How come some horses get specific classes?

[donna]

Not asking for any better reason than noseyness!
Why do certain breeds/colours have their own class at shows?
Coloured classes are the obvious ones-I adore coloured horses and love watching these, but why don't most shows have classes for bays, chestnuts etc etc?
Same with breeds-why m&m, arabs, part bred arab m&m but not other breeds?

[sunnylynn11]

Dunno, I'm guessing because its supply & demand???

[cubic]

the m&m breeds are native to britain, so they get their own classes. Some breeds have enough enough of them in the UK to warrent their own classes, such as arabs and at some shows Irish draughts, heavy horse breeds, Iberian horses, Hafflingers etc. Coloureds are quite a recent addition really, partly because traditional/native coloureds didn't have a class to go in and partly because coloureds weren't fashionable in mainistream classes and were to some extent discriminated against, while other colours aren't.

Other classes such as hunters, hacks and cobs come from historical types of horse - hunters obviously carried their riders (usually men) out hunting, hacks transported the person to the hunt meet or were for 'hacks' around the park and cobs were used more by farmers/vicars etc.