât been invented. This would normally only happen for Penn and New York. These days you canât dose like that or stack meds, so it is much less likely that a large-boned cartilage-free Hanoverian sent here from Europe to find a bute-adjacent job will be entered. Thatâs good, right? That being said, those beasts, and I mean some finals winners, were spared a quick trip to Italy on the cull wagon and rounded out their days in a green field.
I agree with ghstâs post.
Yes, as the person who asked the question, I have zero experience with hunters. But I can see leaving out the hack if the horse has a bad trot. Not possible in dressage!
I just want to re-iterate that nothing I wrote was meant to be a comment about specific individuals on this board. And I can relate to having one of those horses with a very non-hunter trot. I apologize to @trubandloki if they felt attacked in any way.
I would like nothing more than to get back to a place where I wouldnât feel the need for that jaded, cynical view, but lately it seems thereâs a some new bad act being brought into the spotlight every few months. I fully support efforts to identify and hold bad actors in the industry accountable so it can be enjoyed fully by all.
I felt very slightly attacked but got over it quickly.
The horse in question was a hot OTTB that was very successful in the jumpers and eventing. For the latter a lot of hard work got him to the point that we might be last after dressage, but within one cross country refusal of the leaders. I showed him in eq and hunters in our local, mostly unrated, shows bc I was poor and I could ride him to the show. Yes, you read that right. I rode my horse to the show, showed, and rode home. In the 1980s. Talk about an inexpensive day. The unrated shows had one jumper class so I did the other stuff for fun and practice. We were somewhat more successful in the eq even though he had a tendency to enter the ring sideways like a revved up gymkhana horse.
I guess youâve all earned a photo after reading all that.
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