First Open Show in our Area

[Julie/Azariah]

Welcome to the Open World. We show open all the time, go there for practice for the kids and horses.

As far as type... I will get some pix posted, but like Charlotte said... a more refined "type" is going to be Hunter type.

Hunter Type is ENGLISH and Stock Type is Western... don't know if you corrected yourself from the original post, but you had it backwards.

We show against big horses all the time....and if the judge is truly OPEN... judges each horse for the breed type... or for the TYPE (hunter or stock) then we do very well against the biggies...

But... in an open halter class 2 and under we just show in what we would show in the breed shows.

In a stock or hunter show I basically let the kids chose how they will dress unless the horse is ABSOLUTELY one way or the other (usually stock type would be an absolute horse)

Here are some pix of our open shows and how we did :O)

Open Arabian Show...Classes were Arabian Halter, 1/2 Arabian Halter and Open Halter. He took First in Open Halter and Grand Champion Halter Horse in the Champion Class over ALL the Biggies!

Stock Type

Hunter Type

Stock Type ... most definitely :O)

Also, we have competed in Open Driving Shows and had a blast. They were thrilled to have miniatures there.

In Ladies Pleasure Driving against about 9 friesians and several other types (Haflinger, Hackney...) We took 3rd over ALL the Friesians (made me laugh because I also have a friesian!)

Go and have fun...

 

[WhiteTailsMinis]

Wow, what a wealth of information - just as I hoped for. Thanks!

Penny - never thought about Ebay but will surely be checking that out! Thanks for the detailed description in various types of clothes.

Minimor - - I believe I did see a "pony" class among the list - I'll check on that further. Makes sense to me to be in that class vs the real biggies. Thanks for all your info too!

Julie - wow that's fantastic! Loved the photos and have more visual to understand the differences. You did great among the biggies and that's encouraging. Right now, we're showing a stallion but i hope to show others at some point so the grandkids can go in the ring too. So are you saying that if we find an Arabian open show in the area, we would be accepted/welcomed with our minis to participate?

Fun fun fun - yes that's what we're hoping for LOL It's only 15/20 minutes from home and we've wanted to try it for so long - - we're definitely going to do it! Holly has been practicing every day.

thanks again everyone for all the advice and suggestions and for rooting us on - we're sure to let you know how we do.

 

[Sandee]

Yes, you can definitely "compete" in open shows. I didn't know you had any doubts. In the halter, whether it's Eng or Western, make sure you're horse is all clipped up and clean (spit and polish type of inspection). That's what made it possible for my mare to win over some big horses last year when we went to open shows. Often she was the most "polished" horse in the class and the judges appreciate the effort.

As for driving the minis are certainly competitive but your horse has to be up to the challenge. The arenas are often way too deep and soft for minis. My mare had to win a first or 2 seconds to qualify for our state "championship" show and most of her classes were against big horses, often Fresians. She pulled a muscle in one show because of the arena footing but she also garnered a second in the class. We only had to show against ponies (14.5 hand and under) in the championship (2 shetlands, 2 icelandics) but she managed to win the state championship in driving.

The open circuit was ok but too hard on my horse so I'm sticking with breed shows from now on even though we don't place as high.

 

[WhiteTailsMinis]

Sandee - i can see that the ground would be different in the ring and probably somewhat difficult for the cart.

You mentioned spit polished. We'll do that of course - but offline it was mentioned to us that we should not clip body (as we do for amha/amhr shows) - that these open people would look at us funny coming with a HAIRLESS horse - LOL

He's been clipped previously and just has his summer coat grown in. We were going to do some minor trimming of his feet, muzzle, ears, etc but leave his body alone and no razoring the face.

Is the advice that these open show people with big horses and ponies - and no minis - would really think we're odd if we body clipped and brought a horse with no hair? We were going to go "al natural" with just whiskers gone, ears done and touch ups here and there - but definitely bathed, tail braided night before to have some 'wave", etc.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Sandee]

It's certainly going to depend on who your judge is. My experience was that 4-H judges often appreciated the mini clipped while QH and Pinto judges like the "horse" look. I really couldn't believe the comment that one Pinto judge made when we first started showing about 5 years ago....."Why, he (my, at that time 2 yr old, stallion) looks just like a "little" horse."

I thought, "well, DUH!"