in-hand showing advice needed please!

[sheddy00]

I have been asked to take my friends grandaughter to a show, to show her section b mare, in hand and first ridden classes. It's the first time for the granddaughter at a show; she's 7. And the first time for me in those classes. What should she wear? What should the pony be shown in? What is expected in the classes? Any advice is most welcome as I am at panic stations here!

[eml]

Depends really on the level of the show but I would be tending to put the granddaughter in lead rein classes not first ridden if she has no showing experience then at least you will be in the ring with her to help.

Pony should wear snaffle bridle for both inhand and ridden classes child should wear canary or corn jods, jod boots preferably brown shirt and tie. Tweed jacket if doing breed/mountain and moorland class or blue for open (with pony plaited) If doing LR then you need ideally a suit with a calf length skirt , at big shows leaders will have suits to match riders jacket but at local shows a plain skirt and shirt/blouse to match riders colour scheme is often seen. Remember if doing lead rein to lead from the back of teh noseband and although special lead reins can be bought you can improvise with a spare pair of reins.

Used to do this with then tiny daughter..an ability to plait /unplait quickly is essential if doing a mixture of classes. We once got hastily plaited for the open LR only to have to rush out of ring as pony was required unplaited for the breeed championship :D

[welshiewhiskers]

Because it is a mountain and moorland pony you should show in a plain bridle with a snaffle bit, the noseband should preferably be flat and slightly wider than a fancy one!
there should be no numnah visible although you could get away with a very discrete one the same colour as your saddle! The girth should be either brown or white depending on the colour of the pony! the pony should be unplaited.
For the rider as first ridden: She should wear a tweed jacket with discrete coloured gloves such as brown; canary/cream jodpurs, with Brown jodphur boots and brown jodphur clips.
she should wear a shirt and tie and if possible the tie to match a scrunchie or bows in her hair. Her hair should be plaited either 2 plaits or 1!
For inhand this all depends on who is showing! basically the rider could wear the same as for her ridden class
Hope this helps! Good luck :)

[sheddy00]

thanks this helps a lot. any idea of whats expected in the ring for in-hand class? do you all walk round together then line up, i hope its just walk and trot. its just a small local show... thanks again for the advice

[welshiewhiskers]

for in hand showing, all the ponies come in and you walk around! and the judges will look at you all! you then one by one trot out, the judges assistant will tell you when to trot etc so dont worry about that!
After that you carry on walking and then the judge will pull you and the other ponies in as a provisional order!
so you are lining up amoungst the other ponies!
One my one you will be pulled up and you make the pony stand still as straight and square as possible in front of the judge so that she can feel over the pony and ask you a few questions about how old the pony is etc!
once she has done that she will ask you to normally walk away from her with the pony! you must walk as straight as you can with a good purposeful walk from the pony trying to stay at the pony's shoulder as judges dont like seeing people 'dragging' their horses. you then turn the horse away from you and trot towards the judge and past her so in a straight line with a good trot so the judge can see the horse's movement! once this has been done you go back into line and wait for the other ponies to do their individual trot up.
You then all walk around the ring until you get pulled in for the final line up which will be your placings!
hope this gives you a rough idea about how it goes! :)

[Sasca]

For the inhand classes your pony needs to be shown naturally but for the ridden class she needs to be plated. this can be tricky so just check which order your classes are and take plenty of grooming kit with you.

Make sure that what you wear sets the pony off nicely. If she is a dark colour then i would wear light coloured trousers so the the front leg movement can be shown off and vice versa.

practise trotting up and have someone judge you to see which is the best pace to keep her at. rush the trot or hold her back to much and you ruin the image. it's hard to judge that on your own. try and match your leg movements with the ponies but that is alot harder with the smaller breeds! Good luck