How many shows do you show a year?
It depends on the horse, for some they handle a show every couple of weeks to once a month, for some they only go 5-6 times per year tops...and it also depends on the owner's budget.

How far apart do you break?
We can find a show every single weekend out here, sometimes January through December and every once in a while I've gone to two small shows in one weekend! My show schedule for this year begins on 3/27 and consists of 28 shows! We could have started earlier, in fact there's a show on the 20th of this month we originally intended to attend. But, not every horse will go to every show.

How long are they?
Some shows are single day events, some shows can be 2, 3, 4 or more days. When you get to the BIG shows, you're talking a week (and sometimes more).  I always start the young and green horses going to the small, one day shows to get the hang of showing and usually like to take them just to hang out at first before they go to actually compete. But that's not always practical for everyone.

How many classes do you show a day?
Again it depends on the horse. For a young or green horse, I like to limit it to 2-3 classes, maybe 4 tops...at a local show. More as they get used to competing and they're fit enough to handle it. At the bigger more stressful (multi-day) shows, unless the horse is used to being worked 2x per day, I like to limit it to 1 class per session (morning-afternoon-evening) and don't mind bumping it up to 2-3 classes in a session for some of the horses, though hopefully not every session. I've had horses showing in 8-10 classes at a small local open show in one day, as long as they're fit enough to handle it, physically and mentally.

Are they spread out?
Preferably, yes, though that's not always possible. I do not like taking young and green horses in consecutive classes and I'll avoid back-to-back classes with those horses, even if it means only being able to take them in 2 classes when they could have done 4.

Back to back?
Really I prefer not to ride any horses in back-to-back classes, though sometimes it's unavoidable.

If its a one day show or a two day show does it make a difference in what youll have them do?
Depends on the horse and the show. For the single day shows, we always longe then school/warm up before classes begin. With multi-day shows, I want to get there AT LEAST 1-2 days in advance to be able to let the horse settle in and work/school each horse, each day. If the horse is broke and not in need of anything other than pre-class warm-up, they may only get longed then warmed up, but for the greenies and youngsters, they're schooled/worked in the morning before classes begin for the day.

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