Of course it’s different. Not intending to put them in the same category…and if ALL the horses get to school over the fences, that’s better. But I don’t like the ‘leg up’ so to speak that home team riders would get by riding over a course…after already knowing the horses. It makes me wonder what the stats are as far as class placing when it comes to home vs. away shows.
Maybe everything evens itself out as each school gets its chance to host?
It’s not something you can really avoid in IHSA. In my experience the same riders tend to do well regardless. And the same riders tend to struggle regardless. I mean, I drew my own horse one show and only placed third. I placed second the day before on a horse I’d never ridden.
Each school hosts so it evens itself out. Often schools co host or borrow horses so it isn’t unusual to get a horse you’ve never ridden before.
The first horse shows I ever did were IHSA.
Yes. The shows are rotated from one school to another in the zone. So the school putting on the show do have an advantage as their riders are experienced with their horses, just like the next school to host, their riders know their horses and therefor, they have an advantage.
It would be different if there was only one school who hosted all the IHSA shows for a single zone. But that’s not how it worked when I was doing it 40 years ago. Can’t speak to now. I simply assume its the same as way as back when.
What are your friends who witnessed it doing? Are they bringing what they saw to the powers that be?
No. I’m completely alone on this. Everyone involved in the conversation just kind of shrugged their shoulders about it, a few actively supported drugging them. Our team is doing as well as it’s ever done, everything is going great at the moment. We have a solid lead in the region and are on track to go to zones/nationals as a team. I think I’d make quite a few enemies if I came forward with this information to an official and messed everything up for the team. Our coach, besides the little hiccup of drugging the horses, is a good IHSA coach. She’s organized and has developed a very competitive team, and is good at strategizing our entries.
That’s a crummy situation to be in, but you’ll always feel good doing the right thing at the end of the day.
I think you’re acting hastily. Again, you were not a witness to said “aceing” and in your original post you said that “many of our school’s horses are creaky, or old or have soundness issues” so isn’t there the possibility that your two "witnesses’ may have witnessed horses being given bute or banamine? Is this the first show your barn has hosted? Are there other issues going on and are you using this as the catalyst to leave? You also said you thought your coach was not the type to just drug horses without cause. How do you know this wasn’t the case? Are there other issues at your barn and this is a catalyst? Is the coach a decent person or the topic of barn gossip. Perhaps the latter if several of you are whispering about the goings on. You are quitting based on an assumption or rumor. If you like the barn and the coach at all you owe it to yourself and to the coach to find out what the deal-e-o is or you don’t really like the barn, or the coach and this is your out.
I did IHSA undergrad in a less funded regional as well and my experience was similar to supershorty’s. None of the horses at our school or the shows we hosted were ever drugged or lunged or excessively worked. We also had horses for different levels depending on how challenging they were to ride. I had my own personal horse at college with me and he was used for the IHSA shows we hosted. I would have no hesitation loaning him again. He went in novice fences and flat classes, which is the lowest jumping level and usually did 2-3 jumping classes an 1-2 flat classes. But he has the right disposition for it. He can take a joke and is very tolerant. Sometimes he was buried to the oxer or his rider got a bit behind, but honestly he was not offended.
But it can definitely be a problem when the horses used do not have the right disposition for IHSA. There were shows we went to where the horses provided sometimes weren’t safe or suitable. And eventually those schools were not allowed to host shows. IHSA has some issues, but many many schools are doing right by the horses and not drugging them or running them into the ground.
I don’t agree with that either that’s a really naive outlook on life. I guess you never drive over the speed limit than, right?
Lol the place where I rode only ever aced their horses once in like 10 years of doing these shows and I talked about it in an earlier post. So framing my views on this as though this is something I engage in and approve of is non sequiter. I think IHSA is unethical or at the very least extremely unsavory as a format. But I think giving a hot horse a little ace is the lesser evil when you consider the long day they have ahead of them. And there is a very low bar for what classifies a horse as hot in this context. And I don’t care about what the IHSA rulebook says because I don’t respect it as an organization. If that’s snotty fine I really don’t care.
And I have no idea wth you’re talking about I never said any of this was for “horsemanship”. IHSA is like the exact antithesis of horsemanship.
Maybe IEA was at the barn you rode out of. IHSA was a great experience for me. The horses were well cared for and not over worked. I never suspected or heard anything amiss about the other teams barns either.
If you want to talk about how dreadful IEA was at your barn, fine but please refrain from commenting on IHSA since you never were involved.
I was using that particular situation as an example of how insanely bad some riders are. I don’t know every trainer or situation but I think if a trainer feels that a tiny bit of ace in the morning could spare a horse from a situation like that than I’m not going to judge them or label them as a horse drugging cheater.
They did both and IHSA riders were always way worse than the IEA ones.
I still blame your barn for putting their horses in that situation. If the horses couldn’t handle it then they shouldn’t have offered. Your barn does not speak for the entire program thank god.
Lol as I’ve said our horses were only ever aced once in like 10 years and it was an extreme circumstance.
Our horses handled everything gracefully always but it’s still hard on them. This type of showing is really hard on any horse.
Maybe in your little area. THAT is my point . For my team in college (and my barn on the east coast hosted shows when I was a junior) it wasn’t hard on the horses. You couldn’t ride at away shows just because you were on the team. That’s how those teams were run. You had to be good enough.
Lol you just were unaware of how hard it was on the horses.
As I stated up thread, it was a spur of the moment conversation at the ring when pretty much the whole team was present. It was not a gossipy conversation in the shadows with one other person. Several people participated in the conversation and after the initial comment that the horses had gotten Ace (in response to my comment that the horses might be fresh this morning) several other team members agreed that the horses had been drugged. They also saw the bottle labeled Ace. I find it extremely unlikely that these team members got together beforehand and decided to fabricate a story about the horses being drugged to tell me. As far as mistaking ace for bute or banamine, neither of those is bright yellow (as far as I know) and I’d be hard pressed to understand how it got inside a bottle labeled acepromazine.
There is also actually another detail that I DID personally witness after the show was over that led me to conclude my teammates were indeed correct. I haven’t shared that on this forum because it would require me to reveal enough detail to identify what team I’m on. I posted this under an alter for a reason. I didn’t want to identify anyone, I simply wanted outside opinions on the situation.
OP you don’t need to defend your decision. You do what you feel is right for you.
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