Current showgrounds ‘89. Polo grounds, I have photos from 82ish? And photos from HITS I think Venice around the same time? Sunshine circuit winterhaven etc I think was ‘70s, and WEF established at the polo grounds around 1980. Remember There was one weird week where we went to the fairgrounds, and that continued for a few years even after the new facility?
We continued to end in Tampa until at least early 00’s.
In any case, by mid-nineties 30k per horse for the full circuit was a decent estimate.
I think we started out having a few shows at the fairgrounds and a few at the polo grounds. Then it was just the one at the fairgrounds. I think that was the beginning of the Littlewood/Stadium Jumping divide. I remember the first year at the current showgrounds. We were amazed at the size. Four permanent barns and 13! tents. Enormous! And when the parcels in Grand Prix Village were for sale for $10k an acre, we laughed to think they would get that much. And they didn’t. They didn’t sell for several years. I would guess your mid 90s estimate to be a good one.
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For sure in the late 90s there were still tons of paddocks available for horse show exhibitors to rent in Grand Prix Village. I remember hiking back and forth with horses many, many times.
Side question: are paddocks even a thing anymore? I’ve been to HITS Saugerties as a volunteer at the NEDA Fall Dressage Festival, which in a good year can have over 1000 horses, plus there’s at least one barn that is full of jumpers, and typically there are fewer than 5 horses in the paddocks.
Paddocks are definitely still a thing at some places. The new facility at WEC in Ocala has paddocks as far as the eye can see in some directions, with lots of horses in them.
And just because it was on my phone by the other pictures, I’m including one of the show photographer reflected in the pool next to the jump so he can get a picture of the horse reflected in the pool over the jump. Lol.
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Yup. They gauged the market too early and the first investors in GP village lost their shirts. It was a wasteland for years. The current price per acre took a dip through the past couple years but was close to 500k p/a for the last decade.
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It’s interesting the way some horse show venues have turned into real estate development projects as much as anything else in the last couple of decades. I don’t know if WEF was the original attempt at that business model, or if that was just the first one that I saw in action.
I still remember when they were building the first farms across the street on Appaloosa Trail, and everybody thought no one would want them because they were so far away from the show grounds. Lol.
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As an exhibitor at the NEDA Dressage Fall Festival, we don’t use the paddocks because we are only there for 4-5 days, and it isn’t worth the biosecurity risk. At home our barn has decent turnout (at least 8 hours per day). Everytime we’ve been at NEDA FF, there has never been any intermingling of any horses from the H/J barns with the NEDA show horses in any spaces. My assumption has always been that NEDA has rented the show grounds and some associated spaces (like the paddock area) for the duration of their show so the stabled H/J horses are limited to areas outside of what NEDA has rented.
For H/J exhibitors who are on the grounds for weeks, there is a different balance of risk versus value offered.
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I never use the paddocks at HITS because even though I’d love to turn my horse out, it’s too much of a PITA because someone always turns out something neurotic, a stallion, etc and I have to bring my horse in.
He’s a sensible sort but it’s just a weird turnout situation there and having to have someone constantly on watch for the paddock means I’d rather just hand walk or tack them up and take them for a walk for an hour.
I will say when I saw the number of paddocks and the distance from the barns at WEC in Ocala, the thought crossed my mind that it might be worthwhile to have one or two people out there walking around on horseback all day to just keep an eye on the activity in the paddocks. Like a couple of cowboys keeping an eye on a herd of cattle out west back in the day. No running! Lol.
For sure, the importance of using a paddock would vary based on many factors, especially how long you were in one location. If you were at the show for three days, you would probably have much less need to turn out than if you were there for three months.
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Yes I can see that, for a short show as opposed to a circuit. The last time I was there, in 2018, yes the jumpers were in 2 barns away from the NEDA barns, but the riders sometimes rode down the main show drag when exercising their horses.
I was in your shoes before I was working 1 full time job and 2 part time jobs working on little to no sleep. I knew that I can’t do that much longer what I did was when I moved barns I went from a board of 1500 to 600. I understand that you can’t move maybe share out the horse with another rider for a half lease? That way they can ride Wed to Fri and you could do sat to mon. That way the horse is being ridden and you also get money for his board/up keep. For shoes could you look into another farier? Not do chiropractor. Not do a lesson every week and 2 to 3 training rides a month if needed
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This thread has taken many interesting turns resulting in quite a read.
Going back to the original poster’s topic, it isn’t just the horse and real estate world that has jumped up significantly. Has anyone priced a car recently? $100k for a truck or SUV? That was before the pandemic and chip shortage. Cell phones can be $1K. All the extra insurance we have to carry… Those figures don’t even cover “luxuries” like internet and cable. We live outside DC on a farm, and decent internet is $300 a month. There are so few options available and the few providers charge appropriately. Heaven forbid one buys a house and needs to do any repairs - windows start at $2k apiece (ask me how I know) and roofs are ridiculous. My MIL’s recent roof replacement was well over $100k for a 4,000 square foot home. It was mostly covered by insurance (for the same roof). All of that adds up before we factor in horses.
It doesn’t help our darkly clouded dreams of grandeur that many of the equine magazines* and websites cater to the luxury set. How many ads for Florida properties does one magazine need? The latest fashions shown are for the higher priced advertisers ($2K for a riding coat in one recent magazine). The shows covered are primarily the elite circuits featuring the same winning riders. How often are stories from the B circuit shown? Never. Schooling show tales? Ha! If the equine media only covers that fraction of the 1%, how can we help but feel left out and as inadequate, despite our six figures? How can we help but feel like we have to give up to keep up? *Except Horse & Hound. I love that well-rounded publication. It’s stance is probably why it’s managed to stay a weekly publication…
In the first year or two of my career I found myself in a new city and could barely afford to keep my horse. I lived in the bad part of town (like, foil on the windows, deals on the corner bad), drove my old college car without A/C (that hadn’t been new when I got it), and basically funneled all of my money to board. I couldn’t afford new tack and, when my schooling chaps developed a hole (saving the boots because I couldn’t afford new ones!), I had no choice but to duct tape them. I’ll never forget the day when one of the trainers at the barn had a group of teens around her laughing at my chaps and loudly mocking my not being able to purchase new ones. I just glared at her and thought, “how insecure you must be to mock me for that!” It did sting.
About the same time, I spoke with a mother who had taken a mortgage out on her house to let her 15 year old daughter show on a midwest circuit. The daughter was only so-so talented and they couldn’t afford a top horse. Yet the mother put her entire family at risk to help the daughter pursue, what exactly? Disappointment with a little experience?
It was at that point that I decided to heck with the show world. I had a nice horse, was a good rider with a decent junior/young a/o career behind me, and a budding professional career (albeit at the lower end of the pay scale). I worked hard, made more money, and got my own farm, added more horses, and today take lessons when I feel like it, go to clinics, and ride almost daily. I set my own rules about care and my horses are happy (if not as impeccably groomed each day). I also take really nice vacations, including to major equine events like the WEG and World Cup, and add money to my retirement. Horses are still a big part of my daily life, but getting over keeping up with the .0001% has improved my sanity - and my savings.
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my daughter in law whose “hobby” was building custom lamps, her product was highlighted in Vogue as of of their 10 Best Buys … hobby lamps are now over $2,000 each with a wait list of nearly two years
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Every time a magazine rolls in or I settled in for a full-day of viewing 200+ kids doing Medal Finals, I think “the 1% and 1%-adjacent must be larger than I ever realized.” (Though, to be fair, having been on the other side of the desk on a publication, ads keep increasingly rare print publications afloat. And I guess they do reflect the narrowing demographics of the h/j world.)
You do speak to something that made me recently sad about the Horse Show Issue, annually my favorite sign of spring. While I really loved the in-depth profiles of some of the year-end association winners (such a cool idea), I truly missed those pages of black and white thumbnails. It also gave me a bit of a twinge remembering the old days, when COTH published submitted results.
While I know enough to know what a production and typesetting nightmare that must’ve been I also remember, as a middle-class kid back in the old days, the thrill of looking for our names in the results of a B or C show. And the classifieds - I got my first horse through a classified in the back of COTH. I suddenly realized there was a whole other layer to how the redesign was ‘reflecting a changing world’ that I didn’t realize when it first happened.
Lastly, I remember duck-taping the toe of a paddock boot that had come away from the sole. At 16 or 17, I thought it was cool and well, it was peak 90s grunge era, maybe that’s why I also remember a complete lack of self-consciousness and no one at my barn making fun.
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1% of 330 odd million people is 3 odd million. So way way way more elite than simply 1%. Remember it’s not the children of millionaires these days, but those of billionaires who primarily reach the top.
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Same here. As someone who was very fortunate growing up but never so fortunate to have had one of the top year-end winners, I loved seeing my name and photo in that annual issue. It may have taken forever to find it, but it was there, every year. It was such a kick. I believe they still run something similar as a standalone issue? Hopefully for the next generation out there?
Reading the COTH was a highlight every week - I’d knew exactly which day it would arrive and looked forward to it. They also published show calendars and results from shows that weren’t on the circuit which never failed to make me feel special (when I was in the results).
Someday I may get back to showing. Or not. But if I do, it won’t be in a way that would financially hurt my family. Horses are supposed to be fun. A hobby. Not a major life stressor.
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This is such a good point. I was listening to the Plaidcast podcast this morning, and one of the guests made the comment, “there are no local shows left.” And it got me scratching my head because I can count at least 5 shows during the summer within driving distance that you could go to for a range of flat and over fences classes. That’s not my world, so I have no idea what kind of points/end of season awards opportunities you can accrue by doing those shows, but the point is, if you wanted the experience of getting cleaned up and judged, you could do that. And yes, some of the same people that decamp to Aiken or Florida from the frigid northeast do show up at these smaller places during the summer, so it’s not just us country bumpkins who stay in New England year round making up the classes. There are other options- whether or not they meet a particular bar to even register for people playing in a different world seems more the question.
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I did not hear the podcast, and I don’t know who the guest was, but in a lot of areas, there are virtually no local USEF shows left. Or what we used to call one day shows, or C rated shows.
There are still a lot of unrecognized shows to attend in some areas, and those will often be at the same facilities as the USEF shows, with good courses and judges, depending on the management at each show.
For sure, the unrecognized shows may not get as much attention or media coverage. But if you are just looking for an opportunity to go to a show and have fun, there are perfectly good options at a fraction of the price.
There are also some shows that run an unrecognized day first, and then the recognized days are the rest of the week or weekend. So if you only show on the unrecognized day, you are getting the exact same experience except for the USEF points, and usually at a lower cost.
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Gotcha, that makes sense. Like I said, that’s not my world, so I couldn’t tell you the affiliation or designation of the shows in my general area. My perception is there are many options for a range of skill levels and price points, but this is still a relatively horsey area so I could see how that makes a difference.
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