[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8898318]
I’ve been wanting to go for a few years but the QH shows in my area never offer any o/f classes, just western and hunter under saddle 
Is it safe to assume if you regularly pin at A or AA shows you’d likely be competitive at a QH show?
ETA - just saw that you don’t have to qualify for Congress?![/QUOTE]
#SugarCubesfor2017Congress!
[QUOTE=mvp;8895198]
Been to the Congress once. The horses are unbelievably broke and tolerant. The chaos and crowds at those shows (getting to the ring and the warm up rings) are way beyond what you’d see at a USEF hunter/jumper show. And the horses do their job amid that anyway.
I came home impressed and humbled by those horses. I can’t tell whether it’s breeding for a great mind or good training that makes those AQHAs tune all else out and listen to their rider. But they raised the bar for me.
Also, the equitation tests I saw there took an impressive page from the Breed Show book: Riders were asked to do things that we usually don’t see until you get to Big Eq, if then. I’m thinking of cantering slaloms among cones and changing leads every four strides or so. The riders also had to be dead accurate with respect to where they made transitions. Again, you don’t see those things asked of horses in USEF or USDF dressage tests until they are farther along.[/QUOTE]
Eh, having been around the biggest names in AQHA for several years now, I’d say if you saw how the sausage was made, you’d be less impressed.
That said, AQHA hunters have come a long way - they certainly seem to be on the right track.
eh…dont turn on the live feed now 
No. Not necessarily.
At a breed show, conformation and type matter more in the eyes of some judges and in some breeds actually makes up a percentage of the total score. And that’s fair enough at a breed show. It depends on your judge, some are cow horse types stuck 40 years in the past others are right up there with AA circuit judges. Know your judge. Congress usually gets mostly good ones.
Dont kid yourself conformation and type don’t figure into the placing in any subjectively judged discipline, even if it’s not officially part of the scoring. Know your judges.
That said, if you are pinning regularly at A and AA levels, you won’t be out of place trying out the QH shows at a good show with good judges and be scored appropriately.
Oh, yeah. I’m sure the making of the dead broke sausage is hard on 'em.
I’m sure some trainers are tough on them but honestly after what I’ve seen in the regular hunters too some of it is also many have been bred to have better brains and deal with it better.
So I say it depends too, I’ve seen what the top hunters do too, top eventers etc I haven’t seen a decipline free from poor horsemanship at the top level.
When I was a junior, there was a girl I competed against on the West Coast who took her fancy, fancy junior hunters to Congress and won. Like, she won Jr Hunter Finals and then went to Congress and won. Super horses!
[QUOTE=whbar158;8898531]
I’m sure some trainers are tough on them but honestly after what I’ve seen in the regular hunters too some of it is also many have been bred to have better brains and deal with it better.
So I say it depends too, I’ve seen what the top hunters do too, top eventers etc I haven’t seen a decipline free from poor horsemanship at the top level.[/QUOTE]
This is perhaps a rant for another time and place, but I will just say that I have worked for “breed” people, and it is worlds away from how “we” treat our hunters and train them. I’m talking tie it’s bit to the horn of a western saddle and leave it in the field. And I know that isn’t just the guy I worked for (briefly. so, so briefly). :no:
[QUOTE=AgainstAllOdds;8898323]
#SugarCubesfor2017Congress![/QUOTE]
:lol::lol: I would LOVE to go! I’m sure it’s a completely different experience than your typical h/j show.
[QUOTE=Rumorhasit93;8898558]
This is perhaps a rant for another time and place, but I will just say that I have worked for “breed” people, and it is worlds away from how “we” treat our hunters and train them. I’m talking tie it’s bit to the horn of a western saddle and leave it in the field. And I know that isn’t just the guy I worked for (briefly. so, so briefly). :no:[/QUOTE]
Yeah, pretty much.
Having been around the big names in both, there’s plenty of bad in both, but what is widely accepted on the A Circuit doesn’t hold a candle to what is SOP in the big AQHA barns.
Definitely a topic for a different thread, though. There are also AQHA trainers that I have a lot of respect for.
[QUOTE=Cascades;8898574]
Yeah, pretty much.
Having been around the big names in both, there’s plenty of bad in both, but what is widely accepted on the A Circuit doesn’t hold a candle to what is SOP in the big AQHA barns.
Definitely a topic for a different thread, though. There are also AQHA trainers that I have a lot of respect for.[/QUOTE]
100%. There’s always good and bad in both, as with anything.
I went many years ago. You don’t have to qualify. I took my 5 year old green jumper and a pony I was doing the Children’s Jumpers with. We won and were third in the jumpers and I got a Crosby saddle! The prizes are fantastic, I don’t know what they are giving away these days now that Millers is defunct.
The show is a lot of fun and the shopping is phenomenal. Just amazing! I still have the most gorgeous Ptychley coat I bought there – slate blue with tiny pinstripes of iridescent green and purple. It is so subtle and pretty. The material has almost a sea green sheen in the light. a couple decades later and I can’t fit in it, but I kept it because it is my favorite show jacket of all time.
I didn’t do the stupid night schooling in the ring. I just did the working hunters as a warmup the day before which was a total joke, since my horses were definitely not hunters at all. I was more than willing to pay the $25 entry fee for each horse to spend a minute in the ring and not have to get up at 2 am to do it. My horses were also very used to going in strange rings, though, as both showed in the jumpers a lot already and we never got a chance to go school in the rings.
One thing they care about is they really don’t want to see the Youth Hunters being exuberant at all. It needs to be broke, broke, broke to do well. Now it seems like USEF shows penalize for that too. and have all the tails. All the bad stuff about the QH hunters trickled down to the USEF hunters! what a shame.
[QUOTE=Cascades;8898326]
Eh, having been around the biggest names in AQHA for several years now, I’d say if you saw how the sausage was made, you’d be less impressed.
That said, AQHA hunters have come a long way - they certainly seem to be on the right track.[/QUOTE]
While I agree, I’d say this is the truth of pretty much every discipline so not really a need to bring it up here.
Also fortraktor it isn’t the aqha world destroying a circuit hunters. Silliness.
[QUOTE=roseymare;8896511]
Glad to see the nice words for the QH hunters[/QUOTE]
They are the ultimate amateur friendly hunters and I don’t know why more people haven’t realized it!
Don’t forget QHs are often born broke, genetically predisposed to face chaos that would send a typical TB into a dither and…challenge…most WBs with “Gee look at that thing making all that noise, what do you want me to do for you now”?
Know that’s a generalization but had enough of all of them to know there is more then a little truth to it. Just somehow less complicated then the others from day one.
[QUOTE=fordtraktor;8898642]
I went many years ago. You don’t have to qualify. I took my 5 year old green jumper and a pony I was doing the Children’s Jumpers with. We won and were third in the jumpers and I got a Crosby saddle! The prizes are fantastic, I don’t know what they are giving away these days now that Millers is defunct.
The show is a lot of fun and the shopping is phenomenal. Just amazing! I still have the most gorgeous Ptychley coat I bought there – slate blue with tiny pinstripes of iridescent green and purple. It is so subtle and pretty. The material has almost a sea green sheen in the light. a couple decades later and I can’t fit in it, but I kept it because it is my favorite show jacket of all time.
I didn’t do the stupid night schooling in the ring. I just did the working hunters as a warmup the day before which was a total joke, since my horses were definitely not hunters at all. I was more than willing to pay the $25 entry fee for each horse to spend a minute in the ring and not have to get up at 2 am to do it. My horses were also very used to going in strange rings, though, as both showed in the jumpers a lot already and we never got a chance to go school in the rings.
One thing they care about is they really don’t want to see the Youth Hunters being exuberant at all. It needs to be broke, broke, broke to do well. Now it seems like USEF shows penalize for that too. and have all the tails. All the bad stuff about the QH hunters trickled down to the USEF hunters! what a shame.[/QUOTE]
What’s funny is I thought many of the horses I saw go in the novice hunter o/f had more pace than the hunters I’ve seen at the top USEF shows lately. Saw some head shakes, and horses moving up to a distance etc much better than whenever I last watched which I will admit was probably at least 5 years ago if not more.
Don’t got to live feed now…it’s WP. :eek::no: Poor little broken looking horses.
of course they aren’t destroying it. I just think it’s so funny how USEF people used to really mock the QH hunters for the tails and how metronome-like the horses are. It’s ironic.
[QUOTE=whbar158;8898714]
What’s funny is I thought many of the horses I saw go in the novice hunter o/f had more pace than the hunters I’ve seen at the top USEF shows lately. Saw some head shakes, and horses moving up to a distance etc much better than whenever I last watched which I will admit was probably at least 5 years ago if not more.[/QUOTE]
yeah, they’ll be heavily penalized for the head shakes, though, especially in Novice. At least they used to be, maybe it is changing.
[QUOTE=whbar158;8898714]
What’s funny is I thought many of the horses I saw go in the novice hunter o/f had more pace than the hunters I’ve seen at the top USEF shows lately. Saw some head shakes, and horses moving up to a distance etc much better than whenever I last watched which I will admit was probably at least 5 years ago if not more.[/QUOTE]
This doesn’t surprise me much. Perception of pace depends on the scope/stride of the horse. For instance, my TB will always look faster than my friend’s WB, who was smaller but had a massive stride (as observed by Greg Best). They were taking the same number of strides in the lines, but my horse just made it look faster.
Very true. We used to mock the slowness of the QH and the crazy fake tails. Now it’s all over USHJA…
I do love me a good QH (although I’m not so sure a 7/8 TB should be allowed to be considered a QH…but that is also a different thread)
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