Never shown before and looking to start with a TWH

Just be careful passing the other horses. I will be doing the same thing, and all breed shows are not cruel, many people show flat shod, light shod, and I think they even have barefoot classes. I want to start showing when I get my TWH( still a few months away) we don't have gaited events in our small town but I think the neighboring town may. Have fun either way it's about you and your horse. You can also do trail classes, and ACTHA. I also plan on doing some endurance too. Sure the sport belongs to arabians but alot of gaited horses are starting to strut their stuff.

I'd be interested in knowing what atrocities the TWHBEA has committed.

We could start with allowing persons on USDA suspension to sit as officers, directors, and members of the Executive Committee.

In the interests of brevity we'll leave it there.

G.

The best thing to do is to get a trainer who shows at gaited horse shows. Your horse will need to know how to do what they're looking for in the shows and you need to know how to ride it. It's not as simple as just jumping on and doing w/t/c in the ring. If you're not interested in trying to place, then just save your money instead of showing.
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I am so freaking sick of every narrow minded person who has no idea about twh horses and think that everyone that shows them does these things. These things do happen I am not ignorant but they are more the exception rather than rule. If you want to really show walkers with good people look into the friends of sound horses (fosh) the focus of these shows is the natural gait of the horses not as much of the old school practices.
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We have schooling shows at my barn. Western , English and gaited classes all in the same show, but gaited and non gaited are separate. I've decided not to do it anymore unless there's this 1 judge there who has TWHs'.

The other 4 judges they've used, well I've seen pacing get a 1st, pretty horse. I saw it again with another horse. I've heard a judge ask someone what the 3rd gear is called (we're just showing flat walk and one faster gait.)..I've watched a judge all day pin all the solid colors but non of the paints, roans, etc got anything! I've had a judge tell me I didn't pin because my horse was not lively enough. This was a trail class! One class I didn't pin in because the judge said she didn't see a difference in speed in my gaits. I had gone from a nice flat walk to a rack-as-fast-as-you-can. Big difference.

The one judge I will show when she comes. I understand 80% of who gets 1st, 2nd, etc. And her comments are understandable as well. She knows.

So, be careful where you show. I've had people tell me my horse was lame because they didn't understand a flat walk. I hope you can find a schooling show somewhere specifically for gaited horses, and get some feedback that can really help you.