Virtual Reality?

Here's an interesting little thing I came across on Facebook this morning thanks to The Chronicle of the Horse.  Apparently you no longer have to even leave the comfort of your own facilities to enter a horse show.


HorseShow.com has now made it where all you have to do is enter your information, video yourself and your horse performing say the movements of a First Level dressage test, upload it and voila, instant show entry.  You can compete and win prizes including money and ribbons.  One show in particular, the Fall Harvest Dressage Festival gives you 21+ days to enter at this point (Entries actually opened November 7th), the classes are judged from December 31st until January 9th and the results are posted on the 9th.  1st place wins $250, 2nd wins $100, and 3rd place wins $50, plus the classes only cost $15 to enter!  All the classes are still judged by legitimate USEF judges by USEF standards.  Generally you can wear whatever you want, with the exception of a helmet which is required, but if you want to have a chance to win the money obviously you would treat it the same as any other horse show.


Some of the advantages to showing like this is obviously that it is CHEAP and you can enter over and over again without having to worry about transportation costs, stalling fees, office fees, etc.  You can compete against all kinds of people all over the world.  The ribbons and trophies are virtual but the money is for real and you can also win other things depending on the shows you are entering (I wonder if they are going to give away saddles???).  You still get the judging cards like you do from all the classes (even the ones that are not dressage shows) with all the judges comments which could greatly help with training and learning in general. 


So here's my question?  What do you guys think about this??  Do you think this is going to become the future of horse shows?  At some point are we all just going to get so paranoid (from the scare of Equine Herpes earlier this year) and are things going to be so expensive we can't afford to or want to travel anymore?