Pro's and Con's of affiliating?

[casper]

I know this forum has a mix of those who compete affiliated and unaffiliated.

Those of you who complete affiliated - why did you decide to do this? What are the benefits?

Those who are not affiliated but compete regularly, why are you not affiliated and do you plan to affiliate in the future?

My friend and her horse are BD registered and she's been trying to convince me for a while to join and she's mentioned it again as I think there is a special offer for RC member.

Initially, I'd said no as it meant more expensive but less frequent classes but I've already decided that this year although I will continue to focus on our dressage I won't be out every week like I was this year - I'm only planning one outing a month as I want to do more jumping etc.

What do you think - for someone who is still relatively new to dressage (we started in March I think), who's had reasonably good scores and comments, is it worth joining?

[valaraki]

The main reasons I joind BD was for the judging. I was finding the going to some of the local unaffiliated shos you werent getting proper judges so the marks werent a true reflection of how you and your horse were going.

I only compete once a month and I usually go to ROwallan. Again another reason for joining was due to the facilities and arenas.

Plan on getting Dante back out in the Spring as everything seems to be going well with him (touch wood).

[Magic]

I would affiliate if I could. I cant though as I have a dutch horse that was imported at the age of 13 so would get 400 points and have to compete at advanced which i dont think either of us could really do! Im looking into getting her downgraded though.

I want to affiliate as recently been competing unaff elem and the judging has been random to say the least with some very odd comments. I used to always go to a venue that had both aff and unaff at same time so you got the same judge and the comments were always constructive.

You could always compete in the open section of the prelim for a while to see how you get on as you dont need a ticket to do this.

[haltnotsquare]

PRO's would be listed judges, chance of prize money and usually good facilities.

CON's it is expensive to join (£100 approx) and your entry fees are typically higher than unaffiliated.

I affiliated as I was doing well in unaffiliated Novice and Elementary and wanted to move on.

Several of the schedule have an unafilliated section with the affiliated so you would get the chance to compete against the affiliated ones under the same judge and see how your marks compare.

With Rowallan, SNEC and Ingliston all doing affiliated shows there are now a good selection of places to go to.