I just watched the video on Lippitt Morgans that was posted above and now understand your comment on determining success based on breed shows…because that is all that video did. And, you’re right, success on that level, while still is great in its own right(in most cases), should not be considered the ‘highest level of competition’ within that discipline. Honestly, the over fences division for the last 6-8 years has been down right laughable and embarrassing. Where a horse is being crowned ‘World Champion Jumper’ just because it refused 2 times and didn’t get DQed…and the other 2 horses refused 3 times and got DQed…every time…I mean, I guess they were the okayest ones that showed up that year…but it’s still totally embarrassing.
I don’t know what the ‘fix’ to it is. It’s hard to say ‘campaign more on the open/world circuit’ because for the vast majority of people, that’s not an economically viable option. We’ve done expos, shown on the open circuit(which is hard in a QH based judging world), done breed presentations, parades. The only way to truly practice showing over fences is to do it in Open competition…and the ones that normally sweep in OKC are the ones that come from the open circuit. Same with Dressage and Reining.
The reining horses now are really far more reining bred then they were from the video footage above(while is was released in 2016, that footage is from the very early 2000s and prior…because I knew most of those horses…). People have taken genuine interest in breeding a horse that was made for reining, rather than ‘making’ a horse do reining because you want them to and them being mediocre at it. The Morgan World class schedule for the reining horses is scheduled around the open reining championships that are normally on the front end of the typical Morgan World show dates. They started taking that schedule into account so the nicer reining horses could have a chance to come showcase their talent at the Morgan show, as well as on the open circuit, because, again, you’re right…if they are actually good at their sport, they will go actually compete at the highest level, and the morgan show is not that for those divisions.
I follow a breeder in Australia who has superb stock, but it’s expensive to export horses and bring in new blood. Her horses are priced in what I would consider a typical range, but they don’t seem to get much attention…because no one knows anything about the breed…there are only 650 registered Morgans in the entire country. Same with a breeder in New zealand…he has AMAZING sport horses. I drool over her stock every time she posts something to instagram and wish I could import one.
And, lastly, something that just came to mind…there is little to no prize money for the sport divisions on the Morgan circuit. The money is in the ‘performance’ horses…and that’s even comical when you look at the other breeds. I feel like that is a huge deterrent in bringing new people into the breed…especially parents funding their kids junior ambitions. Why pay mid/high range for an unproven horse to throw a ton of money and time into training it and never have the ability to even earn scholarship money? I wasn’t allowed to take home a cent as a Junior Exhibitor…even when competing in the Open division. That’s crap.
Anyways…yeah, I don’t know what the answer is. I think it’s easy to say ‘they need more representation on a larger scale’ but I just don’t see it happening on any other scale than it already is. The breed is in a rough spot…very divided. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with it through the rest of my lifetime.
Sometimes is best to let well known secrets just be.