A little rant!

[[153312]]

Yeah but...It was a just cough though, and she apologised. not saying frustration at the situation isn't a valid emotion but the intensity in this thread and directing it at the woman seems unfair and is forgetting that as the rider, it's your job to train the horse to cope with these things.
If this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek at the stupid things horses spook at, I apologise.

 

[Schollym]

I would just like to say that it's not the coughing that upset me, these things happen, it was the fact that she admitted she had been trying to hold it in so surely she could have moved away to be sure. The fact that she couldn't hold if any longer resulted in an explosion right in the horses face which is clearly heard on the video. Myself I would be devastated if I thought my thoughtlessness had cost someone marks.

As someone who is a chronic asthmatic, coughing/ moving away to avoid a massive coughing fit, I can tell you isn’t always avoidable and not very pleasant at the best of times. Although I would have turned away.
My daughter had the situation of a building being demolished just outside the arena, she had to retire as the horse tried hard but couldn’t cope with the noise ( only happened through her test).

 

[Keith_Beef]

I'm a bit baffled that a coughing fit could apparently cause so much upset.

Back in my competing days, both horse and I would be concentrating so hard during a dressage test that all sorts could be happening just outside the arena and we would be oblivious to it all. We just blocked it out.

I often ride a grey gelding who has bad sight in one eye and gets spooked by things that happen on that side of him, because they happen suddenly and he hasn't seen what's led to to it.

I've fallen quite a few times because of this.

One day my instructor said "you're allowing him to think too much, so he's imagining all kinds of danger; you need to occupy his mind completely so that he's hasn't got the capacity to imagine dragons by the side of the arena."

So for the past couple of months I have a routine we go through.

We walk into the arena, I walk him around two or three times, going right into the scary corners (if he's too reactive, we stop short, walk away and come back).

Then I mount up and we spend some time doing squares at walk, three paces per side or five paces per side, then squares at trot.

After that, I find he is so concentrated on the work that he's scared of nothing at all.

 

[[153312]]

similar to Keith I was always taught 'if they have time to spook you've not got them going forwards enough'.

 

[BronsonNutter]

My previous horse could deal with umbrellas, flowers, torrential hailstorms (without any lightening hitting judges table, I may add - that's a thoroughly terrifying story @Cortez ) but apparently patches of sunlight shining through an indoor were the very Pits of Hell and ended up with us getting eliminated due to arsing about for too long up the centre line. Amusingly (for me) the competitor following me (who had laughed at my antics) had exactly the same problem and their horse also refused to be sacrificed to Lucifer and that bell rang again.
Horses. Bless their tender souls. How they ever survive in the wild...

My little TB would agree with Patches of Sunlight actually being Pits of Hell.
He also hates all different coloured bits of floor, which used to make eventing tests more interesting if they'd mowed out the centre line; we'd be exceptionally straight up it, but then proceed to spook and leap over it on any circle/change of rein... Barn roofs blowing off whilst schooling, or loose horses charging about, no issue.

 

[TPO]

That's a bit unnecessary

More than a bit!

I get it OP. Petplans would be a big deal to me and most of us will have had "if only" moments at some point.

Yes a cough *shouldn't* distract a horse (nor should farts, shadows or leaves...!) but surely its only human to feel disappointed when everything was going right until X happened that derailed proceedings?

Good grace to allow OP a harmless vent. I don't think many who actually ride haven't had moments where the knee jerk reaction is to blame/hold an internal grudge when someone has/appears to have caused an issue.

OP had acknowledged that their horse is spooky and needs work. It was the Petplans, they had a rough day, a little empathy or space to vent isn't a big ask.

 

[[153312]]

More than a bit!

I get it OP. Petplans would be a big deal to me and most of us will have had "if only" moments at some point.

Yes a cough *shouldn't* distract a horse (nor should farts, shadows or leaves...!) but surely its only human to feel disappointed when everything was going right until X happened that derailed proceedings?

Good grace to allow OP a harmless vent. I don't think many who actually ride haven't had moments where the knee jerk reaction is to blame/hold an internal grudge when someone has/appears to have caused an issue.

OP had acknowledged that their horse is spooky and needs work. It was the Petplans, they had a rough day, a little empathy or space to vent isn't a big ask.

I said their frustration was valid; they were disappointed and I think any of us would be.
What I said wasn't valid/fair was directing it at the person who coughed for not moving away (how was she to know it might spook the horse?), instead of 'isn't it frustrating when your otherwise respectable test is spoilt by a silly spook at a cough', it was 'a random person watching has a huge very loud coughing fit just as the horse is coming towards them'. ? IE where the blame/frustration is directed.

(I'm phrasing this appallingly....)

Anyway OP, I'm really sorry you had a bad day, it IS disappointing (and understandable to be frustrated/disappointed). I hope next time will be better, and apologies for my original post (s) coming across harshly. We've all had these bad days with horses and it's a bit crap when you've put in lots of work leading up to one thing to have it go wrong.

 

[scats]

I think the poor OP just wanted a bit of a rant because they felt frustrated. There’s another very popular thread running on this forum where members can have their rants about things that other people might find rather insignificant, but we understand that that’s how the person is feeling about it and we don’t feel the need to respond rudely. Treat others how you want to be treated, as they say. We all get frustrated occasionally, particularly when things happen out of our control.

On a similar topic, my mum had a red coat that Millie took great exception to. I was schooling in one of our fields one day and my mum came from behind a hedge in the coat of doom and Millie took off with me across the field like she’d been fired out of a cannon. A couple of months later, at a competition, my mum took her seat in the gallery to watch my test… you guessed it, in the red coat. Lets just say that we didn’t use our corner very well in that particular part of the arena!

 

[J&S]

It can happen to all or any of us! About 20 years ago I went with my "dressage" horse to a Festival of Dressage. It cost me a lot of money for the transport but I was very excited as was going to do my first long arena test. There was one arena on a smart surface with flowers all round etc but the other two arenas, one short, one long left much to be desired. The short arena was virtually in the car park and looked like the surface of the moon, curved,so you rode uphill to X and then downhill to C but still possible to ride a test. I then went to look at the long arena, it was situated quite a distance away and ran down towards a hedge at the bottom, the judge sat at that end. I watched rather fascinated as one horse after another had the most dreadful trouble getting down to the judges end of the long arena. When it was my turn to go down for my test it all became clear........ on the other side of this hedge were many pigs, they were all squealing away happily and were what had been causing mayhem in this arena. I wished very much that I was riding my NF mare not this TB/Hanovarian. We managed a 3rd place just because we were less bad than the others!

 

[Quigleyandme]

I was showing my Dales in hand at the Royal Cornwall. He was rather switched off and not showing himself to advantage. One of the queen’s highland mares, Balmoral Jingle I think, was standing outside the ring with her handler who was watching. She took a shine or dislike to my pony and every time we passed her she bellowed at him in a very unladylike non-regal way which woke him up and got him stepping out and arching his neck. We came third and I was beyond thrilled.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Hanovarian

That made me laugh! Brought to mind a moody, hormonal mare.

 

[J&S]

That made me laugh! Brought to mind a moody, hormonal mare.

Yup, that's the one!!

 

[humblepie]

Patches of sunlight must be a TB thing. No longer with me show horse RoR was terrified of them. Current one couldn’t care less though. The old show horse had an umbrella thing which was not helpful at a county show when they were opening all the large table umbrellas in the hospitality area next to the ring. Used to ride him down to the village pub for umbrella inspection. Sorry to OP but Hopefully you had good day otherwise.

 

[Caol Ila]

There was a field full of bison next door to an arena at a show venue in CO. I lost marks for "tension." No sh1t.

 

[Cortez]

Chips going into the fryer of a burger van parked next to the warmup ring at Dublin horse show created extra oomph in a young heavyweight hunter I was riding there. All part of the game and a good test of your training.

 

[Bellaboo18]

There was a field full of bison next door to an arena at a show venue in CO. I lost marks for "tension." No sh1t.

That made me ??

 

[scats]

The new arena mirrors fitted at our local venue caused carnage in my prelim test one time, with at least one rider coming off. I was fully prepared to write the test off given that Millie can be ridiculous about things, but she didn’t even notice the mirrors… the judge, on the other hand, she found horrifying!

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Patches of sunlight must be a TB thing. No longer with me show horse RoR was terrified of them. Current one couldn’t care less though. The old show horse had an umbrella thing which was not helpful at a county show when they were opening all the large table umbrellas in the hospitality area next to the ring. Used to ride him down to the village pub for umbrella inspection. Sorry to OP but Hopefully you had good day otherwise.

No, no, I can assure you its not just a TB thing..... B Fuzzy uses light patches indoors as spreads.... even after a good solid workout! ??
We dont attempt to compete indoors to any high level.... grass or outdoor arenas are preferred, apparently.....

 

[View]

OP, I’m sorry that you had a bad day. It can be so frustrating when all of our work, time and money comes undone in a nano second - or at least that’s how it feels at the time.

I hope that knowing that it’s happened to others has taken the sting out of it.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Yes OP, I agree that realising you've missed off something so crucial as teaching the horse to remain focused on you must be terribly frustrating, mustn't it?

Why say that it's really not nice ?

 

[Flowerofthefen]

We need just one more test to go well and get a qualifying score , can't remember where for but I remember really wanting to do well. It was indoors and for some reason when I went in 3 or 4 others followed me in and stood in the holding area to watch. Test was going lovely until pigeons took off out of the roof, my horse didn't initially spook as he was used to them but the others in the holding area took off in all directions which upset my horse. Judge comment on the spook and scored us a low mark which put us out of the running. I was extremely disappointed.

 

[janietee_5]

I was helping a friend at a dressage comp and as she rode down the centre line to start her test the hunt appeared in the next field - hounds, hunt staff and all the followers. Her test was a little tense!

Same friend was doing the dressage phase of a ODE at a venue that was also a green burial site. I saw her horse spooking and not wanting to go into the bottom left corner……..it appears there was a JCB digging a grave behind the hedge. ?

 

[Pinkvboots]

It's so hard my horses are spooky but unpredictable so they will not always spook at the same things all the time, being Arab's and like a lot of sensitive breeds it's often down to how they are that day there mood can change very quickly and they can get upset by things easily, that then makes them more prone to spook at unlikely things, I have some tactics to deal with it but it doesn't always prevent it.

 

[hollyandivy123]

Who ever decided to put the fair ground with the octopus ride with inflatable octopus next to the show ring at Leicester show one year made an impact...... interesting expressive movements shall we say

 

[SO1]

I think unfortunately these dressage horses are being bred so that they are so sensitive and responsive that something everyday like a cough can startle them. It is the price you have to pay for a sharp competition horse.

I went to a county show a few years back where there was a hot air ballon display and they were inflating the ballons quite near the ring and then they were taking off there was a rockband playing. My pony can be quite spooky with silly things out hacking is actually at shows very brave most of the other horses quite upset and sweating. They had to stop the class, mine was cool as a cucumber and we 2nd. He was also at a show where a gazebo took off and blew accross the show ground and was fine about that but a bit of rubbish in the layby on his normal hacking route causes a meltdown.

I thought at first you going to complain that a coughing person should not be at the show in case they had Covid.

 

[Gloi]

I did a dressage test in an indoor arena with a pigeon flying around and crashing into the walls. My pony was very spooked by it but held it together for a win!

There was a pigeon in the collecting ring upsetting horses so I chased it out with my pony. It came back and I went to shoo it again but instead he pawed it. I felt bad because I thought it was dead but it got up after a bit and went out and didn't come back.

 

[Gloi]

Who ever decided to put the fair ground with the octopus ride with inflatable octopus next to the show ring at Leicester show one year made an impact...... interesting expressive movements shall we say

Reminds me of one years ago where the helicopter rides were right next to our pony club games.

 

[Smogul]

One day my instructor said "you're allowing him to think too much, so he's imagining all kinds of danger; you need to occupy his mind completely so that he's hasn't got the capacity to imagine dragons by the side of the arena."

At one clinic, the exasperated coach told a fellow driver "Stop reassuring him all the time. All you are teaching him is that the world is a dangerous place."

Too true.

 

[DressageCob]

I was at Aintree one year when the burger van was causing havoc. With me it was just things sizzling, lots of clattering. For others he dropped some big metal trays and it sounded like a battle was taking place. It was such a relief when they opened their cafe upstairs ?

 

[MagicMelon]

That is annoying, yes she could have simply moved away when she felt it coming!

I was at a BE event with my experienced (youd have thought!) eventer, he did the dressage test just about holding it together throughout, got to the final salute and a gust of wind below some leaves off the trees - I halted at G, he spun, dumping me at G then took off full pelt out of the arena, across the warm up and back to my mother. Bloody horses!

One of my horses couldnt cope with me taking off a jacket while I was on. Would always freak out and no matter what I did, couldnt get him over it. Just learnt to stay hot and not take my jacket off in future on that one.

Another one I had freaked out when a bumble bee buzzed near his face, it didnt even land on him and he exploded - Id only just got on, he threw me so hard I smacked into 3/4 of the way up my trailer as I came off which then spooked him further and he refused point blank to let me get on after that so that was a waste of time event!