HGG Community Forums

Here's how I do it, and I just figured this out so it might not be perfect and some might not be exactly right, but maybe it'll help. It seems to be working for me.

Horses who leveled recently don't show well. You have to wait about 3 weeks, more for higher levels, before they'll do well in shows. The trick to hand showing well is to figure out when they hit that "sweet spot." Here's how I do it.

Make a spreadsheet of the horses you show. It doesn't have to be fancy, you can use notebook paper, but I use Excel.

I put each horse's name, their age, their consistency, their level, and the date they leveled. The game doesn't tell you when they leveled, specifically, so when I first start, or buy a new horse, I put a ? in date leveled. But you have the level, so you'll know when they go up. To start, you can kind of figure it out by looking at their records. If they have a recent show where they were a level below where they are now, you'll know they leveled recently.

Each week after I train, I go through my horses and check to see if they've leveled. If they have, I put the new training date in the "date leveled" column. Then, I go through and put a star next to anyone who has been the same level for 3 weeks, and I show only those horses. You'll end up showing way fewer horses, but you won't lose money on most of them.

I hope that helps!

I handshow all of my horses since I can't afford an upgrade. I found that this chart is very useful; it shows what score your horse needs to be around to end up in the top half of the class (and thus to make profit). It is my guideline for my showing! :)

1L -
1R 5
1N 8
1W 10

2L 20
2R 30
2N 40
2W 50

3L 60
3R 70
3N 80
3W 90

4L 100
4R 110
4N 120
4W 130

5L 140
5R 150
5N 160
5W 170

6L 180
6R 190
6N 200-205
6W 215 -220

7L 230-235
7R 245
7N 258-260
7W 270

8L 280
8R 290
8N 300
8W 310 or higher

I use this chart as a reference, to see around what score my horse should be to bring in some profit.
For example this horse http://www.huntandjump.com/horse.php?horseid=2290907. She is now at level 5N. The last time she showed was march 15 and her score was 150 then. Usually she gains 3 points a week, to right now she should be at 159 so she is able to make some profit in the 5N level (according to the chart she should have a score around 160 to be profitable in that level). So I'm gonna show her because I think she will be in the top half of the class (and thus making profit!).

Ofcourse, it is important to figure out how many points your horse gains every week. Inconsistency makes it harder to predict at what score a horse will be. I usually use this; any horse with an PT score from 9.9-10.8 3 points a week, 10.9-12 4 points a week, 12 and up 5 points a week. But this is also a rough guideline, I know some horses will be like 3-4-3 in a week, or some wil gain 3.5-3.5-3.5 every week. Consistent showing is the best way to find out what your horse gains every week. The most useful to find this out is in the first level, when your horse doesn't end up in the top half, it isn't that bad since the entry fees are very low so you won't lose a lot of money when figuring out what your horse gains every week.

Another method I heard that someone around here used was showing there horses every 2 weeks. If you don't want to do all the math for a horse than this is a very good method indeed. But since you don't know the exact score of your horse there is a slightly higher chance it might end up in the lower half of the class and thus won't make you profit.

I hope you can understand, since my english isn't that good :p If you have any more questions, let me know!

Training has an affect on going on to bigger higher classes where more points are available. A horse stops training aroud the age of their PT score. So a horse with a 12 PT score has an easier time getting to the higher classes because it trains longer. It won't receve as many points at a young age as say a 9 PT horse but it will earn more after he levels off. A lower PT horse will earn points when their younger but once they level off they get overtaken by the higher PT horses.

Anyway you Always want to train your horses. I hope that answers your question.