Just what exactly can you see on a horse that is different when it has a saddle on it and when it doesn’t? There are numerous classes which appear to be incredibly repetitive. There is adult amateur sporthorse under saddle black horse with white spots, and adult amateur sport horse under saddle white horse with black spots. Then there is the adult amateur sport horse in-hand brown horse with a saddle but no one is riding it class. I am going to slip a zebra in and see if anyone notices.
Then there are the classes that have like 17 horses in them all at once. The judge stands in the middle and somehow not only picks a winner, but picks second place and three others for good measure. I am getting dizzy watching this from the outside. I don’t know how they possibly do this.
What is a reserve champion? As an old Navy guy, I am thinking “one champion isn’t enough, so we have to bring up the reserve”. Why cant they just say second place? I spent a lot of years racing cars, and I never got a reserve winner, but I got a lot of seconds.
Congratulation to all who participated in the Region V championships. There were some great competitors out there, and I got to meet a couple more horse-husbands. You make a great post.