Blog Hop: Cost to Show

A lot people have done this hop so I wasn't going to do it. But the prices are so different that I figured I'd chime in since I feel like I get away with pretty cheap shows up here and earned all my medals on a crazy low budget. I manage to keep my show budget (spread out over the year) at about $150-$160/month or less, and that lets me get about 6-8 shows in for the year. I'd love to have the money to show more often and more elaborately, but it's just not realistic right now.

Still though, this area and the way that I show lends itself to cheap shows, so I do get to compete a fair amount on a limited budget. The year I got my Gold I literally spent under $500 for all my shows that year (4 shows). Now that I'm not a poor grad student, I can *splurge* a little bit.

This is our closest show facility

Here are the expenses:
FYI I am located in the greater Sacramento area in California, where there are a metric fuckton of shows within 1-2 hours from here. 

Memberships
TC has his lifetime memberships (last year was expensive), so mine are the only ones I pay for on a yearly basis.
CDS (GMO): $70
USDF: $70 (I need this for All Breeds)
USEF: $80


Schooling Shows
4-5x per year a local-ish barn does schooling shows, they're just one day and they're super fun!
Expenses
Class Fees: 2 x $35 = $70
Office Fees: $25
Haul-in Fee: $0
Stabling: $0
Shavings: $0
Hotel: $0
Coaching: $0
Gas: 86 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $28.67
Video: $0
Total: $123.67


Haul-in One Day Rated Show
This is the majority of my shows with TC thus far, our local show facility is very close, last year we were about 60 miles round trip from the nearest show facility AND the rig wasn't parked at my barn. 
Class Fees: 2 x $50 = $100
Office Fees: $26.50
CDS Travel Grant: $3
CDFA Drug Fee: $5
Haul-in Fee: $25
Stabling: $0
Shavings: $0
Hotel: $0
Coaching: $0
Gas: 35 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $11.67
Video: 2 x $35 = $70
Total: $241.17

Schooling show facility also has rated shows at it too, though
their judges and/or dates didn't agree with me this year

Haul-in Two Day Rated Show
If a show is close by, I will opt to go two days and just haul back and forth
Class Fees: 4 x $50 = $200
Office Fees: $26.50
CDS Travel Grant: $3
CDFA Drug Fee: $5
Haul-in Fee: $50
Stabling: $0
Shavings: $0
Hotel: $0
Coaching: $0
Gas: 35 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $11.67
Video: 4 x $35 = $140
Total: $436.17


Overnight Two Day Rated Show
I rarely do this, though have to this year
Class Fees: 4 x $55= $220
Office Fees: $26.50 x 2 = $53 (the one I'm doing is two separate shows)
CDS Travel Grant: $3 x 2 = $6
CDFA Drug Fee: $5 x 2 = $10
Haul-in Fee: $0
Stabling: $100 (for one night, coming in Saturday morning)
Shavings: $10 x 5 = 50
Hotel: $140
Coaching: $0
Gas: 185 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $61.67
Video: 4 x $35 = $140
Total: $890.67

All of the locations and costs vary quite a lot, so I picked random shows that I did this year to calculate each show.

Now our "far away" facility, it used to be about
an hour's drive or so

Here are some explanations:

Class Fees: Class fees vary by show, rated shows are usually $50 per class to $60 per class, and this is for Fourth level and below usually. Once as we hit the FEI levels, we're looking toward $70 for some facilities.

Office Fees: These again vary a little bit by show, but are generally around $25.

CDS Travel Grant: This is mandatory for our GMO.

CDFA Drug Fee: Pretty standard.

Haul-in Fee: Some shows have you pay a grounds fee if you're not staying overnight. The show facility closest to me does this, while some further away don't. The close show facility is so close that it's still worth going there despite the haul in fee.

Stabling: Varies significantly. If I'm stabling, which again is rare for us (though we are having to do it this year), I tend to want to go on Friday, though it would depend on ride times since I'm not down for sitting around too much. Some shows will let you have a cheaper stall if you're just using it for the one night vs the whole weekend so I would definitely take the show up on that.

Hotel: I try not to. I have slept in my tack stall, in my car, and in my trailer in the past. This year it looks like I might have to, I need to contact the show facility to see how that might work. Unfortunately a lot of the show facilities are in really nice areas so the hotels are kind of expensive.

Coaching: I'm throwing around the idea of seeing how my trainer is to use as a coach, but I don't think she goes to a ton of shows that I go to (I avoid the gigantic shows with TC, we're working up to that because he can be so reactive).

Gas: The furthest I travel to show is about 100 miles each way. And that's like, a once or twice a year thing. Next year I am for sure doing all three of the close shows since gas really adds up!

Video: Here is my one splurge. I love having video of my tests. I think it's super helpful. I really really regret not getting video of every single one of Rico's steps in and out of the show ring (I did get all of his FEI tests) and I'm not making that mistake with TC. I love watching them even years later and really do cherish every one of them. Eventually I hope to have a nice video camera and a human who follows me around, taping every moment I spend with TC, but for now, this will do.

My favorite show facility is now too far, 150 miles each way

I think I do showing pretty cheaply. My show expenses for this year are looking like they will end up being under $2000, which is about $160/month if you distribute it over the year. That's a little less than what I pay for car insurance for both of my vehicles, so that's pretty good given how many shows we're doing- seven, one of which is overnight, so double the tests. Had TC not been a total dingbat at that last show, we could just go to one day of that overnight show. But that's horses for you!