I agree the under 3yo experience is not what horses will do once broke. But, similar to hunter breeding, it exists for a purpose (and the purpose of the at liberty and jump chute classes isn’t to be representative of what horses will do when started) and the people that show there have their own reasons for why they do, just like you have your reasons for showing in HB.
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I took a look at the YHS website to try to understand Demerara’s lack of understanding regarding rated Hunter Breeding classes . Web site http://www.younghorseshow.com/
Rather big differences between USEF Hunter Breeding and YHS breeding classes.http://www.younghorseshow.com/uploads/1/0/2/0/10202648/10102krules_yhs.pdf
Though not a judge or a handler for the YHS (nor a member of USEF) Demerara is listed as part of the “West Coast team”. I guess part of the promotional “team”?
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Try show organizer, handler, and scribe. But go on and keep talking about things you know nothing about as usual.
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They don’t have you listed as a handler, and honestly, anyone can scribe.
You surely realize the difference between USEF Hunter Breeding classes and the Young Horse Show Series? They’re two very different things.
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But you can’t figure out why @vxf111 prefers the classes they show in? Two totally different things.
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I literally said it depends on your reasons why you’re doing HB. At no point did I say the two were the same.
Both judge conformation of young horses. YHS also judges movement at liberty and style in the chute. If you are looking for a way to get your young hunter to a show to do something and experience a show atmosphere, both are viable options.
ETA further, they are both proponents of US bred sporthorses, so if you are looking for a place to showcase your breeding program, they are, again, both viable options.
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Classic @skydy.
Skydy: You don’t know X
Person, proves they know X
Skydy: well that doesn’t count.
Here’s a photo of me handling at a YHS that I organized and also scribed at, since you can’t seem to believe anyone on the internet:
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Yet the YHS “kindly requests that owners, trainers, and riders abide by a drug free show for the young horses.”
Apparently no drug testing. No Safe Sport?That seems odd to me coming from the all of your complaints about USEF.
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Yes, let’s bring it back to the topic at hand, shall we? Despite usef stating that drugs are not allowed, they keep having to add to the list of drugs that are not allowed because yet, despite drugs “not being allowed,” people keep drugging their horses.
So, yes, tell me how well those rules are working out for rated shows.
The YHS staff is made up of breeders, trainers, and young horse owners. They’re the most open and welcoming (towards young, fresh, and expressive horses) group of people I have ever worked with. I have never met any individuals that have been as invested in welfare and positive experience for their horses as these people. The entire format of the show is created to give the horses good experiences and is constantly being reviewed and changed as issues arise. And it doesn’t take 3 years of town halls and handwringing either. If things need to be changed because they are unsafe, they are changed immediately.
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The point is, is that USEF tests. So they do catch violators of the drug rules.
YHS apparently doesn’t test, so their entries know that they can get away with drugging. The difference shouldn’t be so hard to comprehend.
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I’ve been showing in California for 6 years, and even though I show at unrated shows, the state of California requires all horse shows to drug test horses. We even have to pay a fee at every single show, rated or not. Do you want to take a guess at how many times I have seen someone testing horses at shows?
In addition, despite your disbelief that I have any rated show experience, I did in fact show in Florida at rated shows in addition to grooming at rated shows and in my 7 years of showing and grooming there once did I have a horse tested.
Saying you are testing horses does not mean you are testing them. And regardless if you are testing or not, as is proven by this thread, even with positive drug tests or other horse welfare issues, USEF continues to not have any real teeth when it comes to protecting horses.
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Let’s bring this back to the USEF, and their lack of any appearance of listening to the vast majority of the folks who are members.
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I know a fair number of people on USEF and USHJA committees. Good intentions but they have ZERO training or professional experience in any of the things they want to do when they get there, most of them have zero real life experience outside horses and certainly none working professionally in a large organization with high accountability. Quite literally every plan I hear to implement any initiative starts with “attract rich people”, with “have a nice VIP area so they come back” usually mentioned second. They find a venue and think that’s it. USEF has done a good job with things like getting results online and developing a curriculum for safe sport but they did not do that via committee nor do they maintain it with volunteer horse people. They established a funding stream and hired professionals. Same needs to happen with the actual proposal development, the member-outreach process, and if approved, implementation of all their many, many ideas. And they need to prioritize grassroots and make it clear to donors and members that a percent of all funds go to that and it gets real staff too: right now the defense contractors are running the pentagon and it’s not sustainable. People rightly feel their money is not being spent to benefit them.
They should pick up some fired US federal government workers to actually run the organization properly.
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There are people with this skill set in the USEF membership NOW too. But having the skill set isn’t how you get into leadership.
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I think that’s a good analogy.
It would be nice if they didn’t have to spend so much time and money developing new drug testing protocols but a look at the list of drug violations shows that it’s necessary.
USEF obviously tests horses, many COTH members can attest to that. A friend had her horse tested when she showed him in a Dressage Sport Horse Prospect class (in hand) which I thought was odd, he didn’t look sleepy at all 
, but the testers certainly are out there even at relatively small shows.
USEF has really lagged behind in penalizing the poor treatment and abuse of horses though. IMHO they should have thrown the book at Devin Ryan, but that was years ago and they didn’t, and I don’t understand why.
I’m not sure why USEF has been dragging its feet where horse abuse is concerned but they can’t go on doing that, they need to come down hard on abusers .
The penalties in the rulebook for doping and abuse have been increased but are guidelines and are not mandatory. I understand that members deserve a fair shake, however USEF could toughen up. It seems like they are doing everything possible to avoid litigation, which is close to impossible in the U.S. and shouldn’t be the main concern when dealing with people who they know have violated the rules.
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From what I understand, that is not how they pick which horse to test. They just pick a random horse to test, not just the ones that look sleepy.
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Oh, I know that. I just thought it odd to test an in hand horse rather than a ridden one, but for all I know they tested many horses that day.
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An in hand horse could be buted to the eyeballs though. They might be required to test x number of horses per show, classes likely are not specified.
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No, being connected to rich people is how you get into leadership. Which is sub-optimal.
Let’s be honest though, most of us with the skillset to run large indeterminate programs and manage multiple processes have jobs already. And going to work at a non-profit isn’t that appealing for many reasons.
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Fair enough but maybe they could TRY including some of these folks in the process.
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