Any showing opportunities for us?

[MajorClementine]

Clementine is only registered WCMHR. Are their any "open" classes or any thing for us to show in? I bought her knowing she was not AMHR/A and it didn't matter since I was just looking for a pet and a mini to drive for fun. However, she has been so much fun that I was wondering if there was anything/where we could show. I'm really not holding my breath on this but thought I'd ask. It think obstacles in hand would be really fun. Just a thought...

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Hopefully you can find an open show that has classes for Minis. Otherwise you can enter any in-hand classes like halter and obstacle in-hand, and if they have open driving classes you should be able to enter those, too.

Sometimes Mini shows do have unregistered horse classes, but those are few and far between.

 

[targetsmom]

There are opportunities but you might have to work for them. First is driving, because the American Driving Society doesn't care if your horse (Very Small Equine, or VSE, in this case) is registered or not. Local shows are another possibility, and if they don't offer the classes you want, get some friends together to make enough for a class and request that they add them. We did that one year for a local Fair. 4-H is another great opportunity. We just started a 4-H Club with our minis, but if you don't have enough for a whole club, maybe there is a 4-H horse club in your area (and 4-H shows) and a youth who would like to use your mini as a project. The way to start is probably to find some other horse owners, horse clubs, or driving clubs in your area and work from there. Of course, you could also buy a registered mini but there still might not be shows right in your area!

 

[Al B]

If she drives, ADS does not care if she's A, R or Q. As long as she's under 99cm you can have a great deal of fun driving her in Pleasure Shows or CDE's.

 

[MajorClementine]

I'm planning on her being a driving horse so it sounds like that is our best be if we do decide to pursue showing. She'll be 3 next spring so I'll start on her ground driving when the snow melts from this winter. We've been working on the basics a little this year but I've been spending most of my time working on getting my gelding driving. He is AMHR so I could show him if I decided it was really something I wanted to do. Thanks for the info

 

[Riverrose28]

Yes, you have plenty of oppurtunities to show, this year was really bad for us finacially, and we coldn't show the breed shows this year. We still showed in a couple of open shows, and they didn't even offer mini classes. We entered our gleding in the gelding class, our mare in the mare class, and our yearling in the yearling class, we have been doing very well against the big guys. In fact in my grandson's 4-H club he is winning all of his classes with his minis and has been the last five years. Last year he was Champion of Champions at the fair show! So yes you can show with or without registration papers, just go for!