By Jason Curtis
I read with great interest Berry Porter’s and Piper Klemm’s conversation in The Plaidcast about the evolution of horse shows. Like them, I have a deep appreciation for the community, camaraderie, and character that local shows have offered riders for generations. But I’d like to offer a counterpoint, one that doesn’t dismiss tradition, but recognizes the value (and necessity) of progress.
Let’s begin with the elephant in the ring: horse shows today are more professionally run because they have to be. We are not the only sport that’s scaled up over time…take tennis, golf, even Little League baseball have all transitioned from “community feel” to well oiled machines when real competition and serious development entered the picture. That doesn’t mean we’ve lost our soul. It means we finally grew up.
The Volunteer Dilemma
Volunteers have long been the sweet backbone of the local circuit. But here’s the hard truth: you can’t build a Grand Prix with bake sale logistics. Volunteers, by nature, are unpredictable. They come when they can, they leave when they want and they often require more managing than the horses do. That’s not their fault…it’s just the nature of volunteerism. Unless you’ve built a show specifically to use volunteers (and planned every ring accordingly), they tend to slow things down or increase the workload for paid staff.
When you do get a great volunteer, you’d better treat them like royalty. Because the moment they feel under appreciated especially while everyone around them is collecting a paycheck from experience they vanish. And the good ones don’t come back.
At the top levels of the sport, we can’t afford that kind of unreliability. We need trained, accountable professionals in every position from in-gate to jump crew to tech to judging. Because when $100,000 is on the line, “sorry, I forgot the order” just doesn’t cut it.
Big Shows, Big Value
There’s a lingering myth that local shows offer more heart, while big shows are just glossy, soulless spectacles. I don’t buy it.
Local shows are essential for development, absolutely no question. They’re where we learn to braid, to fall off with grace, and to take home sixth place with pride. But if you really want to measure progress, refine skill, and test your mettle…you go to the big leagues. The footing is consistent. The jumps are built by pros. The schedule (mostly) runs on time. The ring crew isn’t someone’s uncle wandering around with a measuring stick, looking for a new girlfriend/boyfriend or asking, “Is this the right height for the Low Children’s?”
When you compete at that level, you know what you’re getting. There are no “maybes.” No “let’s just skip jump 4 because the standard fell over and someone borrowed the gate.” The professionalism creates a reliable platform for riders, owners, trainers, and sponsors alike.
The Community Isn’t Dead…It’s Evolved
I don’t think we’ve lost our community. I think we’ve reformatted it. Sure, we’re not sitting around the ring for hours anymore because we’re all busy managing multiple horses, streaming rounds, texting schedules, icing legs, and dodging thunderstorms. But we still show up. We cheer from the warm-up. We rewatch rounds together at the barn. We support each other in the ways the modern horse show schedule allows.
Watching our friends and heroes didn’t end; it just moved to the livestream. Grandma and Grandpa can now watch from the back porch in Ohio. Dad can tune in from the office or even while taking little brother to baseball, texting his horse crazy daughter about her trip minutes after it happens. That’s still connection, just more flexible and better produced in the era of wifi—and let’s face it. It’s not 1970 something anymore.
And if the tradition you’re holding onto is the idea that we need to stay in one spot all day to “learn by watching,” I’d argue today’s rider has more access to good riding than ever before slow-mo replays, voiceover analysis, course maps, and clinics all at their fingertips.
Keep the Values, Upgrade the Infrastructure
Porter and Klemm are absolutely right to call for preserving the values of the sport, sportsmanship, kindness, curiosity, and mentorship. But those values can live in a polished, professional environment too. In fact they’re more likely to flourish when the chaos is under control.
I’m all for connection and nostalgia. But I’m also for timely ring drags, working sound systems, paid medics, and course designers who know the difference between a forward five and a suicidal four. If we want to attract new people to this sport and keep them, we need consistency, professionalism, and, yes, polish. That’s not selling out. That’s setting the standard.
Final Thoughts
Let’s stop framing professionalism as a threat to our culture. It’s actually what protects it. Let the local circuits shine as they always have. But let’s not pretend the future of our sport lives in unpaid labor and mismatched standards.
If we want excellence, we need to build it, and that means paying the crew, setting the schedule, and raising the game.
Jason Curtis is a longtime announcer whose career began when he was handed a mic at a small show his then-girlfriend (now wife) was attending. Today, he can be found at Ring 9 of the Winter Equestrian Festival—and occasionally at dressage shows—narrating the chaos of over-caffeinated trainers. Off the mic, he’s a vocal advocate for the behind-the-scenes crews who make top-tier shows possible—because great footing and world-class jumps don’t maintain themselves.
