Amateurs can achieve with the right mix of ingredients, says top showman Simon Reynolds, who is best known for producing cobs for the show ring
I recently attended the Horse & Hound Awards held at Cheltenham Racecourse (30 November). It’s an event I always look forward to and this year was no exception.
It’s true when they say the horse industry is a small world, and it was great to catch up with such a variety of equestrians. It’s wonderful how the awards honour so many different types of people, including amateurs and professional riders, volunteers, vets and farriers. There are many things that I took away from the evening and hoped we could implement them into our sport of showing.
We still have an obvious amateur versus professional divide, and I think the reason this is less obvious in other disciplines, such as showjumping, is that the sports are less subjective, less open to skewed opinion and more based on performance. In the other disciplines, talent is easier to recognise, as it is measurable – in showjumping you have to keep the fences up and/or be the fastest.
On awards night, there was an award for the amateur of the year – and amateur is a status to be proud of. Quite often, these people are juggling full-time jobs and their sport is their hobby. How good you are at that hobby, and how seriously you take it, then depends on your results. Thankfully, showing is recognising the importance of amateurs and is making strides to increase opportunities for them in the show ring.
“I’m sometimes envious”
I had to work hard my whole life to become a professional within my own right. As a child, I made rare appearances at school. I came from generations of horsemen; my great grandfather and grandfather were in hunt service, and my dad was a professional jockey and later a horse dealer.
Horses were my life from an early age. I laugh when people say professionals have it easy and only win because of their status. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a child, I was working with horses to contribute to the family income. I then moved away from home to work on hunting and showjumping yards.
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I never showed ponies and rode my first show horse, the working hunter Brightmore, when I was 19. Being a professional show producer was never handed to me and it does smart when I hear the grumbling about professionals, and I’m sometimes envious of the amateur status. I don’t know any other job where being successful and skilful can be a detriment. You certainly wouldn’t be promoted without those accolades.
“The opportunities are numerous”
I always maintained that if I had been successful in school, I would have made a great amateur. In showing, we have some wonderful amateur combinations. There are plenty of good animals with talented riders who, on the whole, win their fair share of classes, including at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) and the Royal International (RIHS).
The key to success is in the planning, to place yourself and the horse at the appropriate level – no different to dressage, which is staged as such. Not everyone is going to qualify for HOYS, nor are they entitled to if they’re not at the required level.
However, we have some wonderful shows championing the amateurs, with glittering finals celebrating their successes at prestigious events throughout the calendar, such as Show Teams and Rising Stars (STARS), SEIB Search for a Star at HOYS, the RIHS. And not forgetting amateur, rising stars and home-produced classes held at national level by the major showing societies.
The opportunities for amateurs are numerous and they arguably have more bites at the cherry than the professionals. Grasp these shows with both hands.
Finally, I wish everybody a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
● Do you feel that amateurs have a fair chance in the show ring? Let us know at hhletters@futurenet.com – include your name, nearest town and county for the chance top have your views published on the letters page in Horse & Hound magazine
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Simon is a show horse producer, whose most successful horse to date has been maxi cob Hallmark IX. A regular Horse & Hound columnist, you can read Simon’s views in the magazine and online.
