How about a max number of classes annually/monthly? Would allow for the add scratch bit, easier to track. Would not, however, prevent the jackass from entering a million classes in one week. Perhaps would slow some of the worst offenders down, though?
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The big shows can give you a pretty good estimate, and the math isnât hard. Itâs unnecessary ring holds that delay the day, and good shows REALLY try not to allow that (people have complained very vocally about it). Small shows and local shows sometimes donât have the guts/teeth to enforce the gate and THOSE are where you get crazy delays.
Sure I may not be able to tell you itâll be 11:07am when kiddo will ride, but I usually can get it within the hour at the well run shows.
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MOST of the larger rated shows cut off adds the evening before (5 pm). So after Iâm done showing for the day I need to think about if I need to adjust my plan for the next day pretty quickly but I donât have to decide weeks out. I can look on horseshowing.com and see the approx start time of my division, which is usually pretty much spot on. Then I go to the ring that morning and I put my name in the rotation with the ring steward. 2 minutes a round, so many minutes for a flat, so many minutes for a drag and water, Iâm in the 3rd rotation, etc and the ring steward can give me a pretty dang accurate time of when I should show up ready to go even with a scratch. If Iâm planning on scratching I let the ring steward know (always keep your ring steward happy), then I go onto the website and I scratch before the division ends if I want my money back.
You really see more of the empty rings at the smaller/local shows where the show doesnât feel like they have the teeth to stand up to someone.
I think you get more people entering more classes the first day because the show wants approx class sizes ahead of time and you might want to feel your horse out on Friday. Then you might get more scratches on Sunday as people are tired, their horses were good, and they want to leave early.
A BIG issue is that 4 long stirrup rounds is vastly less taxing on a horse than 4 1.20 jumper rounds. I know that they are discussing limiting classes, and I think that it should happen, probably with it being wrapped up in post. If people know that they will get in trouble later then they can add as many classes as they want and make sure they scratch enough that day to hit their limit. Then whatever consequence we want to impose would happen after.
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I showed a few weeks ago and the ring steward was within 10 minutes every single time with 60 people in my division. It was amazing and she was incredible. As soon as trainers know the stewards arenât messing around they magically show up on time 
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At a bigger show there are essentially no day-of adds. The schedule they send out the evening before is generally pretty accurate so you have a really good idea by then. I do show jumpers, but when Iâve gone to watch friends do hunters itâs not too bad.
One-day shows are a bit more random but, if youâve been doing it long enough, you can make a reasonable guess. Yes, if you donât show in an early division youâre likely to be there awhile. For a horse needing miles that you want to get in and out, you can enter the first division which will generally be suitable for that situation, warm up and be ready to do your rounds when the show starts, bang out 2-3 rounds, and be out of there by 9 am. And you can plan on that happening weeks out. It might mean doing open instead of ammy or a hunter round instead of a jumper round.
Every discipline has delays, even dressage shows.
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Yes, thatâs true, but the only delays Iâve ever seen were for weather (lightning) or an injury to a horse or rider that caused a ring to be unusable for a period of time. Snow, hail, sleet, downpours (and Iâve seen them all), the show goes on.
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A dressage judge that takes extra time to write comments, or several people in a row not entering right at the bell can cause a dressage ring to run behind pretty quickly.
People getting their qualifications in their first test of the day can also cause a lot of afternoon scratches leading to an empty ring.
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Is everyone you?
Because clearly other people handle it just fine.
I sometimes entered more than one division, to then figure out what division was working for us at that show and scratch the other division.
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I had that happen when I showed at the end of the day and, IIRC, ended up being the last two rides of the day. They were astonished when I was willing to move up for the first and absolutely flabbergasted (âare you sure?!?â) when I offered to go right back in for the second ride.
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I will say that sorting out ride times for small dressage shows is a nightmare. People being multiple horses and need time to warm them up, switch tack etc. so you canât run classes consecutively most times. And you always get special requests or you happen to know someone is looking for a score or always scratches their last test. God forbid someone wants to do a freestyle
You would need a super computer to do it automatically as itâs iterative so most is done by hand.
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Yes, freestyles caused most of the delays I remember, though this was in an era with less sophisticated technology.
One show decided to let the one freestyle person go first. Unfortunately there was considerable low fog that morning and the extension cords (!) that they ran from an outlet in the barn out to the ring didnât work bc the plugs got wet. It was a 45-minute delay and I was on a young horse who got pissed off when I asked him to pick up the trot after waiting and bucked me off.
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It isnât the logistical nightmare itâs being made out to be.
First, only a small number of people actually do this once the show is under way. It is more common when they want you to place your entries in the Tuesday of the week before the start of the show and people just put in multiple classes. It is mostly sorted out the Tuesday before the start of the show you have a pretty good idea.
And second, it typically doesnât extend the show dayâin fact, it can sometimes shorten it slightly.
More often than not, the time evens out.
This is more common in divisions where riders or horses are less experienced, you still have refusals, fall-offs, and other delays that naturally fill in the gaps left by scratches. Think 120 trips at the 2 foot hunters. For every one or 2 that scratch, another is dumping its rider or refusing 
(I say with love) This practice is less common in the âbigger classesâ (not saying it doesnât happen but it happens less).
Of all the things that need to be cleaned up, add/scratch isnât really one of them
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I agree with Enjoy the Ride. At Hunter/Jumper shows, there can be as many as 10 or 12 rings going all the time. One barn/trainer can show up with 20/30/40 horses, competing in multiple divisions with multiple clients. Closing entries 2 weeks out in order to assign ride times would be virtually impossible. The length of time for an entry to complete the course varies from division to division and any trainer can have customers competing in multiple rings at the same time. Assigned times cannot work IMO. Next, trainers and customers should have the options to switch an entry or add or delete an entry lots of reasons. Horse shows depend on this income stream and denying choices will mean competitors will go to someplace more appreciative of the business they bring to the table. Dressage shows are not big profit makers, hunter/jumper shows are.
That might be why Iâve never encountered that in all my years of showing, we donât take young horses to rated shows- we do schooling shows. All of which have class limits locally to stop the people who come and enter every class and jump the legs off their horses.
We used to take our youngsters to schooling shows but then moved to an area of the country where there are very few (close to none!) schooling shows and the only option is to take the young horses to the A rated show series and have them get their mileage there.
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So weird.
This thread makes me think about the local level shows where people show up in the morning, and other than tack changes (if it is one of those mostly flat classes all day with English in the morning and Western in the afternoon), the horses are never gotten off of. A short break for a class they do not qualify for, but there is no way that horse is not going in every class it qualifies for.
Heck, some of them even have an option for pay one price, ride all day.
I have never seen a local show of any type (western, gaming, jumping, etc) that had class limits.
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Many barns are connected via computer to the progress at any given ring. You can do a fairly good estimate of when you need to go to the ring to compete. Additionally, trainers have phone contact with the starters at the rings and it works pretty well. If there are major conflicts between, betwwn rings or a horse loses a show, most exhibitors are willing to be flexible to keep things going.
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What schooling show series do you attend that doesnât allow add/scratch in some form, and has class limits?
Iâve never seen a HJ show that operates like that. They operate like the rated shows, some better or worse depending on how strict the show staff is about keeping things under control.
Even the open shows I attend that are mostly flat classes donât operate like that.
Sure, there are people who go all day long. But most people are reasonable.
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Jumper only schooling shows. I have never seen a schooling jumper show that allowed you to cross enter all classes at every height. You can of course add and scratch because it is schooling and all entries are day of, but there is still some kind of restriction.
These are not local circuit shows, just jumper schooling shows. Local circuit runs like the A circuit except with a lot more Bute and worse judges.
There is also a strong reaction locally against the open shows that let you do every class- that is widely seen as a bad thing at this point. However the all around prize is usually really nice so the incentive is there to do it.
Youâre lucky if youâre in an area that still has enough schooling shows to get green horses miles. We have 1 series in my area. The footing is questionable enough in the jumper ring âIâ wouldnât do above .90s in it. At one point they had the bigger classes on grass but the shows have shrunk and it doesnât warrant that. In this area, itâs got to WEC Ohio or Bravehorse and get the experience with fill etc. Not just the horses, riders, too.
Iâm still mulling the whole- how many is too much, as I think there are factors that go in to making the calls (which I donât think is as complicated as people are claiming. FFS we have specific rules for every damn class and height).
What I bristle at is somewhere a pro said âdoing the pro division on Wed/Thurs and the adult/jr divisions over the weekend is the way weâve always made up these horsesâ to that effect.
Havenât we seen âthe way weâve always done itâ isnât necessarily correct? Or the only way? I guess itâs âthe fastestâ but at what cost? The long term soundness mental or physical?
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