Sort of a spin-off: What just for fun horse show classes have you ridden in or observed?

Welsh shows also. I loved that class when I could borrow a driving horse!

Musical chairs on horseback. When the music stops dismount and find your chair!

Musical chairs, when the music quits you dismount and run to the centerline.

Pick up the can, where you run from start to a can sitting on the ground, dismount, pick it up, mount up an run back.

the kids did egg and spoon and pick up from the top of a barrel and carry it to another.

When you are going fast the equitation goes out the window, I remember that.

One of the gymkhanas I used to go to had a game called “Race and chase”. 3 little jumps set around the outside. Person on foot jumps first, person on horse follows. Timer starts when the runner starts, finishes when the horse finishes… so finishing really close together is most competitive. And entertaining. It was fun watching the faces of the people (usually family) running while looking over their shoulder.

I love those. I showed my nice hunter in one and won. I have a great picture of him in WP horse pose–neck long and ears at his withers. They thought he had a nice lope. Yeah, that’s because this horse has never, ever, ever been allowed to drop his shoulders, even with his nose down low.

My new favorite: At Arabian Sporthorse shows-- Show Hack-- horses are shown in formal attire, some in double bridles. They show in all three gaits at collected, working and extended versions. Like a rail class for upper level dressage horses.

I groomed for a friend who showed her Quarter Horse in a Versatility class like the one above. The mare went western, english and was driven. Again, this was a night class at the Monterey International Horse show in California.

Musical feed bags! Have to love horses spooking at the crunching sound when you jump off.

Love dizzy bat, and adult dizzy bat - gallop down, shotgun a beer, spin with the bat, then jump back on and gallop back to the start line.

Panty hose barrels is also great - horse and rider pairs, riders have to hold the feet part of panty horse and run a barrel pattern - can’t let go of the panty hose.

@bluepece2 You mean you drove a car? Stick shift? I can see that being hard for younger drivers here in the US, that’s for sure.

We do obstacle course / pattern “shows” a couple times a year at my barn - usually 3-4 levels of difficulty. They are actually excellent practice for real dressage tests, which is nice. Also great for folks who tend to get stuck doing endless circles in the sandbox, convinced their horse will spook at any foreign object.

I wonder if they’ll let me incorporate dizzy bat into this years? :lol:

Yup, the jaguar dealership lent a car for the class. I can drive a stick but haven’t driven one in a year really and doing it in front of almost all the jumper community in my area was rather scary 😂

@bluepece2 a jaguar? Oh my! Generally here in the US when we say ride and drive we mean to put the horse to a cart and show those driving skills. How is the class organized? Speed, obstacles?

Our county fairs have things like demolition derby, figure eight races and tractor and truck pulls, not to mention the hay squeeze race.

its speed, horse jumps a course, rider jumps off at dedicated location, hands horse off to “groom” and runs to the car. Once rider is strapped in the driver drives through a number of “gates” which are not much wider than the car (they are cones with tennis balls on them so no damage to the car). Fastest team wins a bunch of beer.

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that’s really similar tot he Bull obstacle in Working Equitation. Just one ring, and an 18’ long pole, as part of an obstacle course.

A variant of this is Maryland’s state sport, and called Jousting.
http://marylandjousting.com/
I have also seen competitions in Virginia

Other fun classes are
The half century class (combined age of horse and rider > 50)
Trail class
Quadrilles/musical rides

That looks pretty much the same, except the rings were suspended from the rail brackets and our “lances” were all wood, I don’t remember any metal at the tip.

It was a fun game on gymkhana day. :slight_smile: