Am I the only one here who used to show against adults regularly as a kid? It never occurred to me that it was “unfair”, if it was legal, it happened. once I got out of the short stirrup stuff, I went to the children’s and sometimes we got combined with the adults. When I won against a good riding adult, I was THRILLED. When they beat me, oh well, I was happy to get to compete.
I guess it helped that my mom and trainers never considered it an issue.
That’s very true, and I do similar due diligence if looking at a horse domestically (though I tend to import off video, which has its whole slew of other homework to do lol). But not everyone does their homework to the same degree, or they pay more attention to some things than others. Hence why putting a record on with an ammy (in-name-only or otherwise) still has value to a lot of sellers.
Of course you’re not the only kid who rode against adults. I don’t know how old you are. I’m a younger Gen Xer who has lived my whole life in one of the prime areas for Hunters in the US. I can vaguely remember that last generation of professional huntsmen/women who are almost all gone now. Whether or not the actual scoring methodology has changed (and I honestly don’t know if it has) so much about the unwritten culture of hunters has changed. Even the past 10 years. I can understand why an adult riding against kids might be a touchstone for controversy now when nobody would’ve batted an eye before.
The added sticky wicket in this particular case was that the adult in question isn’t your typical adult novice riding their personal horse. Going off the information provided, he appears to be a de facto pro, mounted on a horse that may be part of his wife’s sale pool & not his personal horse, riding in direct competition with some of his wife’s junior students. In most other disciplines, the numerical formula followed for scoring makes for a reasonably even playing field for normal people (juniors included) on a well-schooled horse to compete against adult pros on young green horses. I gave 2 real life examples of this upthread – one, a local schooling jumper series where two internationally ranked riders riding clients’ green fruitcakes routinely place behind 11yo kids on lesson.horses in the low divisions. In Hunters, that flat numerical formula doesn’t exist. So you get situations like this.
As I said in another thread, I’ve drifted away from competing in Hunters for one reason: I compete mostly as a means for assessing where I am & how I can improve. Because of where I live, I hit the ceiling where I’m effectively priced out of receiving actionable feedback on my performance the minute I step into the 2’ division at a local show. Meanwhile, 10 minutes down the road I can enter the BN at a horse trial, ride against Stephen Bradley & Boyd Martin, & still receive personalized feedback no matter what. And for half the price of the hunter schooling show.
For me, the spouse’s activities would be just one more newfangled Hunter thing I’d privately rolled my eyes about. Just like fake tails, people paying $80k to lease a pony for a week, and riders who can’t find the port-a-potty without their trainer there to tell them which line to take. I’m old, get off my lawn. But I was a rider for 30 years before I became the parent of a rider. It isn’t my perception I’d be worried about, if that makes sense. I’d be worried about the perception of my clients who didn’t grow up in it & who aren’t well-versed in the rules & don’t understand why this adult is competing against kids when it doesn"t happen in any sport their kids have done before.
To me it is more about being the spouse of the trainer than an adult showing against juniors. It is extremely poor taste and business model for the trainer to do this.
Other years I might have more of an issue with it. However if there are fewer shows running due to Covid or if they have been hit financially due to Covid and need to get these horses sold I am willing to be a little more forgiving. These are not normal times. There have probably been a number of missed showing opportunities in the last year. Depending on the area there may be fewer shows. Maybe somebody that was potentially interested in one of the horses he was showing was going to be at the show. With spectators being limited or restricted at shows that makes it hard to have a prospective buyer just pop into a show to watch it go in person. They may need to be there already as a rider, trainer, groom owner etc…
Our local show organization often combines children and adults. This is local and the year end awards are separated by age, but on occasion, 6 kids show up for for their division but only 2 adults. Rather than not running the adult division, they’re combined, as per the rulebook. This is fairly low level stuff and the adults rarely have an edge over the kids, especially at the lowest heights. Combining group is trying to do all it can to be sure that people who bother to pay to ship to a show (often paying a day use fee for a schoolie) etc will get the chance to show. It’s even worse on the other side when 5 adults show up and 2 kids. How do you tell those kids that they can’t show? The 3’ division (Childrens/Adult) was almost always combined because most of the 3’ riders were off doing rated shows. I was helping my nieces on their horses for a few years and they both did very well at the 3’ against some good riding adults with A records, including beating they and earning year end champion/reserve at 16 and 17.
Combining kids and adults is not that uncommon, at least at lower levels, the classes stay evenly matched.
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