NinitheNinja - 2014-02-12 11:37 AM I ride with a gymkhana association. I like it, I get to run multiple events and it is still cheaper than most jackpots. Plus, the arenas are only an hour drive away. Normally the jackpots near here are 2+ hours away from where I board, have a $60 entry fee, and either $100 added or no added money. So I prefer gymkhanas. For the association, the year end points are accumulated by the rider only. But for the daily high point, riding 2 horses would give you an unfair advantage. So they count for the horse/rider combination. Running a horse multiple times in one day depends on the horse, I suppose. My horse has no trouble running 7 events in one day rain or shine, but if it was 100+ degree heat I would probably opt out. I personally would not care if you switched horses halfway through. It does not hurt me, so why should I dwell on it? But if you were riding with the club I ride at, you would not get highpoint unless everyone else got no times in all the events.

GraciousLegacy - 2014-02-12 1:25 PM

 How? I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it is an advantage. Not arguing just want someone to explain what they think the unfair advantages are.

luckyrunner - 2014-02-12 1:26 PM Ok so if its pointed on rider only, and you have jane deere running and accumulating points on 3 horses. Even if they are getting even 3rd 4th and 5th place that's 9 points in one class for that rider. While John Doe on his one horse maybe won the class but that only gets him 6 points. Even if he won all day Jane would take high point as long as she kept placing.

luckyrunner - 2014-02-12 1:26 PM Ok so if its pointed on rider only, and you have jane deere running and accumulating points on 3 horses. Even if they are getting even 3rd 4th and 5th place that's 9 points in one class for that rider. While John Doe on his one horse maybe won the class but that only gets him 6 points. Even if he won all day Jane would take high point as long as she kept placing.

GraciousLegacy - 2014-02-12 2:22 PM

Ok I see what you are saying but that is not what they are asking to do.
They are wanting to run each class ONE time, not multiple times, but on which ever horse they want.
Example: They run five events. Use horse "A" on events 1, 2, and 3. Use horse "B" on events 4 and 5. They can't earn any extra points. They are only making one run per event just not using the same horse all day.

Edited to add...this club does not allow any exhibitions. So if you own more than one horse or are trying to get one seasoned it is impossible the way they have it set up.

sassy&tessa - 2014-02-12 1:50 PM

lol-I think most of you would die running in the gymkhana associations in California.  They have 13 events.  Yes, 13.  And sometimes they run all 13 for 3 days straight.  And yes, I have done it.  And none of my horses died or were worse for the wear.  

CGA is pretty hard core.  I used to run against a girl that made it to the High School Rodeo finals in poles.  I can't remember if she won it or not but she was dang close.  They run standard barrels there and the good girls are running low 17's...consistently.  Poles in the low 20's.  It's pretty competitive.

They do speed divisions and not ages.  I will tell you, I ran the playdays for my church and we moved them from age to speed and it went over really well.  It evened out the competition and it even made the show go faster.  I prefer it that way.  As information, we averaged about 65 people per playday last year.

Our rule out here is you can run multiple horses for different events.  If you want to run more than one horse in each event, you have to designate which one is being ran for points.  In  California, you can run multiple horses but you can't switch horses out for different events. Works well for them-they have a ton of members (thousands).

Gunner11 - 2014-02-12 2:37 PM Curious, how do you divide everyone up by speed? This seems like it would be more fun because some riders know they'll never have a shot at placing because everyone else in their age group is so much faster. In speed divisions, do you have adults riding against kids? Are they ok with that?

sassy&tessa - 2014-02-12 2:47 PM


CGA has a matrix that has been built for like 20+ years.  They have taken the data from that and adjusted throughout the years.  You can go online and see how they do it.

We went pretty basic.  We only have 3 events and we did 4 divisions.  Took the 3 years of data we had and did splits just like you would at a D barrel race.  For the most part it worked.  Keyhole needed to be adjusted but it actually helped some kids that were walking to place so that was cool.  I didn't want to make difference splits for different events as it was a new concept and I didn't want to confuse anyone.

We used the charliehorse software so we could tallie points and what not after every playday and people could watch where they were in the standings.  

Yes, adults rode against the kids.  Here was our problem.  we were running 4 age groups.  The adults had the most in them.  We were lucky to get 5 in one of the age divisions and we adjusted it every year to try and get more in them.  And in every single age bracket, there was someone that was just smoking everyone.  We had a ton of people that complained and said they or their kids felt defeated.  I mean seriously, we had an 8 year old that was running times to beat everyone at the playday and that division is really meant for kids that are just learning to ride!

By making it by speed, that same 8 year old rode at that same speed but now had competition.  And the 8 year old still learning to go past a walk didn't have to feel like they needed to lope just to get a ribbon.  MOST of our adults don't want to go past a lope.  This gave them an opportunity to place and win in a division.

I can't remember the splits.  It was something like 1, 3, 6 seconds or something like that.  But you look at the statistics and it evened everything out.  Only one person really ran off with everything and it was in the fastest division.  All of the others it was a race until the end and people were placing that never had.  It was super cool. 

sassy&tessa - 2014-02-12 3:05 PM  Nope-it was actually the adults that really wanted it!  They felt like you.  And they wanted to compete against people in the same level of riding as them not by age.  We had a ton of compliments. I didn't hear of anyone complaining about the format.  



The other great thing about this way is that those same kids CAN improve and when they bump up, it means they are getting better.  We had barrel girls bringing colts and this was a great way for them to see sights, improve, and they didn't have to push their horse past their ability.



Also, our adults were super encouraging.  Everyone wanted to see the kids do better.  We have a lot of adults that really don't want to ride in the 1st division.  They do this for fun, to support a kid or grandkid and like their speed they are at.  This gave them an opportunity to be comfortable and competitive at the same time.



 

run n rate - 2014-02-12 3:30 PM I love the CGA timing format to for divisions, you actually sign up at any division, if you run faster you still can place but in the higher division but you dont' get points for that class in the division you signed up in. CSHA has speed divisions also but they have 4 rating events that they take your times from and average them out, so you may be a Div. 2 in barrels, a Div2 in poles and have trouble with say Birangle and you are a Div 4 and also with whatever the 4th event is and average down to a Div.3 rider say. To me this system allows for sandbagging where as the CGA system doesn't. Here is the timing matrix for CGA... http://www.calgymkhana.com/docs/rulesndocs/ratingmatrix.pdf

GraciousLegacy - 2014-02-12 3:22 PM

Ok I see what you are saying but that is not what they are asking to do.
They are wanting to run each class ONE time, not multiple times, but on which ever horse they want.
Example: They run five events. Use horse "A" on events 1, 2, and 3. Use horse "B" on events 4 and 5. They can't earn any extra points. They are only making one run per event just not using the same horse all day.

Edited to add...this club does not allow any exhibitions. So if you own more than one horse or are trying to get one seasoned it is impossible the way they have it set up.