I'm missing the competition

It's really sad. When I go to show my horses now, it's very obvious that very few people are showing. I'm lucky if there are even enough people entering shows to have enough to get stats.

Obviously, it's because of the problem with shows not running, and everyone's using the riding schools now, or have their horses locked. But now, even though the problem isn't necessarily fixed with shows, at least Abbey is able to run the glitched shows through anyway.

I wonder how many people would love to start showing their horses again, but, like me, go to look at the shows and see no competition, and give up. Maybe we need to get more coordinated, and let people know that we're ready to show again, and find others also want to show, and are interested in the same specialty/divisions as us.

For example, I try to have one breeding pair each unlocked for each of my three breeds. (Sometimes one of the pair is locked for a bit to synchronize their ages.) The three specialties they use are show jumping, endurance, and driving. Right now, I could use more competition in Regional 5 Endurance. There are often other horses showing in that division, but they all bunch together in the same shows, so there are sometimes around ten entries in ten shows, when there could be five entries in twenty shows, giving more people a chance to get stat points. If we had more entries, maybe more people would be willing to populate more shows.

My show jumping Chincoteague pair and my driving Gypsy Vanners are not currently of showing age, but in a few days, I will need shows in those specialties, too. Driving seems to be more active, and I can often find just enough competition to get stats, but Regional 5 Show Jumping is a ghost town.

What do people think? Are any of you like me, ready to show again but turned away by the lack of competition?

Last edited on 2016-10-02 at 06:17:29 by Confessor

I did show my horses all day but not since the shows aren't running.
And the last shows i did fill myself to 6 horses, but none of my horses gained a stat so i don't trust it anymore to be honest.

I need my horses to gain stats so i don't want to take more risk untill everything is a 100% fine. :)

I still enter shows daily.

I enter shows daily if I have the time, but my horses usually get locked a couple days a week because I'm just not around to care/show. At the moment I'm finding that there's not enough shows to enter all my horses, particularly R1/R2 Western and sometimes Show Jumping/Driving, which is a lot of my horses unfortunately.

I also enter shows daily, but since I'm still fairly new I don't have very many horses at the Regional level. I show in Endurance, Dressage and Driving. Of the 3 of them, driving entries can be a bit low, but I have no problems with the other 2. I show about 15 horses a day and do very well with them.

I can't even find N4 racing with many entries, which I need for an RAF contest.

Last edited on 2016-10-02 at 07:14:50 by Raptorfang™Ω

I'm currently not showing because I just don't have the time. I'm bummed cause I'd actively show 150+ a day in various shows but all my pixels are just sitting there locked at the moment. I can try to at least be creating shows again if people need them, I usually blanket dressage, endurance, racing, and show jumping from novice through regional 2, using the remainder in driving. Since my horses are locked I can change that up.
Just let me know and I'll fill out any show creation shortages.

I feel like we have plenty shows; just not enough entries :(

I show about 15 horses daily, and sometimes I show 35 when I have time. But hand showing takes forever.....

Its kinda ironic because I think there's not enough shows, especially my R1 and R2 horses. I don't like entering shows with more than 6 entries, because I know others enter later, further increasing the number.

But I think dressage has more entries than the other specialties
Also I try to show late EV time so I know the truer number of how many entries there will be.

Last edited on 2016-10-02 at 08:51:55 by ✎ Jezarae

Obviously, whether or not there's a lack of shows or a lack of entries depends entirely on the discipline, level, and how many larger stables are showing that day. For instance, yesterday my Regional Dressage, Regional Driving (I have far too many of these two), and Showjumping horses had less competition than usual because a few members who, like me, have many horses stuck in a handful of levels, weren't showing. When all of us are showing, we rarely have enough shows - it's pretty common to find the show with the least number of entries to still have something like 12+ entries. Even with them not showing yesterday, there weren't many shows that didn't already have 5+ entries. Regionals seem to hit a bottleneck because of the lack of shows + needing 100 points to level instead of 50.

Recently I've also been fully or partially locked up 2-4 days out of the week due to time constrains. I try to still make shows every day, but don't always get around to it. :(

I dunno, I've picked up on some other members' showing habits. I tend to stop showing by 10pm game time. Between that time and the time shows run, there are a good number of active members showing, and I always gamble by leaving shows with 4-3 entries in the hopes that those members show that night and fill up the shows. That said, there are DEFINITELY ghost towns. I'd be down for a thread that allows members to give others a heads up on what levels are actively seeking entries.

The levels that have 10 shows with 10+ entries and then immediately down to 0 entries...I feel like this has to do with autoshow not always distributing horses well (on the "cheaper" setting), and/or only showing on "highest entries" because when the member shows, there are 0 entries across the board.

I guess the lower-level shows have more made, but less entries, and the higher-level shows have less made, but more entries. It's all very frustrating...

I feel the same way, not enough people are entering. I've been auto showing all of my horses into HIGHEST ENTRY shows, and still not getting stats. I look at the entries for the shows once they've run and only see 2-3 other people in them.

I feel like I'm having the opposite experience; my horses are showing better and gaining more stats now than they have in the past.

The only thing I could think might make a difference is what time of day you're entering? I usually enter late in the evening -- around 8-9:30 CST and hand enter (which I know isn't possible for everyone). Only on occasion have I had any issues finding shows with enough entries in them. By that time, there are usually 3-4 in at least 20 of each show type/level (racing and show jumping) that matter for me. I have more than one horse in most levels, so if I need to, I will enter up to 3 of my own horses in one show just to fill it out and give everyone a chance at stats.

I used to enter first thing in the morning, and found that by entering the first shows on the list, I was very rarely competitive because they end up having the most entries by the end of the day.

I am actively showing in N3-R2 racing and N4-R3 show jumping daily.

Hm, maybe I should try what Sonoma is doing...

I show as late as I can in the evening, but I'm East Coast and I have to get up very early in the morning on work days. But it never used to be a problem - participation in shows is very drastically reduced.

My currently active horses are all in the upper Regionals. Endurance and Driving has some competition, if I'm lucky, but Show Jumping is a ghost town.

I just have a feeling that there are others like me who would love to enter these deserted shows, but decide not to because their horses need stat gains. I'd enter the empty shows if I knew someone would be coming along to fill them.