Ironically, the Olympic-level eventing cross-country courses are far softer than Badminton/Burghley (and well they should be, given that Olympics aren’t technically the “best of the best,” but the “best from every country,” so safety should be a priority).
5 Likes
Oh gosh yes, of course. I bought a young horse hoping to do the 3’6" someday. Unfortunately, he’s just not super athletic and so we’re going to be best around 2’9". I’m fully capable of 3’6" on the right horse, but if I sell this one, I’ll have maybe half of the $$ I need to buy a decent AO horse. So, at 2’9" I shall stay.
7 Likes
Yes, because of the cost of medical care.
4 Likes
True, but it’s more than that. A lot of the competitors are amateurs. We have families, jobs, pets, responsibilities. We can’t risk our safety. There’s too much at stake.
As for the horses, I like to think we know more now. Jumping smaller fences is less impact on them – especially when we miss. If memory serves, we missed just as much in the olden days. I witnessed many a spectacular crash at 3’6" and higher. These days, if I miss at my little jumps, nothing dramatic happens. We just launch or chip, have a good laugh, and carry on.
16 Likes
I think Noon on a Saturday is what the kids call a Holy Grail 
Enjoy!!!
1 Like
I think people would like the lower heights to be at the schooling or lower level
Shows and not at the top level of rated shows
1 Like
When I was a kid in group lessons, we advanced kids were first, at 9 am Saturdays, so the schoolies could go a little crazy with non-beginner riders. When I think back to the number of times this young chestnut mare dumped me and took off … The poor thing needed a regular program to finish her, not kids idioting it around the indoor a few times a week.
2 Likes
Actually, it seems to be both. It’s great to have lower heights at schooling shows for greenies and novice riders. But competing under 3’ doesn’t necessarily mean the rider or horse is green.
A lot of the < 3’ competitors want to go to big venues as much as anyone else. The pre-child/adult divisions at WEC are huge!
4 Likes
This has been a fun thread to read.
I look back now and realize how lucky I was to have my $50.00 pony to ride anywhere and everywhere with the only rule being “come home in time for dinner”. The freedom was wonderful (my parents would probably be arrested for child endangerment in this day and age.)
I too, remember the duck boots, the full chaps and the flat saddles, the boots with garters, the “coolback” pads and the excitement when the Millers catalog arrived in the mail. Good memories.
When boots with zippers first became a thing, they were considered gauche and were shunned.
13 Likes
I remember a similar rule from my childhood when I was bopping around the neighborhood on my bike, which was to be home by the time the street lights came on. Times have definitely changed.
3 Likes
Not true!
People like going to the big fancy shows, and jumping whatever height they want. The lower height classes are among the biggest ones at the shows. They enjoy going with the team, cheering for the grand prix horse in the barn, the international derby horse, the A/O’s, the short stirrup riders. These big fancy shows are often family affairs.
28 Likes
One huge difference that has developed over the years is that the biggest shows now offer classes for all levels. It used to be that the lower level riders would go to the smaller or unrecognized shows to get mileage in the show ring, and the bigger shows did not have any of the divisions below a certain height.
Now everybody in the barn can go to the same show, and there’s a division for everyone.
12 Likes
It makes life easier for a trainer for sure. Probably helps a lot with families that have multiple kids riding, as well as mom and dad
The families of my clients consider the shows to be an outing. Some places, like Traverse City are vacation destinations, that happen to have big horse shows there. So fun for everyone (except for me and my staff, because we rarely can get away to go out on a boat or something, lol)
We have a tradition, time allowing of course, of Friday night dinners with the barn group. We’ve discovered some pretty awesome restaurants across the eastern half of the country this way!
6 Likes
You know, I think it’s nice that our juniors can go to a horse show with a jumper and a big eq horse and a hunter, and their moms can come do the long stirrup. If the parents are going to make that happen for their kids, Mom might as well have something fun to do in Vermont, too.
I don’t love the metropolis that our horse shows have become and I have some Thoughts about the 5 million different divisions for horses to jump under 3’, each one of which has its derby and classic and four classes so you can chip, biff a swap each way, and then hopefully get it together for the last trip. But if we are going to do it, I like that it gives the whole family a way to participate.
Now (I say in my starter voice) just show the heck up to my ring on time and for the love of Mike know your course when you get here, you are an intelligent person. Keep that up and we will be fine.
16 Likes
Yes, I remember a thread on here years ago when people were appalled to find out that there were beginner classes at WEF now.
There was a lot of pearl clutching, but I pointed out that most of the participants in those classes were either the offspring or siblings of people who were there for the shows with other horses anyway. This way, they all got to go to the same show together instead of being forced to pick one show over the other.
9 Likes
I think back on some things, many things and facepalm
My first barn finished its schoolies ‘trial by lesson kid,’ too. It’s amazing how well how many tolerated it and amazing how few bad outcomes there were in the time I was there. But for the grace of God…
4 Likes
I had a friend in high school who was an EXTREMELY TIMID rider on her own horses. On other people’s horses she was way braver.
The only thing we could figure was she was worried if she got hurt on her own horse her parents would sell him.
9 Likes
Honestly, no wonder the sport isn’t growing. I tried to get my niece into riding, but her barn is like yours. After about a year of lessons and a few schooling shows, she asked to stop. Can’t blame her – I never saw her laughing or being silly like kids should be. Now she has another hobby and is having the time of her life.
1 Like
@MHM But a bit of honesty might improve life for those unfortunate horses (possibly drugged) being aimed over fences by people who don’t even have basic balance. “Yes, maybe one day” but it will not happen next week.
3 Likes
I once rode at a mom-n-pop barn that casually bred horses (one a year), and also boarded. They owned four or five broodmares that their kids, all girls, two similar to me in age, rode. I’d originally come as a boarder’s lesson student. I became friendly with the girls and after time, came to regularly ride a young chestnut mare who, a couple years prior, had accidentally been exposed to their stallion and later had a nice filly. That was a fun story. Definitely a mom-n-pop operation, though I didn’t see it at the time. All I saw were the horses 
.
Anyway this mare had a reputation for bucking and generally bad behavior and so none of the kids were interested to ride her themselves. She and I for sure had our moments, especially the time all us kids were riding in a big open field doing typical kid stuff and out of nowhere she planted her nose between her knees and sent her hind end reaching for the sky, and I hit the ground HARD. It was the first time - but not the last - I got the wind knocked out of me. I truly thought the end had come. But I got my breath back, got back on, and life went on.
Pop was a grouchy old fart, a real “man’s man” in a house full of women. He even had one of those 70s mirror pictures of John Wayne prominently displayed over the sofa in the living room. Of course I’m presuming it was his, since Mom didn’t seem the type to want to acquire and display that… thing. It was truly hideous, even in my ‘tween opinion!
I didn’t have a lot of interaction with Pop but when it was unavoidable, he never missed an opportunity to tell me what a waste that mare was, no good, useless, oughta just shoot her. And I got the impression he meant it.
I was able to show her once, at the county fair. A really fun, local, low key affair that I attended for several years with as many horses, on whatever kind tolerant soul I had a ride on at the moment. We didn’t do so well in the jumping classes. But in the English pleasure on the flat she pinned 3rd out of 22! I was over the moon!
Pop “greeted” us as we returned and growled at me something like “dijya stay on?” I held up the yellow ribbon and didn’t stick out my tongue at him, but wanted to. He just made some guttural noise then slouched away.
The point of this TLDR post isn’t as much to relive childhood memories, though I’m having great fun with it, but to consider how our(g) awareness of and approach to saddle fit and general pain management has changed so much for the better. In those non-horse owning days I got on anything, anywhere, and there wasn’t necessarily a decent extra saddle, or any saddle, available. On the advice of an instructor my mom bought me a second-hand AP saddle so I’d always have something serviceable to ride in. Whether the saddle would actually fit any of the horses I rode wasn’t a consideration. In the 80s, with the type of riding I did - backyard horses, lots of lessons, occasional local shows - the saddle you had was the saddle you used.
I still have it, a Kloster Schonthal, and it’s pretty narrow. My chestnut girl was a western-type breed, formerly a mama, and best I recall she wasn’t a narrow horse. Was our assumption she was naughty actually her trying to tell me, and those before me, that she hurt? Or was there something else going on that caused her physical pain that no one thought to consider? And how many horses suffered for that, and for attitudes like Pop’s?
I think back to that yellow ribbon I was so proud of: while I was riding the class, and afterward elated with the result, was she quietly hurting? I’ll never know of course. But I’m glad saddle fit IS a concern now. While naughty behavior does happen, if my horse ever starts crow-hopping or becomes oddly grumpy, I’ll try to understand why rather than just labeling them “naughty”.
@ZuzusPetals I’m not sotto voce implying anything about your experience with your chestnut mare. It just led me to reflect on my experience with my own chestnut mare, and to take a pleasant Sunday afternoon walk down memory lane. Thank you for starting this thread, I’ve enjoyed it.
19 Likes
