But there’s been a huge drop in entries in the last couple of years. In Los Angeles, most of the local shows used to run multiple rings for two days, and often filled up. Now, with occasional exceptions, they’re a single ring and are often over by 3pm. And some of our venues have dropped from running 8-10 shows a year to 1 or 2.
Echoing this–three rated shows in my area have had to cancel their upcoming dates due to lack of entries. Two of them are shows that have run this time every year for the last decade or so, some leaner than others but never canceled, and many years with fairly robust entries. We are in an area where showing into late November is very possible and this year’s weather has been no different.
As I’ve said upthread several times, I don’t think dressage at the higher levels will die. There is enough money in it that it will likely continue in at least some form in hotspots. But the “smaller” and accessible (not destination venues, but running 1 or 2 rings, excellent footing and arenas and stabling, well-run, nice ribbons, etc) rated shows, even very nice ones, ARE dying, at least in my area. There used to be fairly consistently 4-5 shows a month January - Nov within a couple hours’ drive, and most of what I’ve seen when browsing the calendar is now about 1 a month, 2 during the summer months. And some still get canceled.
This. And also, I love you atr.
exactly! It’s why I love dressage!
Just a general comment not related to the past few remarks, but I was discussing cost with a friend of mine the other day regarding dressage vs working eq.
I showed at a mid-week “real” dressage show this year (my first dressage show of any type, and first show in about 20 years! And my two young horses’ first!). It was at the Virginia Horse Center - show costs were under $700 for 2 horses, 2 day show (technically 2 shows), tack stall, etc. I’m not a usef member so there were some non-member fees in there too. That doesn’t include my costs (lodging food etc). I thought it was reasonably affordable for two horses and two shows.
She showed at a working equitation show this year with the same deal - 2 day 2-show combo, tack stall, but only one horse (& no non-member fees). Costs were over $900. But, it was at Tryon.
The difference was location - VHC isn’t nearly as fancy as Tryon. I don’t think working equitation is “cheaper” inherently as some want to believe. All the clinics I’ve seen advertised (2 and 3 day) are currently like $600-750.
Another note - I was super anxious about showing and maybe this group was particularly nice, but I had a super experience with my non-warmblood half-breed horses. Everyone was friendly, helpful, and the judges’ comments were generous. People around the show were very nice.
Wow, that is absolutely dirt cheap for your dressage show expenses. An average facility in the Midwest with no indoor and uneven stall floors is going to cost you for the weekend $400 alone for the 3 stalls.
I think what you are seeing here is that people do have choices nowadays. 15 years ago there wasn’t any western dressage, WE, whatever. If you wanted to show your average English horse without jumping over things in large swaths of the country, the only thing you could do was dressage.
It was a shock to me when I moved here from England how limited the showing scene was. I was used to being able to go to a local show and do a flat class (show hack, cob, riding club horse etc.,) which required some skill and practice to put together, but wasn’t dressage.
Training level classes were often very large and an awful lot of the people showing in them happily stayed at training level for ever. I knew lots of people like that. They weren’t really bitten by the bug.
When I came back to showing post life changes and then the pandemic, I noticed that these people really weren’t there any more. They’ve moved on to what are greener pastures for them, where they can have more fun because they can be more successful. And that’s fine! Tough for all the shows that sprang up that relied on those folks to support them, but there you are.
I’m not discounting the frustration of encountering judge’s bias. I think thats a minority situation though. I showed a very loud appy for several years. Most judges loved him. Some emphatically did not. But whilst he was a natural showman, he really wasn’t a great mover and we were never going beyond second level even back then. Nowadays, yes, I probably would have investigated WE. He would have loved it. Wasnt available back then.
While I have been lucky not to have any of the gross biased comments come out, I have had judges complain to me that their requirement to score starting from gaits made them score a horse/rider pair who did things as well as they were capable lower than the judge wanted. Those judges took a long time being very encouraging in comments as they saw horses set up to progress up the levels where their correct work would be more possible to reward
Right? I’ve been to one convention, but I went because of the symposium they used to have with it.
By the way, that was also when the membership voted to have nationals rotate around the country. And USDF leadership chose to lie and pretend there weren’t viable options to do so.
Between leadership unilaterally deciding they didn’t want to be bothered with the voice of membership at their convention, the rule changes pushed through in violation of USEF rule change procedures (pushed by USDF leaders, of course, even if USEF officially), and lack of the symposium to lean, there is basically no reason for me to waste time or money at the convention.
You sound like you’re talking about region 5, I think the only region which goes from Mexico to Canada. But you may have looked at the open 1st level championship instead of AA. (That scoring description fit open exactly) My image is the scoring from the AA class, which even more strongly fits your point!
I was the third place team, and was not happy with my ride, and agrees more with the judge who placed me 4th than the judge who placed me second. I was surprised when the video looked far better than my mare’s extreme tension felt, and both judges acknowledged her tension. She still managed to move forward mostly IFV, have some swing, and there was zero misbehavior or mistakes. I can see why we scored how we did from the video. I was very surprised to have placed so well!
Also, my horse has been ridden by someone else maybe two or three times since my trainer got sick in December 2021, and I’ve managed some lessons with a new trainer who is approx 100 miles away… but I’m basically doing it on my own at this point!
This is true. I went back to the L-Program materials and the guidance is to start from the gaits. My question is who is writing the tests and pushing the gaits? Google is no help. I looked for “USEF test writing committee” and got nowhere. Ditto if I replace USEF with USDF.
I can find the USEF Dressage Committee, but can’t find anything specific to test writing.
I scribed for an L candidate through all her sessions, and within the instruction they received in front of horses, there wasn’t a definition of what equals good gaits. I suspect I mentioned this years ago on this thread… but to me, gaits are not good if they are impure. Period. However, the implication from the instructors was that flinging front end and loft were the factors making something good gaits.
I rest my case.
And they dropped the trade fair, which was a great place to shop!
atr - I think you missed the point about dressage not being a spectator sport. No one thinks you are “forcing” anyone to watch. Be honest, it IS boring for people who don’t understand the sport, and that is why we don’t get the big crowds of spectators at the shows, which would make it more profitable for sponsors to pony up the money to sponsor a class, an award, or the show in general. We were talking about it being a boring sport to watch because spectators and paying sponsors could potentially make it more affordable for competitors. It’s not about how much fun the competitors are having.
And on the subject of affordability, there is a great opinion piece on the front page of COTH this morning. It’s based on one AA’s time in the H/J world, but it’s applicable to dressage as well. TL;DR - the author was highly offended by a BNT in the jumper world telling her that if people can’t afford to show, then they aren’t trying hard enough. Yeah, that attitude offends me, too.
I’ve linked below because I learned recently that a large percentage of folks who post on the forums don’t actually read the Chronicle. (Which still surprises me.)
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/get-creative-real-talk-about-affording-horse-show-life-or-not/
When I went through session A of the L Program, the entire session was pretty much about what is a good vs bad gait. Very heavy on purity of rhythm, and in fact they showed examples of a leg flinging extended trot and pointed out the hind end not matching the front as bad, no suppleness over the back, etc.
Yikes!
That is SUPER cheap! In my area, a dry stall for the weekend is $185, so your stall cost alone would have been $555. If you did a single test per day on each horse ($65 each), and added 4 bags of shavings to the horse stalls ($15 each), then added the fees (approx $75 per horse), your weekend cost would be $1,085). Then add a trainer’s fee at $100 per day per horse and you’re at around $1500 for the weekend.