The cost of qualifiers

Entering a qualifier can be expensive. Though there are many qualifiers that you don't need to register to be a member of or be a member in advance. But some of them, wow, you absolutely do. Sometimes not only does a rider need to be registered, but the horse and the owners of the horse too, which can get very costly.

What I noticed recently was the Veteran Horse Society won't let you even compete in the qualifiers unless you are a member, even though it's at a local show. That's actually something I've not seen before. However, quite often you can't get the qualification card if you're not a member, but you will still be able to compete in the class. I was really surprised in this case that you couldn’t enter the class at all without registering.

What happens quite often is if you're not a member of the association and you have qualified, you'll be granted say two or three weeks leeway to become a member, which I think is a really good way of doing it. Otherwise, you're trying to look at the season ahead and think, what membership am I going to take to do what sort of qualifiers?

I remember having this years ago, looking at the mountain and moorland ponies, and what sort of registration you needed to do the Horse of the Year Show qualifiers. At the time, we looked at it and found that the NPS was the cheapest way of doing it.

Joining associations for qualifiers can get really expensive really quickly. If there are not any specific qualifiers you are chasing, I would recommend not joining any bodies ahead of time, and seeing what qualifications you pick up over the season and whether you can join after qualifying or even need to at all.