Horse show fundraiser: Events for English AND Western?

Octagon: Horse show fundraiser: Events for English AND Western?
My high school’s Equestrian Club wants to host a horse show as a fundraiser. The club members will compete, and the audience with pay a small fee to watch. The audience will mostly consist of fellow students who don’t know much about horses. The problem is that about half the club members ride English and the other half Western. To make things more fun, the show will most likely be set in an English VS Western format. What events could be held so that most of the riders could participate in most of the events? For example, the club will definitely do barrel racing. Although it’s more often done by western riders, it would not be difficult to do in and English saddle. Jumping, on the other hand, could be difficult because most of the Western riders have little experience with jumps.

Any suggestions? The events much be fun for the audience to watch even if they know nothing about horses.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Missy B
Funny halter… judge them by hoof size, tail length, etc.

Answer by Cowgirlup1396
okay well if u want it where western and english can both do the same class….then u could definitly do barrels, for jumping you could do like a small cavelleti on the ground (nothing higher than half a foot) and have three cones after it..so you would have to jump over the little cavelleti, weave through the cones back to the jump and go over again..it could be timed. You could also do a horsemanship-equitation class where everyone has the same pattern. Also a western/english showmanship class. And you could do a western vs english trail class. Lastly the western people could do a reining pattern (they dont actually have to do reining..just like do regualr backing, stopping and pivots) they could make there own pattern to music..and then the english people could make a dressage pattern to music. hope this helps =)

Answer by Yohanson.
You’d need to plan this out perfect… but you could set up barrels and a jump course, that come out to be around the same time in seconds,
and have the total of the English riders jumping times, and the Western rider’s barrel racing times combined or averaged,
and the fastest of the two wins the Western vs English.
Then the fastest time overall gets a prize, the fastest jump time does, and the fastest barrel time does too.

Oh, and definitely do a good grand entry. Something exciting with music and galloping around the ring in line with flags and everything.

Answer by Andrea
Command class is always a good one for spectators to watch (or make a variation like Simon Says).

Trail obstacle class.

Then any kind of speed events like pole bending, speed pole, bleeding heart. And then some fun events like Pony Express, Egg and Spoon, Teddy Bear rescue, carrot race…

You should stick to fun or interesting classes where the audience can actually tell what horses/riders are doing better than others. Rail classes are a real bore for non-horse people.

Answer by rhonda
I wouldn’t make English and western compete! its not about style, but about ability! there is enough competition with English verses western! its like comparing apples and oranges! a fundraiser should be based on raising money. not what color we are!!!!! (if you know what I mean!)

Answer by ponygal10145
Haha this is such an awesome concept. If it were me I would choose one of two options.

Option One: Make it seem like the english girls get to ride their horses english and the western girls get to ride their horses western. The day of the show announce that they have to switch horses and diciplines. Explain this to the audience useing the example of someone whos never used a stick on a car trying it for the first time, with the audience watching. Make the western girls (originally english) try to do a trail pattern (they get no help). And the english girls (originally western) try to jump around a course (again no help). Then have them do a simon says class and they MUST do the correct gaits if they are out (i.e. Tell english riders to trot and western riders to jog).

Option 2: Have the girls use their horses but switch tack (so english girls must try to barrel race on their jumpers but they get western saddles and western girls get their horses but with english tack.)

Again this is such a cool idea. Nice going and good luck