I’ve NEVER understood the haul-in fees. Is it because my trailer might make tire marks on the grass?
5 Likes
Cash grab, plain and simple. Not paying for a stall? Well, they’re going to be sure you pay something.
20 Likes
It’s theoretically for the use of the grounds that is usually covered by stall fees. Manure removal, bathrooms, trash removal, yes physical wear and tear by the trailer and horse itself, etc.
I do see some prize lists with grounds fees PLUS haul in, and the total comes out to way more than I think logical.
15 Likes
The $23 USEF fee and the $15 Qualifying fees are what get me. I pay USEF enough money. Regarding the qualifying fee, you really don’t win that much money when you do win at Regionals and Finals - and most people don’t win any money. I rather have no fee and win no money. That would be more equitable to all who compete. Over the course of a show season, that saves a good chunk of change at $38 a show.
3 Likes
The $23 USEF fee is what is collected to support the equine drug testing, which I do get. If you show you should be covering the costs of clean sport and testing.
The $15 to support the prize money to me would be better off as - Do you want to ride at Regionals? Pay the $30 up front, most need 2 qualifier scores so just pay it and be done with it. If it takes you 2 rides? Great. If it takes you 5 rides? Also, great because you and everyone else in the Championship class are still only riding for one chance to win and paying more money doesn’t mean more competitors win money.
2 Likes
WHAT?
Someone asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to go, I said nah. Hits on the Hudson is, in my experience, either hotter than the surface of the sun, or it pours the entire time you’re there and it’s been a rainy summer.
So this means if you don’t pay you have to park down on Washington Ave ext? I see also that stalls near the parking that you pay for are also more $.
I haven’t shown my newest one at all. I just am deeply unmotivated to spend the $.
7 Likes
The $15 is increasing to $20 next year. Only half of it goes to prize money (which doesn’t even cover stabling this year).
Yes. You can park off Washington Ave. for free - over the bridge by where you pick up your golf cart rental and back by barns 7+. They installed a ring where the main parking lot used to be, between barns 1-6 and food, so there are very limited numbers of spots there now. And they are charging for them - $75 during the August show.
1 Like
I have to think more about how to apply it to dressage movement but it’s fascinating Thanks for bringing it to the conversation!
1 Like
I didn’t attend the little show that sells out this year but I’m happy to hear they were successful. GMHA is another favorite of mine but I didn’t go up this year because my horse was just started under saddle.
The cost spread seems to be wider than ever before. Each of these bills below was for a single qualifying class at a show this summer in Regions 1/8. For two of them, I stayed over the night before and ordered shavings from the show. The third is close by and has limited stabling, so we showed off the trailer. This is the show bill only - not including hotel for me, gas for my truck, or my coach.
Show 1: $381 + $50 stall cleaning deposit
Show 2: $573 + $75 for nearby parking
Show 3: $133 (no stabling/shavings)
Show 1 had a ton of competitor perks. Shows 2 and 3 had the stuff you’d expect (food truck you can pay for, normal ribbons, etc.)
1 Like
Here in Ocala, the Florida Hore Park charges a haul in fee so show organizers must as well. You’d be surprised at how some competitors leave the area around their trailer……
4 Likes
Thanks for the interest. I am corresponding with a few dance scholars to help me apply what I know and learn more. Apparently, I’m so old that the terminology has changed a bit. Leslie Bishko, click for her profile, an animation movement specialist who uses these principles in her teaching, wrote me last week to school me:
“Effort/Shape is an older terminology for what we now call Laban Movement Analysis or Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies.”
Bartenieff was a German dance theorist and a student of Rudolph Laban, most famous perhaps for his Labanotation, a way to score movement in a way not so different from music notation.
My wish would be to peel some of the judgement away from dressage judging/scoring and identify what we really want, linguistically and biomechanically. There must be a way to get closer to an agreed ideal, and away from qualities we mostly agree meet no ideals anywhere.
While I expect zero traction from the powers that be, and I admit to sounding like a bit of an evangelical on the topic, this work has a strong historical and cultural connection to riding via Sally Swift, her teacher Mabel Todd, and her teachers.
2 Likes
Is Kirby Hill near you? They run several recognized shows a year. I fly into Westchester airport to judge there.
1 Like
You probably won’t be happy to hear that the USDF Q fee is going up to $20 in 2025
1 Like
I mean fine for me as Regionals/Nationals is not our goals as my current mare is not a happy stable/multi-day show type. But I feel for others that is it a goal and year end target. To me, be upfront and make it a flat-rate fee to qualify for the year for a level. Want to do freestyle or another level? Add in the other fee. Even if it was $50 per Championship class, split it down the middle that it might take everyone more than 2 attempts to get the scores. That would be better than how it is now.
Or explain where that other money goes to for the USDF beyond prize money. I think most would agree that USDF hasn’t done much for us lately. Heck, I just had to pay $50+ dollars to get my lapel pin for Bronze Freestyle bar, first pay for certificate that is no longer free… then pay again for pin…
6 Likes
Yes! I love Kirby Hill. Looking forward to showing there in October. : )
1 Like
This is what’s happening. Sally is paying too many bills, and ALL of them are going up faster than her income. Showing may be the only thing she can cut short of selling her horse.
Even if we only count horse related bills, Sally’s farrier bill is twice what it was a few years ago. Her board is half again what it was, and her boarding barn now charges extra for lots of things that used to be included and requires at least a certain amount of training income from her too. Their expenses have gone up too, so she understands, but she only has so much money.
So it isn’t just the cost of the show, its the total cost of participating that is even more out of control than show costs. I don’t know of any dressage barns where showing is required like it is at some hunter/jumper barns (though this might be on the way), so showing is the one thing Sally can skip if she just doesn’t have any more $$$$ in her horse budget.
19 Likes
AND add in higher level riders whispering that people like Sally shouldn’t exist at shows because they’re getting in the way or not doing real dressage. If Sally gets badgered away from showing, or if Sally’s level is dropped the show ceases to exist because the show can’t afford to run.
17 Likes
Best of luck! I may know one of the officials in October lol.
2 Likes
