Help me out????

[minihorsecwgrl]

Hey guys, me again!

I have been showing minis about 4 years now and I would say that my horses have been doing great so far! winning high point champion titles in at least 2 divisions each at all of their year end awards this past year! I really want to try nationals this year (I am a youth) but I would like to save some money up for some of the expenses so my parents aren't loaded down! But where do I start? How much do people usually spend at (Oklahoma) nationals? I know it is probably a lot of money but I am very determined and I think I will b able to save a good amount by then!

Thank you for reading!!!

 

[Jean_B]

So many things will impact on your cost. If you are only bringing one or two horses, you might want to check with others from your area to see if you can share expenses for the trailer ride. Are you going to hitch a ride for yourself? If not, then you have a LONG drive which is expensive. There is the stall for your horse, and then the cost of a tack stall (I'm not positive, but I think stalls were $75 each last year, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong). Then there is the cost of your entries...youth entries are lower cost than open class....but there is an office charge and charge for every class entered. Hotel (a few people do sleep in a locked tack stall, but believe me, it's not a good way to go because the lights stay on all night, and it's noisy and not particularly safe). Meals. Lots of people buy groceries and fix meals in their tack stall because food on the grounds or restaurants in the area are expensive. One year I showed ONE horse in TWO classes and it cost me WELL over $1,000. I don't want to disillusion you....just need to be realistic and start working on saving quite a bit every week between now and then.

 

[minihorsecwgrl]

we will probably drive ourselves! are the stalls 75 for each night? is there a flat fee?

 

[JMS Miniatures]

Wish there was a flat fee but there is none. If I remember right its $20 for youth, $30 for amateur, and $40 for open classes. $70 per stall and I believe its a $10 office fee per horse. It would be a whole lot cheaper in the long run if you sleep in the stall unless you have a LQ trailer. It seems like every year your average costs is $1000, but I go in quite a bit of classes with more then just the one horse.

 

[kuelinkellyville]

I thought you might need to know (you said you are youth) that at Nationals all youth classes must be pre entered and once you are there you can not change or add any youth classes. You can however scratch a youth class and add it to an amatuer or open class, you just have to pay the price difference of the class...

 

[bullockcorner]

First of all...kudos to you for taking the responsibility of helping out financially!

Very mature.

As everyone has said, there are fixed charges such as stall fee - that is per stall, and is one fee whether you are there one day or several. You can put up to 2 horses per stall if you wish (of course if they get along together). Your class charges and office fee. But - there are many ways to save money also. Take a cooler or apartment size fridge to store food at stalls to save on eating expenses. If you don't sleep in a stall, shop around for motel pricing. Best of luck!

 

[disneyhorse]

I averaged $1,000 per horse when I showed.

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is qualifying for Nationals. You will need to show under 2 judges to qualify. This will have to be done at a rated show. Best of luck to you.

 

[sfmini]

To make one thing clear, the stall fees are for the length of the show, not per night. You have to figure out how far the drive is, what kind of miles per gallon you vehicle gets, multiply the distance x 2 x price of gas, and you might want to figure on higher gas prices just to play it safe. Then you have the stall fee, entry fee, office fees, housing, food. Whatever you do make sure everything you have is always very secure, and I don't mean locked in a vehicle. There have been many break ins where purses and credit cards have been stolen from vehicles, horse trailers, tack, etc. No, not all that unusual compared to any show at any large venue, but if you are used to the small shows, something to be made very aware of.

Kentucky Horse Park is a bad place for that, we had a wallet stolen that was hidden in the bottom of a tack trunk in a tack stall in broad daylight. I know there, the robbers pretend to be on the phone talking to someone pretending they are being asked to get something out of the tack stall to bring to the ring. Don't know about Reno.