At last there is a sense that the season is about to change as the snowdrops peep through the ground and the lengthening days compensate for the continuing low temperatures.

Besides which, show schedules are beginning to drop through the letter box or appearing for downloads on organisers websites, a feature common to many more equestrian events nowadays.

Wouldn’t it be marvellous if some entrepreneur set up a site where all the individual show schedules are housed and readily accessed? There’s an opportunity for someone; just think how handy that would be.

I also notice that some organisers provide a facility for competitors to enter online. I have to say that this does make sense and I can see the day when all our schedules and entry forms appear this way. As a society, we are rapidly coming to the stage where it won’t be acceptable to claim that we can’t use a computer given that such a high proportion of households now have one with internet access and failing that, all libraries certainly do. There are so many government sponsored classes that literally anyone can learn how to use a computer in its very basic form and I know many non-computer users who use the internet indirectly through their children, friends or relatives.

It is also the time for the various society rule books or handbooks to drop through the letter box and a time for study as never a year goes by than there is some rule changed which impacts on the competitor, exhibitor, judge or organiser – sometimes all four. Some years ago the British Show Pony Society showed a useful initiative by highlighting new rules with a line in the margin so that your eye is immediately drawn to changes that have been made. I am sure that this is where everyone concentrates their initial energy when the new rule book arrives and it does save a lot of time.

For those of you who don’t receive any of these books, you may be at a loss to understand the enormity of the situation for those who are involved with societies in one way or another. I have to say my heart goes out to show secretaries and committees who deal with so many organisations all with differing rules. As a judge of four societies I receive four such books which range from 70 to 119 pages in length. They contain rules for showing, rules for judging, competition rules and regulations, lists of judges, complaints and disciplinary procedures, dope testing rules, measurement rules – the list seems endless. Little did the founding fathers of these societies realise what would become of the relatively short list of rules they initially set out.

I am definitely not saying that the rules and rule books are not necessary because they most definitely are and they should provide definitive statements on the ‘rules of the game’ just as any other competition does. However, there are not different rules for football depending on whether or not you are playing for the local youth group or a national side. When you take part in a recognised competition, working hunter pony for example, surely there are rules to which everyone can agree so why not the various organisations? There is something called the Showing Federation where various organisations gather to discuss topics of mutual interest. I would like to suggest that its most important task would be to rationalise the rules for all competitions so that all concerned have one set of rules to which they must conform. As I have said previously in these columns, it may be that egos and personal interests have to be set aside for a while in order to let this happen but it is possible. The words negotiation and compromise immediately come to mind. Just look at the political changes in Northern Ireland for an example of what can be achieved.

Most of the rules are essential and well thought out, however, some of them are just plain crazy. My pick of this season’s new rules is found in the National Pony Society Showing and Competition Rules for 2010 in the section for working hunter ponies qualifying for the Royal International Horse Show. Now I can understand that this is a prestigious competition which should attract the best ponies in the country in terms of their conformation, breed type and performance, however, there is some debate as to whether or not the addition of an additional element in the jumping phase will really sort out the wheat from the chaff, particularly when this element concerns splashing through water in addition to jumping over it. What on earth is this all about? The latest rules states that a water jump and a water splash must be included in the course. Immediately springing to mind is that there is someone on the rules committee who has a bee in their bonnet about ponies performing in, out and over water. The likelihood is that this person has made strong convincing case for the addition of a water splash to the jumping course and the remainder of the committee has gone along with it. Did it ever occur to them to ask the opinion of the course builders and more importantly, the show organisers?

Personally, I am not convinced about the merits of a water splash, probably because I was eliminated in a water hazard with my horse at the Scottish Horse Show many years ago when it was held at Ingliston. The course builder that day decided that the working hunters should go through the permanent water jump before jumping out over an innocuous little brush fence. It was such a good idea that all but three or four horse were eliminated that day and the result was heavily weighted in favour of the ‘splashers’ which was fair enough and I make no excuses for my feeble effort. As a result of that embarrassing experience, my horse, Tango, which some of you may remember, had plenty experience of splashing through water and he carried John Gilmour, Master of the Fife Hunt for several seasons without a problem with splashing through or jumping over water. I have jumped over jumps in water and built a course with a jump at the end of a big puddle of water, but in both cases these were part of a hunter trials course and it was possible to build an appropriate water obstacle. How many venues can provide a safe, well-constructed water jump let alone splash?

The point I would make about this rule is not based on the ability or otherwise of a native working hunter pony to splash through water as anyone can train their pony to do this and the rules do give the warnings about the type of course an exhibitor will encounter. I can’t argue that splashing through water is something a pony might not have to do while out hunting but they also might have to open and shut a gate and that is not included in the competition. The point is simply based on the practicalities of building a water splash at the venues where the qualifying competitions are held. What if the competition is held on an artificial surface? What if the owner of the field doesn’t want a hole dug in it? Can you blame them if not? Who digs out the hole for the splash? What size is it and how deep is it? Will it comply with the dreaded health and safety regulations? How is the water kept in place without it draining away? What if the pony jumps into or over it? How does the judge mark this? Does a big splash gain a greater mark than a small one and what of if a careful pony does not make a splash? What if there is no water splash built for the competition? Does the judge who has responsibility for the course call the competition null and void?

I appreciate that I am arguing the worst scenarios and some of them are a bit frivolous but surely it is obvious that this is a crazy rule. While the proposer’s good intentions have been aimed at finding a true honest performer, the rider and pony have come out best because they can train for this and the organisers, course builder and judge have come out worst because they have to deal with the practicalities of putting the rule into place. Worryingly, it is not the common sense of the person who proposed this rule that concerns me but the other members of the rules committee who went along with it. What does it say about their experience? I am sure at the end of they day common sense will prevail if for no other reason, organisers will refuse to go with this one and judges will insist on training on the marking of this newly introduced element.

Apart from looking for new rules, I am also on the look out for rules that might be taken out and one of my favourites, I see, is still firmly inscribed on the pages of more than one of the societies. It refers to the practice of judging and exhibiting at a show on the same day which is not allowed under the rules because (although it never states it) the integrity of judges is in question. You see there might be a rubbing of shoulders in the judges’ tent during the course of the day when those made of lesser stuff will be influenced by their fellow judges and favour their exhibit as a result of the encounter. Dodgy goings-on that should be eliminated, I hear you say, but all this goes to the wind at the societies’ own shows, championships no less, when the rule is evoked and questionable integrity seems to evaporate. With literally hundreds of judges available for judging duty, can there possibly be an ulterior motive behind this rule or is it simply a case of do as I say and not as I do? With an increasing difficulty for every-day shows to find judges, surely the rule that applies to the societies themselves is one that should be available countrywide. If we don’t trust any of our judges, get rid of them.

On the subject of rules, I’ll finish with a story written to me last year by Mrs Molly Sivewright, one of the most famous equestriennes in Britain, who recalls an occasion when she rode a champion pre-war show pony called Hiawatha at the Bath and West Show, judged by Colonel Jack Hance.

“When I came to give an individual show, I asked the pony for half-pass right – no response. I thought perhaps he had always been taught/asked for left and then right half-pass and tried that….whereupon we advanced towards Colonel Hance doing the Spanish walk! I was too embarrassed but Colonel Hance was very kind, put a hand on my knee and said, ‘I don’t think you meant to do that, did you? Well let’s make it simple, scratch it out, forget it and start again – just keep it simple.’ ”

I wonder if giving a second chance is mentioned anywhere in the rule books? Perhaps you’ll let me know.