Riders have a new skill, allowing them to compete better.
By entering a show, your rider specialization for that show type will increase and depending on the specialization you will do better than the other guilds are doing.
Simply put how you do in a show depends on several things:

• Player points
• Horse points
• Tack points

Horse points are based on Skills, Specialization, Horse Level and Horse Traits.
Tack points are based on Tack shape, Tack importance and Tack specialization bonus (if not standard tack)
Player points are based on Player Level and if you are a rider, the rider specialization.
As a rider if you get 100% specialization on a show, you will double your player points for that show type. So this last change allows riders to get better player points, and as a result to get better overall points.
To maximize your chance, you still have to have the best tack possible as well as the best skills/specialization on your horses.

The perfect score can be achieved if:
1. Your horse is specialized on a show type, has the specialization trait for the same show type and has skills aligned perfectly.
2. Your tack is as good as it can get, and it is also specialized for the shows you are entering.
3. You are a rider and have specialized in that show.

Of course, nobody is perfect, so just try to get the best of it ;)

Note: As a rider you can specialize on more than one show type, but it takes longer to specialize on more of them.