Is winter fur penalised in showing?

[chev]

I wanted to get Bob, Andy and Lili out and about but they are seriosuly furry at the moment. I can't see them shedding that in the space of a month somehow so would I be wasting my time doing some shows while they're still hairy? Or does it not matter?

[Soot]

Round here is **REALLY** varies. There are some local shows who don't mind so much (and also forgive missing shunks of mane on my traditional mare!), whereas others get a bit snotty and don't like the fact that hairy horses sweat up so much. I'd e-mail the show sec and ask whether they consider it acceptable or not.

In my opinion, no show is ever a waste of time!

[Megzii_&_Medi.x]

last year i was told to try and get rid of my pony's baby fur..so thats kinda like winter coat... i got placed in the middle..

[chev]

Originally Posted by Soot

In my opinion, no show is ever a waste of time!

Fair point

At the same time, these are stud ponies, so it wouldn't do me any good if I went out and was put down the line just because they have coats like a sheep right now.

[Soot]

Hmmm good point. I really only show for fun, so not sure about the politics of "serious" showing. I would definitely ask the show sec in your case. It might well be quite common at this time of year ... On the flipside it might be a sign of the devil !

[Mehitabel]

how about doing some local shows and doing prettiest pony, best mane and tail etc? then you can get some miles on the clock and not worry about people seeing them looking yakky.
if you're doing it seriously you're going to be up against the ponies who've been in all winter and rugged and lycraed to the eyeballs.

[chev]

Good idea, Meh. That's what worries me; there are some big producers round here whose ponies haven't had so much as one hair grow on them the whole winter.

[Glider]

Ponies aren't penilised deliberately for having wooly coats, but showing is so much about presentation and creating an illusion of perfection that ofcourse it will have some effect. A smooth, silky coat increases show presence and makes the horse look more "quality", but a horse with poorer conformation but a sleek coat shouldn't beat a well conformed wooley one.

Every judge will have different views on furry coats - the show organiser won't always know the view of the judge

My chap is very wooly at the moment, and has a trace clip. I've bought a shedding blade and am expecting to spend quite a bit of time attached to in in the next month or so!

[Tiggy02]

It does depend on the judge but the ponies without a coat do not sweat up which seems to influence some judges (so much for natives being shown in their natural state!!) my D mare is starting to shed her coat now but we have made a decision not to show her at the early shows as she does sweat up badly and looks awful then. Don't think more local fun shows would worry about it though.

[show-ponies]

Noooooo !

[Sexy Sietske]

Last year me and mum spent hours with a shedding blade on Sietske to defluff her before the shows as she was moulting really bad. After 3 weeks she had lost the majority of her winter coat and the day before her first ever show jumped out the field and took all the hair off her back legs and grazed them quite badly. Now there was no way 3 weeks worth of arm ache and blisters where going to waste so we cleaned her legs up the best we could (only cosmetic injuries, no swelling or soreness) and took her to the show and did inhand youngstock (nothing else for a friesian to go in at local level ) and in the line up she did look very nice compared to the other woolie M and M type youngstock and obviously took first place!!

It wont be long before they start to drop their winter coats, Nelson is moulting like crazy now and the TB has even started moulting! Just put alot of hard work in with the shedding blade and see how they are looking closer the time, if they are still super fluffy then you could always miss the first show as they tend to be really quiet and lacking competition anyway