I would really appreciate some advice on showing as I seem to be doing really badly at it. Sorry in advance for quite a long post!

I have read the stickied guides which have been really useful and have been trying to follow them.

Having recently restarted the game I invested in a reasonable number of show geldings and obviously had some hit and misses initially trying to work out whether they were ready to show, which is to be expected.

However I have really tried to only enter ones which had placed well or fitted the criteria suggested by the guides (>80% dressage / <16 CC and <12 faults SJ). I am still completely failing. The only horses that do well level up the next day or so and then I can't show them at all.

For example these horses had reasonably good scores but seemed to end up in a show with horses that were about to level up and just tanked completely.

This horse didn't even place very well just before he was due to level up!

So my questions are:

- Is this just down to rider experience? As I have bought new level 7/8 riders with 0 experience so they just can't compare against more experienced riders

- Should I enter on different days? I tried Mon/Tue/Wed but is later in the week less competitive?

My new strategy is going to be starting with lower level ones and building them up gradually with the same rider so that the riders have more experience by the time they reach more competitive levels? Does this seem like a better plan?

Any recommendations or tips gratefully received! Thank you

A lot of show results are due to pure luck. Even if the horses have a good training level, they might not place well due to a more competitive group they compete against.

Rider Experience is part of the results, especially in a tie.

But it does not have that big influence as it seems to.

And I often prefer S and P rated horses to E ones, because these tend to level up really fast.

thank you Kuewi :)