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 Regular
Posts: 65
Location: south GA | I help with a local saddle club that has an "open" show that includes everything from halter, western pleasure, english, gaited, and speed events. 99.9% of the horses that show are ridden in the walk trot and western pleasure classes are QHs, however we recently had three exhibitors show up with a saddlebred, mule (this is ALL this teenage girl has to show against QHs), and morgan. We had QH people pitch a fit when the morgan and saddlebred placed in the top 4 in a pleasure class and one of them basically said if they didn't possess QH papers then they shouldn't be allowed to ride. Some said we should make them go in the gaited classes, however a morgan is not gaited, and according to my research depends on the class as to if the saddlebred is gaited or not. The mule was a whole different story...apparently a fast loping mule is "out of control".
To me an open show=open to ANY/ALL breeds. Am I wrong here, or do others see it that way? Would it be wrong to tell the QH people to suck it up and ride or leave, but the problem is in this area QHs are the majority, big time. I really hate to see so much closemindedness and hostility.
So please if you don't mind....what is YOUR definition of an open show. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
  
| To me an open show is
Any breed
Any age horse/person
Any gender horse/person
Any competition level novice-pro horse/person
And horse does include mule, donkey, horse, zebra, etc
I showed as a kid, and a mule won halter showmanship against professionally trained/shown Arabian champions
Congrats for the girl |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Open show is open to anyone. Usually whoever is putting on the show has a set of rules that explain |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | We have all sorts of breeds show up at open shows. QH and Arabs are the majority, but you will occasionally see Ponies, Morgans, Pintos, Half Arabs, Saddlebreds, and even draft crosses. Really depends on the judge if they will place or not. I have seen walkers show up as well. Gaited horses can be shown as well as long as the class is not AQHA pleasure or a "stock horse" class.
Sounds like a bunch of whiners! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 825
| I've never had any experience with a show like your talking of, but the way I look at it, its an OPEN show put on by a LOCAL saddle club, so they can allow whoever and whatever they want. Of course, it shouldn't go against any rules or anything posted on a flyer, etc. |
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 Hugs to You
Posts: 7551
Location: In The Land of Cotton | Knowing who you are and where it probably was at - they are a bunch of whiners and sorry losers. Open means just as described above. Just because AQHA happens to be a popular breed in our area, doesn't make it the only one.
Tell them to suck it up. And congratulations to the judge for knowing a good horse/mule when he sees one. Regardless of the breed. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 407
| Tell the whiners to go talk to the judge. Ask them why they placed the class as they did. Open means anyone. |
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 Namesless in BHW
Posts: 10368
Location: At the race track with Ah Dee Ohs | Open to any and all breeds |
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Regular
Posts: 65
Location: south GA | I just think the QH people don't like change and don't want to share their toys. Those who are running speed events, they just don't care what you ride out there on. Funny how it's night and day at the shows between the pleasure portion and the speed events. It is hard though to tell the QH people to suck it up and ride when they are paying the bills though.... |
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 Own It and Move On
Location: The edge of no where | Open means OPEN to all!!! If they don't like it, tell them to go to an AQHA show.
Good for her for showing her mule! Enjoy what you have.
Edited by MS2011 2014-11-20 2:12 PM
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 Cute Little Imp
Posts: 2747
Location: N Texas | MS2011 - 2014-11-20 2:11 PM
Open means OPEN to all!!! If they don't like it, tell them to go to an AQHA show.
Good for her for showing her mule! Enjoy what you have.
Ditto  |
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 Veteran
Posts: 120
Location: The Great Midwest | Ok let me put in my 2 cents here!
I showed 4H and local horse shows for 8 years. My horse was actually a Morgan/foxtrotter! I had such a hard time because the judges either LOVED her or HATED her. She gaited like a foxtrotter but didn't have the head bob but had the headset and carriage of a Morgan. I did plenty of Open horse shows (And I agree open means any age, breed, size, kind, anything you name it) and had to show up against the Cow Canter, messed up QH's. Either we would place very high or not at all. And we never placed in Foxtrotter classes, again no head bob. So we just entered regular classes and hoped for the best. I wanted to show English so bad but couldn't post. BUT I put a hunt seat saddle on, my breeches and went in a hunter under saddle class at a 4H show and won 2nd in a big class! That judge actually understood that you CANT post on a gaited horse, 99% of the other judges didn't and would knock off points because of it. I eventually ended up switching to Saddle Seat and we won our class at state 3 years in a row.
It was SO hard even with my Purebred Arabians showing up against the QH and rarely did local shows or open shows have a separate "Saddle type class" and it sucked. But guess what we bucked up, paid our entry fees and showed just like we were in a saddle type class and sometimes it would be great but most of the time not so much.
I am extremely happy a judge choose a Saddle type over the dead head lame Stock Type! (Ive always been a fan of horses with spirit that's why I went from Arabians to barrel racing) I say Western Pleasure is about how much of a pleasure the ride is and if the judge wanted the Morgan then it was a nice ride. Trust me ive rode some of the 4 beat QH and its not that fun of a ride.
So I say "go you" to whoever that person is!!! From previous Saddle type owner to another :)  |
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 Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I am an OHSA (Open Horse Show Assoc.) carded judge. We test for it and it's a national level association. I judge and compete in several open shows throughout the year.
Unless a class is specified as a stock type western pleasure class it's open to any breed. If it's specified as non-gaited it's open to any non-gaited breed.
Mules, Morgan's, and saddlebreds all have Western Pleasure classes at their registered shows just like the AQHA shows do. The only difference is how they frame up and how they move.
I have judged a WP classes with a mule, a saddlebred, morgan, and several QH. You judge according to which horse is the best representative for THEIR own breed. If the morgan is the best representative of WP for morgans then you place the morgan first. Yes you judge on consistency, lightness, responsiveness to cues but movement and frame and tempo you judge against breed standard.
Some people forget that this is a HOBBY and if people keep complaining about little stuff there's not going to be anyone willing to put on shows because of all the griping.
Edited by Fairweather 2014-11-20 2:43 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 238
| I think the hardest part is on the judge. Hard to judge a mixed class like that. You have to judge against each breed's standard, not against each other. People don't understand that. Just because your horse might win against all of the other QHs in the class, doesn't mean they are the ideal for the QH pleasure. They may score a 8 out of 10 against the ideal QH in the judge's eye, where the Morgan scored a 9 out of 10 against the ideal Morgan in the judge's eye.
They aren't being judged against each other, and many people have a hard time wrapping their heads around this. |
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 Always Off Topic
Posts: 6382
Location: ND | Turnin3GA - 2014-11-20 1:32 PM I help with a local saddle club that has an "open" show that includes everything from halter, western pleasure, english, gaited, and speed events. 99.9% of the horses that show are ridden in the walk trot and western pleasure classes are QHs, however we recently had three exhibitors show up with a saddlebred, mule (this is ALL this teenage girl has to show against QHs), and morgan. We had QH people pitch a fit when the morgan and saddlebred placed in the top 4 in a pleasure class and one of them basically said if they didn't possess QH papers then they shouldn't be allowed to ride. Some said we should make them go in the gaited classes, however a morgan is not gaited, and according to my research depends on the class as to if the saddlebred is gaited or not. The mule was a whole different story...apparently a fast loping mule is "out of control". To me an open show=open to ANY/ALL breeds. Am I wrong here, or do others see it that way? Would it be wrong to tell the QH people to suck it up and ride or leave, but the problem is in this area QHs are the majority, big time. I really hate to see so much closemindedness and hostility. So please if you don't mind....what is YOUR definition of an open show.
they should be glad that folks want to come participate with their overly snooty selves ....open is open....4 legged equine......and you're not going to change those type of people......maybe if you beat the snot out of them and tell them to get with the program or get out...
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | Open is open. I always compare it to dog shows. When they're going for best in show, it's judging all the dogs against their breed's standards, not the pit bull against the yorkie. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 475
Location: Alabama | Open is open in my area. We offer gaited & non-gaited classes. A gaited horse is not allowed the enter a non-gaited class & a non-gaited horse is not allowed to enter a gaited class. Breed nor color matter. Ponies may not enter the horse class & ponies must be ridden by 12 & under riders. |
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Regular
Posts: 65
Location: south GA | I see you are in AL, part of these shows are Alabama Open shows that I am referring too, but it seems like our QH people just do not want to share the ring with a morgan, which is classified as a stock horse, and the saddlebred I'm just not sure what to think there - but from what I understand if it's ridden three gaited then it's not classified as "gaited"---and I can tell you my first horse was a saddlebred and you couldn't get that thing to rack or gait to save your life. We also use the same showbill for our club shows that don't count for AOHA. We lack places for people with horses other than QHs to show, these people want to pay their money to show just like the QH people do.....AOHA's website even states it's open to any breed.
It all just rubs me the wrong way I guess with how closeminded the QH people can be. |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | Turnin3GA - 2014-11-21 1:45 PM I see you are in AL, part of these shows are Alabama Open shows that I am referring too, but it seems like our QH people just do not want to share the ring with a morgan, which is classified as a stock horse, and the saddlebred I'm just not sure what to think there - but from what I understand if it's ridden three gaited then it's not classified as "gaited"---and I can tell you my first horse was a saddlebred and you couldn't get that thing to rack or gait to save your life. We also use the same showbill for our club shows that don't count for AOHA. We lack places for people with horses other than QHs to show, these people want to pay their money to show just like the QH people do.....AOHA's website even states it's open to any breed. It all just rubs me the wrong way I guess with how closeminded the QH people can be.
I believe the saddlebred "gaits" have to be trained... my friend had one that was not gaited and she evented locally with him.
They also have 3-gaited classes for flat shod saddlebreds at the saddlebred breed show (Country pleasure I think?)
Either way, these folks need to suck it up. If you don't like it, go to a breed show! |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9992
Location: Kansas | Sounds like they were butthurt because they got beat by a morgan.......They need to learn showmanship |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 475
Location: Alabama | In that case, if they want to complain, tell them to take it up with your director. If they are not happy after that, send them to Avery. Every breed has a right to show. If they only want to compete against QH's, give them a AQHA show list. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I bet these people would shut their mouths if they saw the mules a friend of mine used to show. They were dressage mules who she also showed in pleasure events. She won every event she took those stupid things in! Gorgeous mules, one was a 16.2 hand bay with 4 white socks and he was HOT! Sucks that they can't breed, because they are nice show horses. (They were out of top notch horses though, NICE bred mules).
Open shows are Any Breed, Any riding, any age. WITHIN REASON. |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| You will run into these people everywhere you go. Open is open unless otherwise specified. We have a lot of local open shows in our area and they do have non-stock and stock type pleasure. Otherwise there is no separation.
If they aren't complaining about this, they will find something else. That is just how people of this nature are. Brush it off and allow these people to show. Most of them will either put up or shut up. They commonly throw fits to try and get their way but they'll still show up at your events. Theres a reason they attend them, cost or location or whatever else.
p.s I give the girls with the mule major props... mules hate me haha |
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Your definition of an open horse show