Local "open" show

[CrescentMinis]

I'm brand new to showing, and planning to enter 2-year old Zoey in the NW miniature horse club show July 5th/6th. I just noticed there is an "open" show at the Mt. Hood Equestrian Center near me this weekend, with mini classes plus everyone else.

Do any of you ever enter these types of shows? Would any winnings mean anything relevant to showing in the AMHA/AMHR shows (points or ?)?

If I take her I would be looking at it as pure practice to get some of the rough edges off both of us and not look as amateur at the Minimac show in July. Or I could just check it out myself to see what halter people are doing, now that we are training at home.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Oh Yes! They are fun and you really do learn a lot. Such as some horses get very grabby in the ring, if they expect treats. Of creep up on you. Or maybe you might stand too close to your horse so that it doesn't extend its neck like it should. Things that are nice to work on in a less stressful situation. We used to do the open shows all the time when we started, in classes against big horses. It was fun and we learned a lot! Good luck Faithie and tell us how you do!

 

[carlenehorse]

These are the shows that we do and enjoy so much.

We started showing at the Gulf Coast Quarter Horse Association open show in 2003. A friend and I went to one show with two miniatures and walked into the arena with the quarter horses not knowing anything about showing in halter.

Well it was such fun and the association was impressed that we showed up to all the shows that they voted in miniature halter classes for us.

I won 1st place over all in All age Miniature Mares and won a gold and silver belt buckle.

We have such fun and now we are getting the kids involved in showing.

Just this past Saturday I showed my filly that is 2 months old and a co-workers little 2 year old nephew showed her in PeeWee halter and he had so much fun. That right there was worth it to me.

Good luck and I hope you have fun.

Carlene

 

[CrescentMinis]

Thanks you guys, it sounds like we might have some fun.......

Well then I better dust her off and polish up her pretty little face

One more "?" -- would you go to the extent of full clipping (she was clipped 3 weeks ago) or wait to do that a week before the AMHA show in early July?

(edited to add) Oh no, I just remembered she really needs her feet trimmed and that isn't happening till 6/25 since I wanted to schedule it close to the July show, so she will look funny with hooves a little longer than they would normally be. Hmmmmm........

 

[susanne]

Faith,

Open shows are great fun and great experience. Like Kim mentioned, you'll get a chance to correct little glitches before your AMHA show.

If she is just coming up on her regularly scheduled trim, I wouldn't worry. Now, if they are really out of whack, that's another story! As for trimmng, I would consider a full clip to be optional, but if this is your dress rehearsal, you may want to go ahead and clip. Nothing like being in the show ring to notice that patch you missed on the inside of her leg!

I didn't hear about this show, but hmm...we may go ahead and enter, too. Bad luck, bad timing, etc., have kept us out of all of this summer's shows so far. Last weekiend we showed up for the Columbia County Schooling Show, only to learn it had been cancelled due to rain (outdoor arena...mud...horrible mes).

 

[Jill]

Open shows are a great place to practice, have fun, and have wins you can be proud of. It's also a great way to show other horse people how nice miniatures can be. I used to do some open shows and always enjoyed them and came out with lots of championships over the biggies

Remember that the open show may not be similar to a registry judge when it comes to the fine points of type in the miniatures, but they should be good at evaluating overall conformation.

Go and have fun, and represent the breed

 

[CrescentMinis]

Here's the schedule:

http://www.mheec.com/showflyers/MHEECflyer6-21-08.pdf

Someone posted info about this show in the LB sale board and that's where I ran across it, despite driving past the equestrian center's big readerboard every day that advertises upcoming shows. I didn't know before that an "open show" would include minis.

Susanne, I hope you come. I would love to meet you! I am just going to go over there for a couple of classes first thing Saturday morning. They have halter A/B minis first in the whole show lineup, then there's a color class about 7th on the list.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Yay!!!

I am glad you are going, with Alexa I presume? That should be fun! You will love Susanne,,, I may have pointed her out at the schooling clinic. Hopefully she will have Mingus in tow! He is a beautiful bay gelding that rules the world! ( He thinks anyway!) HeeHee.

I know the one thing when I went and showed against other horses sometimes they want to know what "type" of horse yours is... I had no idea. At that time they stuck us in the big horses classes for pleasure horses. But we did good!

 

[CrescentMinis]

Haha Kimmie, I will have to tell them little Zoey is the "long-toed type".....just kidding. Her feet aren't that overgrown, but longer than I think they should be. So that bugs me.

I did see some classes that say "stock type" vs. "saddle type". I would call her saddle type if it came down to that. But I don't expect to be in those classes anyway.

I ordered my show halter last week, and it shipped midweek, so as long as it gets here by Friday, we're in! Thanks for the help and encouragement.

 

[susanne]

I see on their website that we can only enter minis in the mini and color classes...darn! I love showing Mingus against the bigs, especially when he beats them, hehe...

I also see that they have a number of green driving classes...hmm...I wonder what their definition of green is? Would they turn green (from nauseau, not envy) seeing our training cart and training harness? Or the fact that I can count on my hands the number of times we've driven in public? I would probably humiliate Mingus beyond all reason, not to mention myself, my family, my forum family...