Earlier this month, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair announced that as part of its 100th anniversary celebration it would be offering $1 million in prize money and that it had received a CSI5*-W ranking from the FEI. These two exciting announcements have been overshadowed, however, by the additional news that the 3’ 18-35 and 3’ 36+ hunter divisions would be combined into one division, and a new 3’3″ Junior/Amateur hunter division and a 1.3m Junior/Amateur Jumper Division would be added.

Hunterland Hailstorm

The most contentious of the changes was that the 3′ Adult Amateur division was no longer going to be split into 18-35 and 36+. The division was first split by ages at The Royal in 2002 because of the number of entries in each category. Back then, the younger division often had over 40 competitors, but that has shrunk to 20-25 over the last four years. It is worth noting that this special accommodation is not an official designation and is not part of Equestrian Canada’s rulebook. The change, announced just weeks before the start of the show season, means that where there were two 3ft divisions with 16 entries each, there is now one division at 3ft with 22 entries and a 3’3″ division with 16 entries.

“Either you will see fewer do the three-foot division or you will see a greater level of competition among those that qualify,” noted Kristjan Good, who has several competitive clients in the division. “I don’t know which way it’ll go; you’ll need the year to see how it works out. Some people may push and do more shows or some may move out of that division all together. Either way, the winners will always win.”

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