The location of the Region 7 finals changes each year from northern California to southern.
When the finals are in southern California, the show tends to be larger.
The 2014 championships were in Los Angeles. This year they were in northern California at Rancho Murieta, near Sacramento.
It would be interesting to see a comparison from the same location.
I used 2023 since some folks argue 2022 would still be a âCovid year.â 2022 championships at LAEC had âover 200â horses, which I suspect means less than 238. I couldnât find an announcement that gave exact numbers for 2018/2019 and didnât feel like counting entries in Fox Village.
I usually scribe at the region 7 championships when itâs in LA. The show has gotten much smaller over the last 5-10 years. I didnât scribe in 2014, I was showing that year.
And itâs one of the things killing the local Los Angeles shows. We used to have CDIs in Los Angeles; now theyâre all in the desert. And sadly, most of us ammies canât take a week off work to travel that far to shows.
But isnât it because the other facilities offer better footing and, especially, better stabling? I competed at LAEC at Regionals in 2016 and it was jam packed that year.
In the years since, Galway in Temecula has upgraded its footing, added a number of rings, and added nicer stabling. Thermal has done the same. And now, so has the showpark in Del Mar. They all offer better footing, less crowded warmups and barn aisles, and more 12 x 12 temp stalls instead of only 10 x10s. Thermal and Del Mar even have 12 x 12 with mats. And they offer a more direct drive to & from without the anxiety of being motionless, or crawling at 5mph, on a freeway with your horses in a trailer behind you.
People want to show where itâs nicer and more spread out for us, and safer for the horseâs movement & overnight comfort. Itâs not the fault of LAEC or the GMO members in the area. Itâs just that by comparison it doesnât measure up anymore. Despite being the one with an indoor stadium arena, which we can probably all admit is pretty special too. And despite being the one thatâs hosting the GAIG Regionals.
Competitors and their horses have had better experiences at the other So Cal facilities and donât want to crowd back into LAEC for the four days. So more and more, theyâre forgoing the champs altogether, IMO.
Also-- more and more trainers have moved to Florida & other places. I could easily offhand name six or seven that have moved out of So Cal since I showed at LAEC in '16, and taken clients with them.
So in the example of R7 GAIG Champs held in Los Angeles I donât know if Iâd agree that dressage shows are dying. The entry numbers have shifted from out of that facility to Thermal, Temecula, Del Mar, Ocala, and Wellington.
There is a proposed rule change that would eliminate the mileage rule. Here in Florida IMO that would be the death of smaller heritage shows. If you are a USDF or USEF member, look at the proposed changes and send i to our opinions! GR 314.1
https://www.usdf.org/competitions/usefrulechanges.asp
This has probably been suggested but could we not use Regional scores to determine national placings ? Saves the expense / hardships of long trips and trying to find a facility that satisfies everyone. Yeah, I know itâs not the same as people going to one National show but seems like it is leaving people out when the sport needs to bring people inâŠ?
We could, but itâs hard to compare apples to apples unless we fly the same judge to each region to judge the same tests. Still better than dropping national awards though, imho.
yes that is the argument. Not having the same judging panel and not having the same weather and facility conditions.
Volunteering at HITS is awesome, at least at the dressage shows. You get a free lunch every day and a free hotel room and thereâs a reception on the weekend. Iâve heard similar from friends in jumper land.
Now volunteering at GMHA⊠is not worth it. Yes, you get free breakfast and lunch and some chocolate. But they donât provide you anywhere to stay. I volunteered twice and stayed in a trainer friendâs camper van both times. The next time she wasnât going; I asked if they could provide âhousingâ because Iâd signed up to volunteer and she referred me to an inn that was $150/night minimum. 
Yeah, Iâd love to pay $500 to volunteer at your 3-day show. Not to mention gas money and other random expenses.
This made me laugh. I could watch dressage all day long, but I can watch about five hunter rounds in a row before Iâm yawning. All the horses look the same. All the riders look the same, literally the exact same clothes. I have enough of an educated eye to see the difference in strides, strategy, and subtlety, but itâs just not that interesting.
Jumping in here late, but I wanted to echo all of this. I have so many friends who have given up going to nationals because of the weather alone, not to mention the cost or difficulty traveling. The people who arrive at nationals do not represent the top competitors of our country. I have personally competed at Festival of Champions and though the selection pool is much smaller (not to say there arenât the same or more issues, such as qualifying requirements that require a lot of showing), those that are selected more often make the journey. I think that this may imply that those who attend FOC are a more reasonable representation of the best riding of all the folks who attempt to qualify. Maybe this is controversial, just my thinking.
Also, I know many people who view regionals as their end of year show, and never intend to head to nationals, regardless of how they place.
Either way, I have been an avid competitor for over 13 years, and I currently have my once in a lifetime GP horse. Despite this, I have been competing less and less every year due to increasing fees, fuel and hotel costs, and just general frustration with all the aforementioned issues. I think this thread really nicely sums up the title.
I donât think itâs controversial to say Finals isnât as exclusive as FOC.
My understanding was that was one of big the reasons people lobbied for the Finals to start up again after a long hiatus. Because âregularâ people and Adult Amateurs specifically wanted a show that represented a kind of pinnacle for them, too.
Juniors, and pros on the top-sponsored horses, have NAYC, FOC, Brettina Cup, The Developing Program, etc. to aim for and showcase their horses. Pan AM games, World Cup, Olympics. USDF Finals was intended to be a carrot for the Adult Amateurs who felt they werenât done after winning at Regionals.
Over the time since it was reinstated in KY (was it 2013?) the distance, costs, and weather have dampened that enthusiasm for a lot of competitors who were initially more eager-- AAs & sponsored pros, alike.
Hearing that people are also now turned off by Finals in part because the competition isnât the quality of the elites at Lamplight or even the CDI winners around the Country is disappointing given the showâs intent. I thought everyone understood it wasnât ever going to be as exclusive as the top competitions.
Maybe the whole thing needs a marketing shake up.
Yes!
Many of us came from breed showing, where nationals/world championships were the ultimate goal. We wanted that.
The likelihood of bad weather, and likelihood an amateur on a lower level horse is outside riding in it, the lack of time to plan to get there, amd the knowledge that USDF has chosen not to rotate as agreed upon initially are all huge turnoffs to going. Loriluâs complaints to thw contrary notwithstanding, we all know people involved in proposals for facilities which fit the requirements in far nicer weather. In fact, Iâm always surprised by the claims that number of arenas is an issue, because our facility down here has way more than the number supposedly needed, and I think of it as way too small!
And of course all those other competitions are not USDF - they are USEF. Kind of like comparing CDIs to national shows.
(and please correct me if I am wrong in attributing them to EF)
Please send your suggestions to your Regional Director.
You keep saying that, but we have, many times. It was one of the reasons the Championships were supposed to rotate in the first place - there were plenty of possible facilities.
But have you reached out to your Regional Director and asked them what happened with the facilities you suggested and why they werenât suitable? There might be plenty of facilities but they have to meet certain requirements and this is what people often donât understand. The Arabian people struggled with rotating for years and eventually made a permanent location due to the difficulty and lack of facilities that met requirements and people got really nasty about it online but just didnât understand what went into selecting a facility.
I did a while ago, but not recently. When we started hosting CDIs at Thermal and Showpark opened up again with multiple ebb & flo rings and plenty of stabling and it STILL wasnât enough to convince USDF to look at other places, I gave up. Clearly, USDF likes having it in their backyard and isnât interested in whatâs fair for members.
As a non-member, nearly six-decade rider, occasional unsanctioned dressage show competitor/volunteer, whoâs been mostly auditing this thread, a look at recent 990 forms (public financial docs all not-for-profits must make public) submitted by USDF and USEF provided at least 12 million and 35 million, respectively, dollar-shaped reasons for this attitude.
Both organizations sit on piles of money (investments, capital, endowments, oh my) and provide grants and support for their self-avowed missions at depressingly low rates. Because I am neither an accountant not a tax expert I would be grateful for a more expert appraisal of this paperwork. If my observation is anywhere close to correct, âfair for membersâ is the furthest thing from the executivesâ minds.
Edited for preposition/punctuation repair.
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