(Sorry about the last one, I accidentally posted it too early, spent an hour and a half writing it, forgot to copy it, clicked submit, was logged out, and lost everything. By that point I had to go to sleep as it was almost 3 am. Lesson learned, NEVER forget to copy something you've spent a while on.)
Hello! Welcome to Chinook's Simple Guide to Showing for the New or Confused! Here I will be explaining the method I used on my old account to successfully show my horses. This method doesn't involve green numbers, member shows, or anything else that might be confusing. This method has worked for me in the past and made me a good amount of money, so I thought I would share it with you.
Step 1: Buying Your Show Horses
The examples I will be using in this guide are with stallions and geldings only, because those are the cheapest to have in your show string. Feel free to throw in mares if you want, but they will need to be put on cycle suppressant, which costs money, which is why I don't show mares. To buy your first stallions or geldings, go to Search>Search Horses, tick the box next to 'For Sale', and sort the price from lowest to highest. Here you will see a list of horses. Try to find the cheapest stallions or geldings you can. I try to get only horses that are rated SSS or higher, but I prefer them to have one or two P's in their rating. Any horse that has A's or Sub's in their rating probably won't be a good show horse, so I don't buy them. Try to buy horses that are Eventing Level 1. This can be found on your horse's page. Once you have bought all the horses you want, go to your barn and geld all the stallions that you plan on showing. Geldings will train faster than mares and stallions, and mares will only train well if they're on cycle suppressant, which can get expensive if you have a lot of mares you are showing. The only time I wouldn't Geld a stallion to show is if they have a good rating. For example, I have two SEE stallions that I plan on showing. The S in their rating might ruin their chance of producing anything good, but I wanted to see what they could produce and if they could be successful studs. Once you have all your horses, make sure they are training in All Disciplines. This can be found on your horse's page.Changing their training can be done under Manage Horse. Now that you have your horses, it's time to move on to Step 2.
Step 2: Hiring Riders
In order to train your horses, you will need riders. To hire a rider, go to Stable>Barns, select the barn your horse is in, go to your horse's page, click Manage Your Horse>Assign Rider, and hire a rider. Once you have a rider, go to all your show horses and assign that rider to each horse. If you have more than 10 show horses, you will need multiple riders. Assigning 10 horses to 1 rider will save you money, rather than a few horses to each rider. You will need more riders as you get more show horses and as your horses and riders level up. Once you have all your riders, go to Stable>Rider's Lounge and pay each one of your riders. I recommend doing this on a Tuesday, and I will explain why soon. If you aren't doing this on a Tuesday, you can change their payday in the Rider's Lounge, but it will cost two week's pay per rider changed. You should always have their payday on Tuesdays because if a rider needs to level up, they will do so on Tuesday. Because they level up on Tuesdays, they will also retire (reach level 10) on Tuesdays. Paying your riders on Tuesdays will prevent you having to pay riders that are just going to retire soon. If a rider retires, all the level 9 horses will need new level 9 riders. Once all your riders are payed and ready to go, move on to Step 3.
Step 3: Training
To train your horses and riders, go to Stable>Training Center. I usually open all my horses that are being trained in new tabs and record their training bars. You don't have to do this, I just like to. I always use the simple chart I have come up with below to train and show my horses. The weeks show how many training sessions the horse has had:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4-Training bars start improving
Week 5-Begin showing
Week 6-If Hrt bar is low, stop showing
Step 4: Showing
I always use this simple chart for showing:
5 Weeks of Training:
Monday-Dressage Show
Tuesday-Cross Country Show
Wednesday-Jumping Show
6 Weeks of Training:
Whichever discipline the horse showed best in on Week 5, I show them in that. DO NOT change training!!!!!
Monday-ex. Dressage Show
Tuesday-ex. Dressage Show
Wednesday-ex. Dressage Show
7+ Weeks of Training:
Continue showing them in whatever they did best in. I don't change their training from All Disciplines because that would require more riders, and riders cost money. If you want, however, you can change their training.
I hope you enjoyed Chinook's Simple Guide to Showing for the New or Confused. Feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer them. Good luck with your showing!
~Chinook
Light Rain then Clearing Overnight
