You know the image—the one of the palm trees, the sunglasses, the tan and the perfectly fluffy mane; the one that follows the dinner and cocktails pics from the night before on your camera roll? It’s the one you close out on your phone before going back to breaking ice and trying to determine where that blanket strap ended up as you pull down your sunglasses because, somehow, while it is sleeting in your face, there’s also a wicked glare. 

You need a goal, a distraction to get you through this season. You start scrolling and you see that nearby there’s a local unrated horse show. That could be super fun—or it could be a nightmare, because not all horse shows are created equal. What you really need is a regional show.

What is a regional show? It’s a show that is usually two or three days and is USEF/USHJA-recognized, meaning there are drug rules, licensed officials, specific equine housing requirements and the ability to accrue points. 

Since 2021 when we founded the Colorado Show Circuit, Mac Easley and I have put on 16 regional shows that give riders in the Rocky Mountains somewhere to show during the Colorado winters. When we started this business, we were 750 miles from the closest rated show being held between October and April (excluding the National Western Stock Show in Denver every January, but only a few people can do that); now we’re 1,190 miles from a rated show. If you or your trainer have kids in traditional school, a job that requires you to be in a specific place, a family member that needs you to stay local, or simply are not in a financial situation that allows you to pop across the country, showing options in our area are limited to late spring, summer and early fall. This makes qualifying for a junior or amateur equitation final, or a hunter championship like Adequan/USEF Junior Hunter National Championships, particularly challenging. 

Enter the regional show: Pretty much everything except for the hunters at USEF Pony Finals can be qualified for via a regional. That can make a really big difference for riders who can’t travel in the winter. Regional horse shows may not offer the palm-trees-and-sunglasses photo ops, but they can provide a safe, comfortable, affordable environment to practice in so that you can walk into the ring with your “been there, done that” confidence to impress your peers, who admittedly will possess a better tan than you when they come home in the spring.

Not Everyone Can—Or Wants To—Go Big

The Northeast has caught on. Out of 285 regional shows, 200 are in Zones 1 and 2. Here in Zone 8 we have four—soon to be five (shameless self-promotion). Zones 6 and 7 have one each, and Zone 9 has four. Zone 10 has 14. 

As an industry we should be supporting more of these, because they are good for everyone. 

Not everyone can or wants to travel three or more hours—much less across the country—to attend a horse show. This includes the trainers whose lives horses and their owners consume. Our horses take up so much space in their brains: Is he eating right? Do his feet look weird? Is the new head flippy thing because he doesn’t like this bit, dental problems, or a cool thing he did once and now thinks is fun? 

We forget that trainers have lives and families beyond the barn. But. They. Do. (Wild, right?) They also have children in school, families who can’t just up and leave, more clients who can’t travel than can, and a lack of reliable barn supervision while they’re on the road. These are all valid reasons for them to be looking for somewhere closer. 

Maybe travel isn’t your issue. Maybe instead it’s that your young horse, your new client, or your kid who is stepping up and isn’t quite ready to commit to the cost of going to a national- or premier-rated show. A regional can be a very good answer to this. There are a lot of cost-saving measures in a regional that can be helpful to everyone. They are automatically fewer days, so that’s fewer hotel and restaurant days, fewer travel supplies, less time away from home and less time the barn needs to be covered. Some regionals don’t involve braiding, and hauling is generally closer. 

Typically, the show can also charge less because the housing, food and travel expenses that apply to you usually apply to the show management as well. Fewer days of showing means a shorter facility rental, which can run $5,000 to $40,000 per day, and fewer nights of housing to rent for show staff. When management costs go down, so do yours. Remember, managers also have kids in ballet, car insurance, and mortgages, so the business model has to work. We’d love to let you show for free, but that doesn’t pay the electric bill.

Regional horse shows may not offer the palm-trees-and-sunglasses photo ops, but they can provide a safe, comfortable, affordable environment to practice in so that you can walk into the ring with your “been there, done that” confidence to impress your peers, who admittedly will possess a better tan than you when they come home in the spring.

Aside from cost-cutting, there are some other advantages to these shows. They are typically a bit smaller, a bit more relaxed, a bit less crowded—all qualities than can be a huge advantage when bringing along less experienced horses and riders. It’s just a lower-pressure, lower-stakes environment. But, importantly, it’s still a USEF show, so you’re not walking into an unknown. The jumps are usually nice—typically reserved for show use only—and the heights and striding will be set to the rules, so you know when you get to a national show in the summer, you won’t suddenly be shocked that the lines are 6’ longer and—holy smokes!—that 3’ oxer looks really big. No sweat, you’ve jumped to spec all season.

Regionals Are The Middle Ground

Why are regionals good for the industry? The same reason Target is. Sometimes Walmart isn’t offering the services or brands that you need, but Neiman Marcus is way out of range. There’s good old Target, having the brands with no need to take out a loan for some cute pants. There has to be a place where you know you’re going to get a consistency, a governing body, and a qualifier, without having to pick the organ you think you can live without the most. 

Before starting Colorado Show Circuit, we managed 12 national and premier shows ranging from 300-980 horses for a number of years. In that time, I met most of our trainers, but I didn’t know many of them. Developing regional shows changed that.

When we started, we were approached by a dear friend, Claire Gordon Neff, who mentioned that she had just bought a farm near Boulder, Colorado, Front Range Show Stables, and had almost an entire empty aisle and a lovely indoor that was quite warm. Were we interested in hosting shows there? Sure! 

At our bigger national and premier shows, everyone passed each other all day going ring to ring, busy with their own matters. But when it’s one ring and one warm-up area at a regional, with all the stalls right there, you get to know your neighbors. When you get to know your neighbors, you start to get invested. We have trainers show up every show with one or two horses. We had a 10-year-old who lived her life in the 1.20-meter ring offer to hop on a junior hunter when several people had fought their way through the weather for a chance to qualify, only for one of the kids to get stranded and unable to get there. No problem, we borrowed tack, taught her to put on a hairnet and enjoyed the statement, “So, I just… go straight after I land?” 

We celebrate birthdays at almost every show; who doesn’t love cake? We have watched baby horses who needed 15 minutes to get through the in-gate later walk into Junior Hunter Finals with the confidence of seasoned pros. We saw that same jumper kid discover that equitation can be super fun when she filled a NCEA class. For most shows we pick a charity, and tell exhibitors that if bring something in, we’ll take some money off their bill. Those charities have been suggested by exhibitors from other barns: “Hey, the lady that does the adults, did you know that she runs an organization that helps families provide Christmas gifts?” “Did you know that So-and-So always gathers items for the nurses at the Children’s Hospital who saved her son?”

We have a trainer discount for sale horses, which led us to watch challenging horses get enough experience that they later were able to walk into Split Rock Fort Worth and earn some great ribbons. 

We have riders, who said they were done with showing because their experience at national shows was not enjoyable for the cost, remember that it can be fun to go out to compete against your friends and get an outsider’s opinion of their skill set on that particular day.

Giving The People What They Want

If you’re on the show management side reading this, and you think it might work for you, listen to your customers and do what the most (not the loudest) of them want. You can’t do that at national and premier shows; there are too many voices, many of whom will just go home unhappy never having bothered to say a word. Even if they do, often you can’t do it because it just isn’t practical for the majority. Regionals, being smaller, you can talk to everyone, and they can usually reach a semi-consensus. Unrated you can get all the voices, but there are no guard rails other than you. (“Oh, you all want the 3’ to be set at 2’3”? Eh….”) Regional gives you the structure to live within, but a crowd that can be consulted on most everything. 

If you’re on the show management side reading this, and you think it might work for you, listen to your customers and do what the most (not the loudest) of them want.

Here’s what our customers told us was most important to them in a regional show:

• Good footing. We got lucky in that all of our venues from Front Range Show Stables to our current home at The Ranch Events Complex in Loveland, Colorado, have had great footing.

• Indoor stalls. We had that at first, then as we grew, so did Front Range Show Stables So we moved to Loveland with its 110 indoor stalls, and now FRSS shows up with 20 horses. Perhaps when there is a competition option year round it grows the whole area? I don’t have stats on that, but that’s what it feels like. 

• Quality officials. We make a point of using out-of-state officials for our hunter judges particularly. Our locals are amazing, but our riders see them at both the unrated and the national/premier shows in the area, and I wanted to give them a chance to get seen by that year’s Devon judge. The officials seem to enjoy it as well—even when the booth heater quits or I’m wrong on the schedule and we go very late. (Thank you, Sue Ashe and Scott Fitton, for keeping your sense of humor!)

• Giant ribbons. Our ribbons are the size of the average walk-trot kid. 

• Good prizes. You’ve already won 7,000 hoof picks and don’t need another? Welcome to the prize closet. You can trade your tickets in for a hoof pick, stickers, a unicorn lamp, taco pajamas, a saddle pad—or you can save them and combine them show to show and get your trainer a stall set-up, a custom tack trunk, or coolers in your colors. You want to see something in the prize closet that isn’t there? Let me know, we’ll make it happen. (Due to one adult, we now always have a 16-piece Pyrex set on hand; those go every single time.)

• Adjustability. Sometimes we have jumpers; sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we do walk-trot and poles; sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we are APHA and AQHA as well. Sometimes we have hunter breeding. 

Give It A Shot

As management, don’t be scared. Give it a shot. Build and support your team. Our team is made up almost entirely of pieces of the team we had when we were doing the premier shows. The same six of us (plus one new guy) have been here for all 16 regional shows we’ve put on. It’s a risk, but you didn’t get into show management because you liked predictable.  If you trust and listen to your exhibitors, they will show up for you. They will come even if you don’t have their exact classes. They will fill divisions and loan each other horses. 

As an exhibitor, give a regional show a shot; what do you have to lose? Besides, the palm trees and nights out are fun to look at, but they aren’t why any of us got into this, and you can snuggle a fuzzy face just as well in a regional stall as a CSI5* stall.

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Marion Maybank grew up in Zone 4 doing a lot of Progressive Show Jumping shows—which she still uses as a guideline for what a regional should look like—worked as director of hunter and collegiate activities for the U.S. Equestrian Federation, and managed unrated, national and premier shows. She now lives in Northwest Montana and tries to only leave home to attend Colorado Show Circuit shows and do scoring or logistics for USEF Pony Finals (Kentucky), the Hampton Classic (New York), the National Hose Show (Kentucky) and a few of others. She rides about five times per year, and she thanks the horses for their unending sense of humor when they let her walk away with her dignity mostly intact each time.