We go to a small Arab show in June that shares WEC Ohio with a draft horse driving show. They keep the drafties mostly in barns E-J. Somehow they cram those GIANT horses into those 10x12 stalls with low ceilings. I asked a guy once what the horses thought of that and he said they were mostly OK with it but they were usually glad to get home. Speaks to their good disposition I think. It sure is fun to go watch their classes too.
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That must be a good learning experience for your Arabs. So many horses lose their minds over horses in harness.
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Region 13? That’s on my list, although I took my Arab to a WEC HJ schooling show to prep him for the atmosphere. At the fairs the drafts are often in the small stalls so I assume they’re used to it.
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At a lot of the main ring shows you are likely warming up in the same ring as the fine harness horses!
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That’s great.
I’ve never been to Ohio shows. It sounds like the National Charity Horse Show in St. Louis back in the day though, Saddlebreds everywhere so lots for the hunters and jumpers to look at.
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They are kept pretty separate. The draft show is in the sanctuary arena and the Arabs are in R&L and Roberts. I think the drafts warm up in the outdoor rings close to M. We use the outdoor rings close to A. I don’t think most people are brave enough to see what their horse will do if they encounter them.
No, the Medallion. Region 13 is a big big show, no room for drafts there. Plus the main ring people would never put up with it!
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Yes but you don’t usually warm up with a 12 horse draft hitch with all that jingling and doodads on their harness plus the rumble of their approach! I love watching them though!
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At the National Charity show, ours were stabled in separate areas from the Saddlebreds (very big tents) and the warm up rings were separate, but you couldn’t help but encounter them on the grounds.
Most all of the H/J horses got over it pretty quickly, ours did and I never saw any H/J horse really lose their mind over them. A lot of stopping and staring and a snort or two, but no real hysterics.
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I was at a dressage show that was on the same showgrounds as a open show…with driving and gaited classes. It went as predicted 
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We have a nice local park with dressage rings and a cross country course. Only problem is - it’s the local park district that schedules the events there and it’s been obvious in the past that they don’t know much about horses. They scheduled a dressage schooling show and a dog coursing event the same day. Naturally one of the dogs took off from the coursing and came running through the dressage rings to see what was going on. Chaos ensues!
Another time I took my horse to a trail challenge and they had scheduled a paint ball tournament on the grounds as well. Surprisingly my sometimes goofy Ay-rab took the absolutely deafening paintball competition all in stride.
I guess we are now officially completely off topic but it’s been fun!
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That reminds me of a funny story from many years ago when there was a horse show and a dog show at a big facility. And the two things were far enough apart that it was a complete non-issue.
But a friend of mine had a few minutes to spare during the horse show, so she wandered over to take a look at the dog show, and her dog came with her, since the dog went everywhere with her.
My friend was a little surprised when she went into the dog show facility, and suddenly people were pointing at her and screaming “loose dog” at the top of their lungs, the same way at the horse show people would have been screaming “loose horse!”
I think my friend took off her belt and put it around the dog’s neck as a leash, which solved the problem. Lol.
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I grew up in the Midwest and we used to go to the A-show at the Minnesota State Fair. It was WILD! Not just the entire fair atmosphere, but all of the people wandering through wanting to pet the horsies, and then the draft horse hitch combinations- the beginning of the week was insane. But, by the end of that week our horses were all like: NBD. Sometimes the ground shakes and horse monsters pulling wagons go past.
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Pulling wagons? Had a mare who insisted they were horses tied together being chased by a rattly, bangy monster .
Was at a big Arab show at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona a hundred years ago, it was night, the NHRA WinterNationals (drag racing) were roaring away on the other side of the property, maybe 1/2-3/4 of a mile No fair but plenty of looky loos wandering around, vendors, music and heavy ground traffic. There was a paved access road that ran right next to one end of the ring with the track on the other side.
Had a class lined up waiting for awards and the ground started to shake and a roar to build. Like a dragster but after 7 seconds it kept getting louder and started to rattle and clank, earthquake? Then out if the darkness here comes the beer wagon 8 horse hitch ( no, not that one, these were black) with sparkling trim and flapping leather and stuff down the paved road next to the ring at a very brisk trot with several Dalmatians running along side 
Never saw so many energetic Arabs stand so still and so many sets of cartoon like bugged out eyes in my life. Was expecting a repeat of the center gazebo getting knocked down but nothing moved, frozen in place. If their jaws could have dropped to the ground, they would have been there. It was kind of funny. Understand there was some drama in the warm up ring and the steward had to run for cover when stampeded by angry exhibitors.
Learned later the hitch horses had been wisely stabled down at the end of the property and were doing an appearance at the drag races, just going to drive over across the parking lot.
A heads up from the stabling office would have been nice. Nobody else knew.
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KHP is another place where sometimes various horse shows overlap, and I will never forget the time there was a mini show going on the same time as a hunter jumper show like 15 years ago. Probably the one and only time I ever saw my unflappable adult ammie mare in college show the whites of her eyes and issue a snort—a mini pulling a little cart with BELLS elicited that response. A number of horses had mini-meltdowns that day, pun totally intended.
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They do have the draft horses that pull carts full of people taking tours of KHP. But they manage to stay far enough away from the show rings that the show horses don’t seem to worry about them too much.
Not if you’re an eventer and you have to hack the "trail of tears " to dressage.
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Years ago, when I went to pick up a horse I had just purchased, the sellers said, “Oh, by the way, if you ever go to [local state park with riding/driving trails] and you pull in and see a little mini pulling a cart, don’t bother unloading. Just turn around and go back home.” 
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@NoSuchPerson I had that exact same experience but it was just minis in general - horse was a total been there done that packer type, but the sellers were insistent that he could not and would not move on past his deep rooted fear of minis . A few years later a mini ended up being stalled next to him - the first few encounters involved all 17 hands of him trembling, and then his fear turned into obsession and he would drag me over to say hi to the pony every day . The last time I visited him before he passed away in his 30’s he was very happily living in a little herd of ponies.
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At the farm I managed they had a nice kid safe QH unless there was another horse in harness. Found out at the first QH show they took their daughter to. QH shows have Pleasure Driving classes. Melt down occurred. Minis are not always the issue.
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