Isn’t this kind of the definition of amateur, though? We are all dealing with that thing called life.
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Not all of them, no.
Lots of them do not work (get their funds either from a spouse or family money), or work in jobs that can easily be done at a show.
You sound like my family. Not talking horse show thing here but I have one sibling who does not work and one sibling that can do their job basically anywhere they can sit still with their computer and use their hot spot. My job requires me to be at work. They do not get why I am not always willing to do the things they can do during what would be a work day.
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I’d go as far as to say the vast majority of adults cannot work from a horse show grounds and tini’s take is very privileged. Whether it’s kids, clients or bosses who expect a high level of professionalism on calls/zoom that don’t include announcers in the background or the inside of a car on video, RTO mandates, high speed internet for heavy data (or video call) needs, people who see patients, etc.
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The vast majority of jobs are still in-person, as well! I literally cannot do my job remotely. Neither can my SO (engineering).
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Exactly, which is why adding rules that don’t take that into account wouldn’t make sense. A horse show focused on the population of participants that have the most additional demand on their time would not be the place to add in a rule that requires them to be on grounds for the entire week. People approach a given topic from their perspective. It would be just as mean for me to tell someone who said they didn’t want to make this event more expensive and less accessible to them in that way that they should just have better priorities and work harder and it wouldn’t be a problem for them.
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Most of the classes during the week days are pro classes, aren’t they?
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This is about as financially feasible as the people stating everyone should just be at all of the days of the show.
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Yeah let me just hop on a plane to see how much better it is on the other side of the ocean! (Not snarking, Amberley, just good natured laughing at the prospect)
ETA some European vacations might be overall cheaper than a couple shows… but that still doesn’t solve my PTO problem!
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Hi! Trainer here, with experience at both Pony and Junior Finals. With pretty good success at JHF, ribbons in 4 out of 5 consecutive years. So I’m gonna add my 2 cents.
The shear numbers alone mean that it would have to be done over the course of a week. The criteria to qualify are champion or reserve at an A or AA show, as well as being in the top 10 in your Zone. Soak that up a minute
Last year, in the 3’3 Large 14 and under Junior, there were more than 75 entries. That’s about 4 hours, not including a break for arena maintenance. There are 4 sections of 3’3 junior, plus 4 of 3’6 jr. Not including the Gladstone cup, which literally takes all day; hours.
If Adult finals ran on the same format, I would expect 50-75 entries in the lower sections, possibly more at 3’3, slightly less at 3’6. Mathematically speaking, it would take Weds-Saturday to get it all in, maintain the arenas, have nice award presentations, and not kill the judges.
At both current finals, a pro can show the horse or pony the week prior, and school it up to 12 hours before the first day of the show, Wednesday. That makes the playing field a bit more level. I believe this should stay the same for AHF.
These shows are held at the best, fanciest venues, so the infrastructure for wireless, etc, is very good.
The dates are set almost a year in advance, so vacation time, or time off could be planned for those who can’t work remotely.
There are East and West coast finals for juniors, so it could be done for amateurs, making the final slightly more accessible to everyone
And look, most of the kids who go to these finals know they aren’t going to win. The best of the best go. BUT, why would you not go and at least try? Go and have fun? I love that someone called it the 2’6 Olympics! YAY! Maybe you can’t go to Devon or Harrisburg, but you at least get the pride of having qualified for a National Championship!! And maybe you’ll get a ribbon! With the exception of 1 of my juniors that got ribbons (it was an exceptional horse with a great rider) none of the kids that I had get ribbons were on the best horses; they just rode really well on nice horses.
I know ALL of my amateur hunter riders, 2’6 and up would be thrilled to even get qualified. Even if they couldn’t go, at least they got asked to the Prom
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not at a final
I would absolutely burn PTO and some favors to go to Finals if I had a chance! That and TIP Nationals are about the only things I’ll be able to aim for as it stands right now (financially).
The conversation about amateurs and the obstacles of American horse showing schedules is a very valid (albeit off topic) sidebar to this Finals discussion.
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The amateurs often start on Friday.
If you have to be top 10 in your zone like with JRF, that already means you are able to do a fair amount of showing and all that entails. It’s not like show up one weekend and get your tri color and you are done with qualifying. So some of the people who would struggle going to and dealing with finals format rules may also not be the ones likely to qualify depending on the numbers in your zone.
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It’s either/or. You absolutely can “show up one weekend and get your tricolor”.
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Something I’ve never been able to figure out about working remotely from a horse show is how all these remote meetings can be scheduled around your class, since the horse show doesn’t exactly have a timetable? ( if we had ride times like dressage does then maybe I could understand). I can’t imagine just dropping off a call because it’s time to ride (not to mention I would feel like I was only partly paying attention to work and mostly worrying about when my class is going to run).
It’d be nice in theory to work from the show but I feel like it would be incredibly stressful. Curious if anyone has actually done it and be willing to explain the details of how it worked.
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So I’ve done this before, but it’s not necessarily something I recommend. I went down to WEF last year and decided to only use a few of the days at PTO because my classes ran early in the day and my trainer put me in top of the order. These were week days, so mostly pro divisions that I used as prep for our amateur jumper classes on the weekend, so they tended to run quite quickly and smoothly. It was much easier to ballpark your time when you were in the first or second division to go that day. I’d block my mornings on my calendar, and then go home to take calls from our air bnb.
It was definitely stressful if things ran late, and I’ve since decided that taking the time off during the whole of the show is much less stressful for me. It was also something I could do because the program I was in was full service, so if I needed to hop off and hand the reins off to my coach and her groom while I jumped on a call, I could. But that’s not something I liked doing.
We’ve since moved to our own farm, and we’re doing things on our own (though we still meet up with my trainer at bigger shows). Trying to work from shows now would not necessarily be impossible, but it would be needlessly stressful. I am extremely fortunate to have a very generous PTO policy at my work. I will be taking off the time for all my shows this year.
That being said, it also really depends on your job and your work culture. We have a strong culture of working remotely. There is another colleague of mine who rides and competes and has taken work calls from the show venue itself, just like other colleagues have taken calls from ski lodges and cabins. That wouldn’t fly every place I’ve worked, so it very much is a company culture thing. Also, there are calls you can skip or leave early, and calls you very much can’t. How many of these you have, whether they can be moved/scheduled around your classes, also makes working from a show more or less doable. I was able to make sure most important calls I had were scheduled later in the day when I knew I’d be back from the show. But I was always stressed that something would come up earlier and I wouldn’t be able to join.
TLDR: if you have the right job, it’s definitely doable. Not necessarily enjoyable though.
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Some remote jobs don’t actually have that many meetings! Some are mainly email/Slack based and you just need to have your tasks done by the end of the day/week/etc. Those are the jobs that work well for these kinds of hobbies. You can basically keep working until it’s time to ride.
Also, yeah it’s a company culture thing. It’s all depends on your company and actual job.
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It absolutely is. You qualify by being champ or reserve at an A or AA show. After all those invites are sent out, then they go to the top 10 in the zone
I love this phrasing and totally agree. Even if I couldn’t swing going to a big finals as an adult with a job and family, just qualifying would be cool. Hell, I was thrilled when I qualified for my little county HSA’s medal finals. I rode like shit at the finals themselves, but I qualified so that was something to be proud of.
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I would buy the 2’6" Olympics t-shirt [broad hint].
Even though my goal this summer is to get back to 2’3" blushing bright red
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