Anyone knows why they switch from show management?
The last few years they used to do a cali split for the bigger classes (50+ entries). Are they still doing that
Ugh, I hate horseshowing, so hard to navigate. I can never find anything.
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From what I heard - and this is alleged and through the grapevine so take with a grain of salt - is that WEC Ohio has always used horseshowing.com and some of the people who work in WEC Ohio also work with horseshowing, and management wanted to make it the same for both locations. It is much harder to navigate than showmanagement. I don’t like that there’s no way to click on a trainer/rider/owner and find all entries for that person or people. Nearly every other (I won’t put a blanket statement here and say ALL others) online entry and results website allows you to see all entries under a trainer/owner/rider and it’s so much more convenient. I also don’t love the actual entry process through horseshowing, personally.
It does appear that they are doing California splits still, based on the 3’ USHJA Hunters from yesterday.
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I don’t know anyone other than some of the office staff at WEC who likes horseshowing.com! It’s terrible!! I hate not being able to search by a name and find all entries.
WEC does do Cali splits but I think not until the entries hit 40.
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Yep. This. Someone from the Ohio show office has a vested interest in Horseshowing.Com. They bit off their nose to spite their face, as they lost some good staff and clients over it and their new group of show office people who truly pissed off a lot of people this summer. Total cluster. Show Management was working just fine and is used by some of the biggest venues, but whatever, it seems like whatever Ohio wants, they get.
It’s terrible. You can’t track anything. The derby scoring is a mess… you can see how many are left, but you don’t know if your barn’s horses have gone yet and who else is in the current class.
They’re also being weird about Cali splits. Noted there was a jumper class yesterday with 60 in it that didn’t split (it was either 1.20 or 1.30). A bit ridiculous considering what they’re charging, but to each their own.
Apppppparently, they’re creating their own management system or app, but haven’t seen that rolled out yet.
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I think both systems have their own UX problems- ShowManagementSystem has a lot more options and information but I don’t find it user-friendly, and HS.com/ShowPro has not had substantive improvements made to it in the 10+ years I’ve been using it so it’s quite stable but feature-limited.
It’s high time for a third player to come into the mix.
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Splits work differently for jumpers than hunters. There’s a prize money rule that for classes of $500+ that prize money must be given to 1 out of every 4 starters and the lowest payout must at least equal the entry fee (JP108). So open classes typically just increase how many people receive prize money as the entry numbers increase.
For classes restricted to amateurs and juniors splits aren’t required until there are at least 80 entries. (JP118). If juniors and amateurs are combined they are to be split out at 15 entries, but this doesn’t apply to classics.
But, yes, I agree with everyone else that horseshowing.com is miserable. Since WEC is such a big customer now, maybe they could convince horseshowing.com to improve the user experience?
Yep. Well aware of the difference. However, these were $500 jumper classes (open) and they awarded out to 6th and the first place finisher got $150 and 6th got $50. There were 57 entered in class. Feels pretty stingy when they could definitely split and awarded more prize money based on the large number of entries. They didn’t up the prize money and just kept it as one class, hence why I raised the flag. It was 2 days in a row that they did it, so not even an oversight.
Just my $.02.
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Yeah, it stinks, but I’ve long become resigned to the fact that jumper split culture is pretty ungenerous. But that’s all reflected in the rules - who thought 80 was an appropriate number before splitting a junior jumper class? WEF is probably the only place that comes close.
WEC isn’t the only place that takes advantage of the rules. Upperville had a $500 1.30m class last year with 50+ entries and only paid through 6th. It would be nice if shows increased the money or split the class but show management is going to do what’s best for themselves.
They’ve been using horseshowing.com since I showed there 5 years ago.
I’m used to it, because most of the local shows around here use it. I don’t find it especially user friendly, and as Renn says, I don’t think I’ve seen any upgrades to the software since I first entered something with it more than a decade ago. I don’t find ShowManagement any more user friendly, but all of them are better than the Strider entry stuff that the eventers/dressage shows use–that is horrid.
In WEC Ocala? No they haven’t. WEC Ohio has always used it and again, that is partially bc somoene has a vested interest in the program/site. WEC Ocala was on Show Management until last summer. Show Management is much more intuitive when it is used properly and dashboards are working. Some shows have opted not to pull all the levers, but the ones that do tend to give you a ton of real time info.
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I think between Annette in the office, and her interest in Ryegate, they won’t change much going forward. I heard they were working on Horseshowing.com and trying to make it more user friendly, and a one stop shop, but I don’t think so anymore. They have Ryegate now for scoring and the jumpers, and you can go on the website and see how many have gone and how many are left, so why change it? Honestly, with new management, I see our group going back to HITS next year. The schedule for the hunters is awful, and they’ve changed it so they can open all the cards and not have to worry about actually managing the show. The hunters jumps in the main ring don’t have any fill, you can see the whole gate at 3’6”, among other things. The office is just like the icing on the cake for me 
Agreed. You’d think they would really try to step it up considering some of the other venues upping their game. Even Ohio has done a better job with their hunter rings and decor. Seems like Ocala just cares about the Grand Arena and everything else is just gravy.
Not to mention, it’s also become a bit of a race course. I felt like my last few trips in the hunters, I’ve had to gun it to get down the lines. The pony hunters look like they’re headed to the Preakness, so it’s not just the amateur rings either.
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Just wanted to give everyone a tip, because I just discovered (or rediscovered. I knew I had previously been able to click on the trainer’s name to get to their results)
When you go to the results page if you switch the toggle to “historical results” instead of “detailed results for this show”, you are able to click on the trainer/owner/rider and see all of their results in one place.
Now, this still doesn’t solve the problem of looking up what your barn mates are going to be entered in for the day, but it does make tracking actual results a little easier.
My general suggestion is to go back to HITS. The rings are super nice now. I am not sure what the general turn-out situation is, but our horses go out every day for several hours, in a paddock, but better than nothing. It is still kinda down home in operation, but I just can’t stand the whole illuminated veneer feel of WEC. You can still go shop there and watch the events!
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They set the lines SO LONG. My horse who had no problem getting around Capital challenge and Lake Placid has to run down the WEC lines in the 3’ and 3’3. And even has to motor a bit in the 2’6 warm up classes.
It’s really bad.
I felt so bad for the small ponies last week. They had a HUGE oxer coming out of one of the lines. Poor minions were “Supermaning” out of it. Thing was built big and SUPER wide. Had to be out of spec. Looked more like it was 2’6-2’9 width than 2’3.
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Wouldn’t the length of the lines have more to do with the course designer than the facility? That is how I usually think of it, unless it is a high rent show like CC where they want a good effort out of the horses, though one year I did the adults in the outdoor and I had to sit down in the lines such as to not leave a stride out. With the same horse in the indoor at the 3’6 I was closing my eyes on the out of the 5 stride because it was so scary long. There is a guy in our area who sets these long bending 8s, they ride the same wherever he’s designing the course! At any rate, sure seems stupid to make the ponies launch out of the lines.
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They did Cali splits in the 2’9 but that had 60+
I was really thinking this might be my last year doing WEC. I’ve gone since the beginning when stalls were $2k per. Now they are $3600 for circuit. I hate horseshowing.com. But it’s been relatively cold and wet this month. They moved my jumper class inside last weekend to avoid the storm. By the time the amateurs went in Hunter 1 it was not raining. The footing was still perfect. If I was at HITS I’d be scratching. I have yet to get wet, and it’s been plenty rainy. Hard to give that up.
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There are simply no words for how much I hate horseshowing.com. There is no objectively rational basis for using such a substandard system.
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