New Rule

[Deleted]

I hear a lot of breeders are very cross with the new nps Olympia rule, the qualifying rider must ride the pony at the final.

[Cherrytop & Spicery Stud]

Sounds good to me!

[Molly]

Sounds like a good rule

[girly]

Is it actually a rule or is it something being discussed. If it is a rule it will be almost unworkable. What happens if a pony is sold or was on loan or the rider is injured, has a baby, qualifies two etc

[question]

cts I thought you advertised yourself as a producer, does that mean you will on accept one open horse for production then?

[another question]

molly said:

Sounds like a good rule

So Molly if you qualified your horse for Olympia and a friend asked you to ride her pony in an Olympia championship because she had sprained her ankle and you happened to qualify it for her, would you then not take your horse or would you think it right that you tell her she cannot go to Olympa.

I agree it is totally unworkable and definately prejudice against producers.

[Good idea]

Think it's a good idea myself. Stop's people (producers) qualifying lot's of average ponies!

[DJA]

They want to encourage entries so that rule looks unlikely.

[rtk]

DJA said:

They want to encourage entries so that rule looks unlikely.

Might actually encourage more entries if people thought ponies were judged for themselves not who was sitting on them.

Wouldn't worry me if it stopped people buying a ride (couldn't afford to do it anyway)

As for taking a ride if your friend sprained her ankle, you wouldn't do it if you were trying to qualify your own.

But I'm not a producer and no one pays me to sit on a horse so it will qualify whether its good enough or not.

[blackknight1]

What about the rest of the new rule that is being implemented?

Once you have qualified a pony for Olympia, not only do you have to ride it at the final but you can no longer compete any other ponies in qualifiying rounds....

How does this affect the producers? Do they now have to start only taking in 1 pony that they are going to do the qualifiers on or once qualified, the rest of their clients have to find alternative producers for the season...some owners wont like the idea of other jockeys aboad. What does this do for the likes of Sam Roberts and Aimee (&^%$ who are young and successfull and trying to establish themselves...

Im not a producer but potentially have 6 ponies that i could do the qualifiers on, should i be lucky enough to actually qualify one the rest would have to abstain from qualifiers for the rest of the season.
This still does not make the Olympia qualifiers any more appealing to me over the HOYS. I would prefer to see 2 judges in the Olympia qualifying rounds because when a schedule comes through and its a c**p judge i dont even contemplate going but if there is also a judge that i see to be fair or good as well i would be more likely to enter and take my chances and let the points decide my fate.

[guest66]

I don't think it's a good idea...everything should be done to ensure the best native ponies of the year enter the final. If anyone feels that the wrong ponies qualified, that is due to the judges at the qualifiers. Perhaps it is time for two judges to mark the qualifiers. If the producers don't support the idea then the final will become the 'home-produced' native of the year and will slowly die a death.

[red flag]

Wouldn't worry me if it stopped people buying a ride (couldn't afford to do it anyway)
So you want to turn showing into a communist state then.

You cant afford it so ban the rest then. Have you ever thought that the people who do buy these ponies give up other things to buy the ponies. Sometimes they cant afford it but go without something else.

[rtk]

red said:

Wouldn't worry me if it stopped people buying a ride (couldn't afford to do it anyway)
So you want to turn showing into a communist state then.

You cant afford it so ban the rest then. Have you ever thought that the people who do buy these ponies give up other things to buy the ponies. Sometimes they cant afford it but go without something else.

Wouldn't stop people buying ponies of the right quality to go there or paying someone to produce them. It would stop people who aren't good enough qualifing ponies. Perhaps they would be better spending the money on a few lessons.

[Good news]

agree - a lot of ponies currently going through are not good examples of their breed, which is damaging, a good jockey whether professional or not can school a pony to go nicely and qualify without too much difficulty so actually shouldn't make much difference. You can only ride one pony at the final anyway whoever you are ;D
the problem at the moment is that the pros are qualifying lots of ponies some good examples and some def not good types, but the some people including some judges think they are good examples of their breed because either they have been already or have qualified for Olympia.

[lexy]

If you look at this year's list of qualifiers - (on the NPS website) there is no-one who has qualified more than one pony. So this rule would not have affected the final line up this year anyway !

Do they allow a replacement rider if the qualifying rider is ill/injured on the day ?

[hmm]

Exactly. Unlike HOYS only 30 or so ponies go through to the final. Only occasionally does someone qualify more than one

[also]

and really, how many sub standard ponies qualify realisticaly, they may not be my type, but I don't know one that is subtandard

[Producer]

If you are talking about the year a certain someone qualified 3 for Olympia I agree it did the rider, the NPS and the Judges no favours that year.

However, I think lessons have been learnt from that and I beleive it was during that year that this site was set up. I now think that judges know they are more answerable to us the competitors, producers or amateurs.

I also agree that every horse that has qualified this year is very worthy so what is the problem.

Changing the rules will be a minefield nobody knows the facts yet, so is best to wait and see.

I also feel that producers encourage their clients, and breeders are keen to sponsor the NPS and think that they will also lose revenue this way too if they change to the rule.

[Hubble]

Totally agree with you Producer, which is unsual, think it will be suicide to bring in this rule.

HOYs do not do this and they are thriving in the M&M's. NPS will be the only Society to enforce this.

[daft]

this could be the beginning of the end of the olympia competition.

[Guestless]

daft said:

this could be the beginning of the end of the olympia competition.

Or it could be the start of a truly exciting competition where the best of the best qualify and amateurs feel as if it is a more level playing field.

I do feel for the producers, but at the end of the day showing is a hobby, albeit a fantastic one, but it's not a life or death situation.

*Guestless shrinks back to wait for all the brickbats to be thrown*

[Hmm]

Its a hobby for you yes Guestless but for producers it is their livlihood and income, its more important than just a sunday jaunt. I actually think it will be the death of Olympia to be honest. It is more prestigious than HOYS but why has it changed like this......an amateur at Olympia needs to be the same quality/standard as a producer otherwise they don't deserve to be there.

[Get Off]

Hmm said:

Its a hobby for you yes Guestless but for producers it is their livlihood and income, its more important than just a sunday jaunt. I actually think it will be the death of Olympia to be honest. It is more prestigious than HOYS but why has it changed like this......an amateur at Olympia needs to be the same quality/standard as a producer otherwise they don't deserve to be there.

Your high horse!!!

What makes you think that producers have the better ponies!!!!! and be of a higher standard than an amateur??

Its stupid comments like this thats makes people think that most producers are upthemselves!!1

I could give up my day job, and produce horses for a living, I have the facilities and actually the offer of ponies to show.........I would then be a producer it would not make me better!

Dont start making this into a topic of producers v amateurs.

[Hmmmmmmmm]

sounds a daft rule as fewer ponies will compete and thought they wanted to Encourage entries. Why are they getting at the producers when they rarely qualify more than one pony. There aren't many producers anyway these days.
The idea going around about silver medal qualifiers for class winners would've been great as every winner in a Championship would have something to look forward to and more people would have tried to get a medal rosette as well as trying for Olympia.
Wonder why NPS didn't pick it up?

[Bonkers]

What an utterly ridiculous rule!!
The producers will quite rightly be up in arms. The
ponies and riders that don't qualify for olympia don't make it for a reason.
Showing ponies is an art and those who are good at it win on a GOOD animal. Those who are not so good at it need a GREAT animal to beat them.
Olympia is there for the best of the best - not just the best ponies but the best combinations. So occasionally someone will qualify more than one for the final, but more often a talented amateur deservedly qualifies a great pony.
Stop giving the producers a hard time. Stop making flippant comments "guestless" (the best of the best already do qualify and it IS a bread and butter situation) and STOP trying to lower the standard at the greatest show of the year.

[Agreewithbonkers]

Hear hear Bonkers.

The best of the best already do qualify be they producers or amateurs.

[Guestless]

bonkers said:

Stop making flippant comments "guestless" (the best of the best already do qualify and it IS a bread and butter situation)

You may not agree with my comment (and you are perfectly entitled to your view) but that doesn't make my opinion flippant. I think people are starting to take showing far too seriously - drugging other competitors ponies, cheating, sleeping with some judges, etc. It has become far too political these days and I guess some people are trying to see if they can somehow address that.

I'm not saying the new rule will work - but I think anything is worth a try.

Maybe my life has been put into perspective this year - but my 41 year old sister is dying from cancer and some show producers earn more for producing ponies than then nurses who are trying to help my sister. Just seems absurd to me.

I've already said I do feel sorry for the producers - I can totally understand WHY someone would want to do that as a full time job.

[hmm]

Steady on touchy!! If you cared to read instead of just jump to conclusions I never said that.

IMHO Successful producers ARE genuinely some of the best riders and have some of the nicest horses - people wouldn't pay a cr*p rider to produce their horses would they now if they wanted to see success?

Anyway back on topic, what I actually was saying is to compete at Olympia both Producers and Amateurs should be at the top of the game, so why restrict it for the producers? If you arent a decent enough then you aren't a decent enough end of. For Olympia you shouldn't have it made easier for you be it amateurs or producers; it is THE most prestigious M&M competitions and sometimes that seems to be forgotten. I just don't see how putting restrictions like this will do anything but make the competition less popular, a drop in standards and some of the countries best ponies left stood on yards because that yard (be it amateur or pro) already has one pony qualified.

I am an amateur for the record.

Get said:

Hmm said:

Its a hobby for you yes Guestless but for producers it is their livlihood and income, its more important than just a sunday jaunt. I actually think it will be the death of Olympia to be honest. It is more prestigious than HOYS but why has it changed like this......an amateur at Olympia needs to be the same quality/standard as a producer otherwise they don't deserve to be there.

Your high horse!!!

What makes you think that producers have the better ponies!!!!! and be of a higher standard than an amateur??

Its stupid comments like this thats makes people think that most producers are upthemselves!!1

I could give up my day job, and produce horses for a living, I have the facilities and actually the offer of ponies to show.........I would then be a producer it would not make me better!

Dont start making this into a topic of producers v amateurs.

[Mission Impossible]

Hear! Hear! Well said. Why ruin the NPS's finest M&M ridden Competition. We would all love to compete at Olympia and all know it is the hardest to achieve and that to be credible it must stay that way. Has the rule really been introduced or is it rumour?

[neat]

That;s a cool idea