How do you prepare a Hunter Under Saddle horse for the show environment?

Preparing a Hunter Under Saddle horse for the show environment requires deliberate exposure to the stimuli it will encounter at a competition, because a horse that is well-schooled at home but anxious or distracted at a show will not perform to its training level regardless of how correct its preparation has been. Horse shows involve a combination of stimuli — large numbers of horses, busy warm-up areas, unfamiliar footing, loudspeaker announcements, flags, banners, and the general activity of an event — that can overwhelm a horse that has only been trained in a quiet home setting. Taking the horse to outside facilities and schooling shows before major competition is the most effective preparation. Each new environment the horse is exposed to and handles successfully builds the generalized confidence that carries over into the show arena. Within the show environment itself, the warm-up period is critical. The horse should be warmed up long enough to relax and find its rhythm but not so long that it becomes fatigued or bored. Horses that are over-warmed arrive in the arena flat and dull. Horses that are under-warmed arrive tense and reactive. Learning how much warm-up an individual horse needs to perform at its best is something that develops over multiple show experiences and varies significantly between horses. Walking the horse quietly near the in-gate, allowing it to observe the arena and other horses before its class, and keeping the rider calm and quiet during the wait all contribute to a horse that enters the arena in the correct mental state to show well.