When I was a junior on a large pony, we went to this county fair style show (western classes, cows, chickens, etc). Entries were super cheap and prize money was super good, so why not! The classes were divided between pony and horse (or junior and senior, I cant remember), but either way, I was in the correct group. I won a few ‘hunter’ classes, and must have pissed off one of the local regulars, because they protested my pony’s height. Fine. Some official had told me they were going to measure my pony. I said no, I would get my EC passport and show them that my pony has already been measured (by a real official:winkgrin:). They said I would have to ask the judge if that is ok. I asked if I would be allowed to just ‘approach’ the judge, which of course, I was. So, I ask the judge, and she has no idea what a passport (think permanent card) was. But says ok, pony is a pony. I go back to the barn and ‘official’ is in my pony’s stall trying to measure it (not tied, on bedding, on a dirt floor of an old cow barn - not really flat level ground!). I flip out, took the pony home that day, and have never gone back.
This was the same show that had a crossrail division, which in the prize list, read “jumps shall not exceed 3’ in height”… WHAT!! So, when I raise concern that my 26 year old pony was supposed to show in it with her kid, they tell me that they measure crossrails from the cup, yikes!
Another show (B rated) really cool venue (actually in the middle of the city, barn is used for police horses). So, if non-horsey friend is going to come to any show, thats the one to bring him to. We were watching a few horses go and having a snack, and a nasty horse is in the ring, and starts stopping. This is when rules allowed 3 stops before being asked to leave. Every time the horse stopped, the rider would give him 3-4 hard smacks on the rump before circling (horse was being a real pain). Rider comes to a fence, horse stops for the third time. The announcer says “entry is excused, with the judges thanks”, and rider leaves the ring. My non-horsey friend turns to me and says “does that happen a lot, isn’t that like animal abuse?”. When I gave him a blank look, he says “that rider was just excused for excessive spanks”. 
Back to a local, hillbilly schooling show. Some nutcase has a stallion there that he can hardly handle (looked like a Morgan or something, not that big). Our trailer was parked along the schooling ring, and we were all sitting around having a beverage and chatting, watching the warmups. We all noticed that this guy was having a really hard time with the stallion (who was really ‘showing’ himself, and the man kept hitting his ‘man parts’ with a crop:confused:) Anyway, he finally gives up and takes the horse back to his stall. At this point, there must have been a walk trot-walk trot canter kids class coming up, because there were a lot of cute kids on little ponies in the schooling ring. All of a sudden, the crazy stallion is back, sans handler, and starts trying to mount the ponies in the ring!!! Little girls screaming and hitting the stallion with sparkly pink crops everywhere!! The FUNNIEST thing I have ever seen, horse show or not! No one was hurt, and I have no idea what they did with the stallion because I didn’t see him again all day!
