Someone was telling me today about showing in the jumpers at HITS Saugerties where there were NINETY, yes, NINETY horses in their class.
What is the attraction of showing at HITS with the divisions as packed as they are? Why not do some higher level A shows closer to home? I can’t imagine that the folks going to HITS don’t have anything nearby that they can do.
This isn’t meant to be snarky in any way, I’m genuinely curious.
I dunno. When I was a kid, I came in 5th in a class of 75 “outside hunters” at Ox Ridge. I don’t show today, but it wasn’t unusual then. If you’re good, you’re good!
I guess if I did show today and encountered such a class, I wouldn’t be too surprised, just like, dang, how long will this take? Bet it got whittled down pretty quick.
I don’t think there’s necessarily “higher level” A shows closer to home to go to, at least in MA, though I guess I’m not completely understanding that statement. What did you have in mind for example higher level A shows? I think the competition at HITS is generally pretty good. I like having a lot of people in my classes - it makes the ribbons more worth it to me then if I went to a local show and competed against only a few other people.
Other options in the northeast would be Saratoga, Lake Placid, and Vermont, but they don’t all run the same weeks, and some barns will go do a little bit of everywhere. I don’t think entries will be much smaller at whatever you consider to be higher level A shows. My barn just goes to HITS and Vermont, but other local barns with more heavy show schedules do them all.
As for why HITS? HITS offers a ton of divisions for every level, which appeals to trainers who want someplace to bring everyone in the barn, from the short stirrup and pre-children’s kids to the equitation kids to the adult amateurs to the jumpers. They have the hunter prixes, and in order to qualify for the finals you’re supposed to show in them a certain number of times so if you want to go the finals, you need to show at HITS.
HITS has a ton of divisions. They have good footing, great rings (at least the GP stadium in Saugerties is awesome), nice jumps, good course designers.
The food is good - which is always a plus for me - and there are real bathrooms.
The prize money is excellent.
It’s the type of show where every client can go because guaranteed, there is something they can do.
If they have something for everyone then I can see why people would go there. It would be easier than trying to split up the barn for different shows.
Locals shows don’t always fill, they don’t even offer the bigger classes. HITS isn’t known for it’s fantastic facilities (or weather) but you know you can show. I hate showing in a small division. What’s the fun of winning out of three people? Give me a huge division any day, it gives me a chance to challenge myself. I’m much prouder of my 3rd/4th/5th place ribbons out of 80+ than the wins out of 15.
You should go look at the prize list. They have EVERYTHING, from Beginner Equitation W/T, Short Stirrup hunters and equitation, and 2’ Jumpers, to Regular Working Hunters, Big Eq, and Grand Prix, with everything you can imagine in-between. They have a lot of unrated divisions, too, as well as multiple divisions offered at most heights. For example, want to jump 2’3/2’6? No problem, you can do that almost every day, with the Training Hunter, Pre-Child/Adult, Modified Child-Adult, Novice Equitation, HITS Hunter 1 or 2, Culpeper Child/Adult Hunter… And those are just off the top of my head!
Sure the classes can be big, but so can classes at any major A show. Bigger classes might take longer, but it helps your horse’s sale value if he was Champion of 30 in the Level 4 jumpers than out of 4. And the HITS shows are certainly a major circuit within themselves.
They offer decent prize money during the regular circuit, now offer huge money year end classes, and every year they’re working to improve the facilities. This year, Ocala got a new stadium and Culpeper got new barns, new footing, new restrooms, and other improvements. Their facilities might not be great, but we can’t really call it “Crap-peper” anymore with the work they’ve done!
As for their East Coast venues, at least one is going to be relatively accessible from anywhere on this coast. I’m in Virginia, so it’s 12 hours to Ocala for the winter, 7 hours to Saugerties, and just over an hour to Culpeper. All pretty reasonable drives, which keeps shipping costs down for customers.
At HITS do they typically do one class from each division per day? I’m thinking about the local shows I’ve been doing where there might be 25 in a division. It takes a while to go through that many. I can’t imagine going through 90 trips unless it’s one per day where you ride and then put the horse back instead of waiting around for your next turn.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;7654099]
At HITS do they typically do one class from each division per day? I’m thinking about the local shows I’ve been doing where there might be 25 in a division. It takes a while to go through that many. I can’t imagine going through 90 trips unless it’s one per day where you ride and then put the horse back instead of waiting around for your next turn.[/QUOTE]
Jumpers typically do 1 class/division/day. Exceptions being for the Low, High, and Modified Child/Adult Jumpers, which sometimes run 2 classes one of the days. Rated hunter divisions typically do 2 trips the first day and 2 trips and the hack the second day. Unrated divisions run the shoe division of 3 or 4 trips and hack in one day.
HITS takes a bunch of bashing and much of it is deserved, but what are the options? Vermont runs early July to almost mid August. From Albany, I can get to HITS a bit faster mainly highway miles. It’s not as if there are great “small show” options. Lake Placid is far and competition is very tough. They don’t offer much to the “non National division” rider. Saratoga Classic is usually the 2 weeks before Lake Placid in late June but over the summer it’s HITS or Manchester. HITS appears to offer more for everyone from the total newbie to the GP. Makes sense for a trainer to take everyone to one venue.
[QUOTE=supershorty628;7654000]
HITS has a ton of divisions. They have good footing, great rings (at least the GP stadium in Saugerties is awesome), nice jumps, good course designers.
The food is good - which is always a plus for me - and there are real bathrooms.
The prize money is excellent.
It’s the type of show where every client can go because guaranteed, there is something they can do.[/QUOTE]
You had me at real bathrooms.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;7654099]
At HITS do they typically do one class from each division per day? I’m thinking about the local shows I’ve been doing where there might be 25 in a division. It takes a while to go through that many. I can’t imagine going through 90 trips unless it’s one per day where you ride and then put the horse back instead of waiting around for your next turn.[/QUOTE]
For the hunters, it’s usually 2 trips on day and 2 trips the next day, and it’s not like you’re doing one class and then waiting 90 trips to do the next - you do them in a group of 3 so you do your 2 trips and then you’re done for the day. For the jumpers I think it’s usually 1 per day. At 2 mintues per trip, 90 trips should take a few hours if the ring is running smoothly. They have a lot of rings - it’s not like there’s only 3 rings that are each trying to run 15 divisions of 90 people a day. At least when I went last year, it ended at reasonable times. I was in the last division of the day in one ring one day, and it still ended around 6/6:30.
So it sounds like getting a ribbon is more important to you than anything else? It’s a competitive sport. Would you rather be 8th out of 90 or be 2nd out of 4? HITS has every division so you can change heights if necessary and the facilities are great.
I don’t show at HITS because there are none near me, but I do show at the big show series up here. And it’s because they are the only shows that hold, fill, and run the High AO Jumpers. Also, the Grand Prixes are more competitive and have more money (in addition to more money classes such as $10K Welcome classes and multiple Grand Prixes through the week). And then because I can’t afford to do multiple show circuits for my crew, my other horses (and soon my daughter and her pony) come along to the big shows with me as well. All 4 equines show so that I can do the classes I want to do on my one horse.
That almost always means no ribbons for my 6yo in the 1.10/1.15m and no ribbons for my 4yo in the 0.90m (though super young horse classes that have made the shows more than worthwhile for both). But since the shows are about developing those horses and not winning I don’t particularly care. And recently getting a 2nd out of 30-something horses on my 4yo was a super moment!
The question reminds me of the old quip “Nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded!”
From what I have seen, the huge classes are typically in the lower levels where you get a blend of riders who usually do more local stuff, young up and comers from bigger outfits and people doing their “one A show of the year.” I can see how a 3’ jumper class or 2’6 hunter could go on for hours. If you are in “division” classes. the classes are not usually extraordinarily huge, especially with competition from Vermont.
Remember too that Saugerties is in a prime location in terms of drawing numbers. It’s under 90 minutes to much of the Hudson Valley and northern NJ. It’s not much further to northeast PA. Much of MA is within reasonable range, as is CT. These are closely populated areas with a lot of horses. The bulk of that population is south of Saugerties, meaning HITS is far closer for them than VT. (Saugerties to E. Dorset is about 2 hours by car and since most of the VT part of the trip is on winding country roads, you need to add plenty of time for a trailer/rig.) A fair amount of the populous area outside NYC is a “commute” to HITS, but not to VT.
And then there’s the bathrooms…
[QUOTE=shedllybip;7654340]
So it sounds like getting a ribbon is more important to you than anything else? It’s a competitive sport. Would you rather be 8th out of 90 or be 2nd out of 4? HITS has every division so you can change heights if necessary and the facilities are great.[/QUOTE]
LOL. Nowhere did I say anything of the sort regarding ribbons, so there is no need for the snark 
HITS is a considerable expense for a lot of people which is part of the reason why I started the thread. I can go to quite a few local A shows for what it would cost to travel to HITS for a week, pay for a hotel for myself, partial expenses for my trainer’s hotel, hauling for the horses, etc. The thread is about understanding what people like about HITS, how it is structured, so I can decide if it is worth the money to do it. At one show I stood around for hours just waiting to do two jumper classes. I’m not talking about the division running late. I’m talking about where you do one trip and they won’t let you do your next one back to back or with a few spaces. you have to wait for everyone else to go before you do your next trip. That’s fine if it’s 8-10 people, but 30+? you can end up doing one class, then waiting several hours before you do your next one. That’s not necessarily fun or fair to a young horse to stand around all day
That’s why I asked about 90+ people at HITS.
That’s the kind of “structure” I’m trying to get feedback on to decide if it’s worth the money and time to go do it.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;7654726]
LOL. Nowhere did I say anything of the sort regarding ribbons, so there is no need for the snark
HITS is a considerable expense for a lot of people which is part of the reason why I started the thread. I can go to quite a few local A shows for what it would cost to travel to HITS for a week, pay for a hotel for myself, partial expenses for my trainer’s hotel, hauling for the horses, etc. The thread is about understanding what people like about HITS, how it is structured, so I can decide if it is worth the money to do it. At one show I stood around for hours just waiting to do two jumper classes. I’m not talking about the division running late. I’m talking about where you do one trip and they won’t let you do your next one back to back or with a few spaces. you have to wait for everyone else to go before you do your next trip. That’s fine if it’s 8-10 people, but 30+? you can end up doing one class, then waiting several hours before you do your next one. That’s not necessarily fun or fair to a young horse to stand around all day
That’s why I asked about 90+ people at HITS.
That’s the kind of “structure” I’m trying to get feedback on to decide if it’s worth the money and time to go do it.[/QUOTE]
I guess I don’t really see this as something to be concerned about. You do your first class, bring the horse back to the barn and he’ll chill in his stall for several hours, and then you go back out for your next class. Making the horse stand by the ring for three hours while you wait for your second trip? Yes, that would be a little much, but making your horse stand waiting in his stall munching hay in front of his fan? He does that happily at home. Sure, having to warm up twice is less than ideal, but it’s not the end of the world.
[QUOTE=todaysspecial;7654194]
You had me at real bathrooms.[/QUOTE]
I second this!!!
I did HITS Thermal for the first time this year (as a rider, I’ve spectated before) and while it was an amazing experience and really fun, I don’t think I will ever ride there again.
Is it amazing being around such a large show with such a high caliber of rider and horse? Definitely. I mean a couple times I had some big name international riders in the ring with me and that was pretty cool. Also, the show was very well run and the back gate really kept people moving through in my rings however because there are SO many rings going on across hunter and jumper land, as well as SO many classes, one day I had about a 6 hour break between my divisions. Which made for a very long, hot day that I was not thrilled about.
But the things that you’re asking about-the waiting around, the huge divisions, etc I would definitely question if that’s something you want to deal with and if its worth your time/money given your horse and your goals. I was there during one of the slower weeks (right before the week break) and even then, many of my classes had 40+ people in them. The 1.20m and up were still pretty packed though-one my trainer did had about 80+ people in it. Also, I don’t show much and in general, I show for fun and not to be super competitive. Well, even in the lower divisions the classes were set pretty solid with tight time allowed so I only made it into the jump off in a handful, and didn’t place at all! :lol:
So based on my goals as a rider and especially if I had a young/green horse from now I will just stay local. There are so many good, well run facilities/shows where I could get miles. The cost of getting down to Thermal was about equivalent of doing two week long local shows for me.
I feel like all I hear is people criticizing and complaining about Tom Struzzieri. I don’t go to HITS. I don’t know why people do.
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