All about working hunter please....

[BlueWicked]

tell me all about competing in Working Hunter and show me your pics please

i know you hgave to jump natural fences and do a show? and the judge rides your horse? What is the show judged on - my boy is no dressage horse

 

[chaospony]

Working hunter is judged in three ways, first the ridden show, you walk away from the judge and pick up trot (for a hunter they don't want to see a lot of trotting though!) then canter, all on the basic showing figure of 8, then they want to see a gallop.
Second they want to judge your horse on conformation going on the hunter type.
Third is a course of natural fences.

Some higher shows they will ride your horse but small local levels they don't.

Here is a picture of my old hunter winning a local class, not a big show.

 

[-Charly-]

I loved working hunter until the Gallop. Charly got far to excited and wouldnt stop it was sooo embarassing!! Make sure you practise that before you go =]

 

[Hardy]

We've done a bit of W/H & I've stewarded it at shows. The routine is:

Jumping course of natural fences - some of them can be quite distracting (bullrushes, stiles, sheep pens & even a fruit & veg stand at NE counties last year!) You lose marks for faults or refusals & the judge gives a 'style' mark.

Show - those who went clear after the jumping will be recalled to do a show. If not many went clear some with faults will come back too.

You do an individual short show & then it's like a regular hunter class where the judge rides & horses are stripped for confirmation (sometimes they don't bother with the ride & stripping - depends on the show). The judges won't be looking for a dressage type horse but anything that would be seen in the ridden hunter ring.

Each bit is marked separately & at the end the score are totted up to find the winner. In this way its different from regular hunter classes as scores are recorded as you go on rather than it just being an opinion at the end.

I'm not sure if I have any pics in digital format - if I can turn some up I'll pop a few up

 

[BlueWicked]

thank you can anyone talk me through what is required from your show?

 

[Red Devil]

The individual show really only requires a basic figure of 8. Walk away from judge (sometimes the judge may ask you walk away then to trot back to him/her so just keep trotting onto the 8 if that is the case) to the first corner then go into trot and commence the figure of 8 in trot then do another figure of 8 in canter (trot across the diagonals), finish with a gallop down the long side then back to the judge in trot, salute and back in line.

Short, sweet and foot perfect will go a long way to getting good marks! As someone who judges now & again I hate to see long drawn out shows with no apparent 'shape' to them if you know what I mean?! Also if you should go on the wrong leg in canter, correct it asap, don't just carry reagrdless as that will lose you marks.

Good Luck!!