A little rant!

[humblepie]

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

Newbury aka Royal Berkshire had similar with the fairground next to one of the showing rings. One year the tannoy was crackling and generally having a fit as the commentator was saying all about the suitable second careers for ex racehorses most of whom were leaping round all over the place ?.

 

[Keith_Beef]

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.

All my instructors have looked at me with eyes like dinner plates when I've taken off my jacket part way through warm up... But none of the horses have been in the last bit spooked by it. Horses that spook at the pot of bamboo just outside the arena are fine with me taking off a jacket and will quietly walk over to the perimeter so I can hang out over the rail.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Newbury aka Royal Berkshire had similar with the fairground next to one of the showing rings. One year the tannoy was crackling and generally having a fit as the commentator was saying all about the suitable second careers for ex racehorses most of whom were leaping round all over the place ?.

Yup, it was at the top of the working hunter/pony ring.
Made for some entertaining times when it really got going mid morning ? I've hurtled round the top corner quicker than intended in the past, made for a decent pace round the course tho ?

 

[twobearsarthur]

As well as the obligatory fair grounds, burger vans and balloon sellers at the county shows. A few years ago a show thought it would be a good idea to put the motorcycle display complete with rings of fire slap bang in the middle of the horse rings. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
On the other end of the spectrum my mum (dressage spectating) was once asked by a competitor to remove her coat and hide it as her horse wouldn’t like the colour of it!

 

[Sprat]

I once had a friend who was very nervy competing. Her horse was absolutely fine, and a real school master. One day when competing, she screamed at some friends as she entered the arena as they were standing in the viewing arena.... wearing glasses. Said friend was insistent that the horse would spook at the reflection on one of the girls glasses ?

We told her quite swiftly to get a grip and crack on with her test. Funnily enough, it went fine, despite one of the audience wearing glasses. Honestly I despair!

 

[jnb]

Showing is a great leveller, I know it's generally despised and hated with equal measure on HHO but in the course of showing my cob I came across:

Horse ring at an agricultural show - one side screaming Welsh stallions in hand complete with bottle of stones and plastic bags on long whips, second side Dog Agility (yap yap yap, long yellow caterpillar for dog to run through, balloons on strings), third side, the Secretary's tent (with flapping front), fourth side...a BOUNCY castle - with yellow bouncy slide and whooping kids. We lasted till the change of rein

Three Counties Show. Cob ring next to stable line. Stable line unbeknown to most, had for some reason, a row of donkeys on the front line next to the ring. 36 Cobs lined up after the go-around. Someone took one of the donkeys out causing the rest to bray VERY loudly....half the Cobs went one way, the rest the other & about 10 remained after the carnage! Mine LOVED donkeys

I was at New Forest the year someone's kid let a balloon go just as Lynn Russell cantered by on Red Kite - there's great photo of him jumping it with all 4 feet - could have been really nasty.

Leicester country, the funfair next to the horse rings (they had one of those spinning mechanical rides with huge flashing lights that swoops up and down as well as round and round)

Ahhhh showing, would love to see GP Dressage next to that lot!

 

[Cortez]

As someone who has at varying stages of their horse training career produced competitive dressage horses, display & jousting horses, and horses trained for film, I can tell you that the early training of all of them has included pretty much the same elements. So the young horses encounter umbrellas, drums, tannoy (yes, I have a portable system), pigs, flags, guns (including cannons) firing, men in clanking suits of armour, fights (with swords), bicycles, motocross bikes, and everything else I can throw at them. I highly recommend it for anyone intending going outside the gate.

 

[windand rain]

Red arrows display over the horse rings showed the difference between show pony lead reins and Mountain and Moorland ones the show ponies scattered kids flying off everywhere in the next ring the M&M mostly stood watching with the kids bouncing about on top at the noise. Showing certainly has a very educational effect on horses

 

[milliepops]

at Belmont horse trials you had to ride past the funfair in one corner of the site to get to the dressage rings

 

[Pippity]

As someone who has at varying stages of their horse training career produced competitive dressage horses, display & jousting horses, and horses trained for film, I can tell you that the early training of all of them has included pretty much the same elements. So the young horses encounter umbrellas, drums, tannoy (yes, I have a portable system), pigs, flags, guns (including cannons) firing, men in clanking suits of armour, fights (with swords), bicycles, motocross bikes, and everything else I can throw at them. I highly recommend it for anyone intending going outside the gate.

But do they encounter the truly terrifying things like, sitting on top of a pile of brown leaves - a YELLOW LEAF!!!

 

[windand rain]

I believe horses dont see yellow so guess he saw a hole that the monster was hiding in. Dead leaves following behind pushed along by a breeze really are the devils eddies

 

[Cortez]

But do they encounter the truly terrifying things like, sitting on top of a pile of brown leaves - a YELLOW LEAF!!!

Ha ha ha! Probably not a horse that will have a career in the movies?

 

[stangs]

I once had a friend who was very nervy competing. Her horse was absolutely fine, and a real school master. One day when competing, she screamed at some friends as she entered the arena as they were standing in the viewing arena.... wearing glasses. Said friend was insistent that the horse would spook at the reflection on one of the girls glasses ?

We told her quite swiftly to get a grip and crack on with her test. Funnily enough, it went fine, despite one of the audience wearing glasses. Honestly I despair!

Meanwhile, the poor horse was thinking "if only these people would hurry up and take their glasses off... my rider's not bombproof enough!"

 

[Pippity]

Ha ha ha! Probably not a horse that will have a career in the movies?

Weirdly, when there was a TV drama filming on one of our bridle paths, he walked past without twitching an ear. That yellow leaf, though...

 

[humblepie]

As well as the obligatory fair grounds, burger vans and balloon sellers at the county shows. A few years ago a show thought it would be a good idea to put the motorcycle display complete with rings of fire slap bang in the middle of the horse rings. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
On the other end of the spectrum my mum (dressage spectating) was once asked by a competitor to remove her coat and hide it as her horse wouldn’t like the colour of it!

was that the Kangaroo Kid? I was in the line up at one county show when he displayed in the main arena. The pyrotechnics going off made for an interesting class.

 

[Auslander]

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.

I have lost count of the amount of times I have said "Please stop praising him/her for spooking", whilst teaching!

 

[twobearsarthur]

was that the Kangaroo Kid? I was in the line up at one county show when he displayed in the main arena. The pyrotechnics going off made for an interesting class.

Not on that occasion. But we have been a victim of the kangaroo kid too lol!!! With those quads that do flips that look like a TRex to a horse

 

[DizzyDoughnut]

As someone who has at varying stages of their horse training career produced competitive dressage horses, display & jousting horses, and horses trained for film, I can tell you that the early training of all of them has included pretty much the same elements. So the young horses encounter umbrellas, drums, tannoy (yes, I have a portable system), pigs, flags, guns (including cannons) firing, men in clanking suits of armour, fights (with swords), bicycles, motocross bikes, and everything else I can throw at them. I highly recommend it for anyone intending going outside the gate.

I wish there was someone like you nearby that I could send my youngster to encounter all these things with! We've managed umbrellas, flags, we went and supervised the workmen filling potholes in the drive, after his eyes nearly fell out of his head when the back of the wagon tipped to empty the gravel he was fascinated by it all and we've kind of done bicycles, I cycled past him and promptly fell off, he snorted then tried to eat my handle bars so not really bothered. However my OH farted tonight and that was apparently scary, he looked at him suspiciously for ages afterwards. ?

 

[hollyandivy123]

I wish there was someone like you nearby that I could send my youngster to encounter all these things with! We've managed umbrellas, flags, we went and supervised the workmen filling potholes in the drive, after his eyes nearly fell out of his head when the back of the wagon tipped to empty the gravel he was fascinated by it all and we've kind of done bicycles, I cycled past him and promptly fell off, he snorted then tried to eat my handle bars so not really bothered. However my OH farted tonight and that was apparently scary, he looked at him suspiciously for ages afterwards. ?

We had pony club road safety test day at one yard..the only pony which failed the field test was the 28yr old exmoor.one wheel barrow of grit later and woosh straight to the gate

 

[ycbm]

I have lost count of the amount of times I have said "Please stop praising him/her for spooking", whilst teaching!

I sold a horse once that was quite easy to "teach" that things were scary by reassuring him if he got frightened by something. I bought him like it, but he quickly realised that ignoring him or "oh do shut up and get on with it" meant things weren't frightening after all. He was sold to a child, so when they picked him up I asked her to tell me how she would tell him he'd done something right. She said she would pat him. Then I asked her how she would reassure him if he was afraid of something. She said she would pat him. I asked her how he could know that she wasn't telling him that he was right to be scared. She got it straight away, and they went on to be very successful eventing locally.
.

 

[Widgeon]

As someone who has at varying stages of their horse training career produced competitive dressage horses, display & jousting horses, and horses trained for film, I can tell you that the early training of all of them has included pretty much the same elements. So the young horses encounter umbrellas, drums, tannoy (yes, I have a portable system), pigs, flags, guns (including cannons) firing, men in clanking suits of armour, fights (with swords), bicycles, motocross bikes, and everything else I can throw at them. I highly recommend it for anyone intending going outside the gate.

This is just me thinking out loud, and not intended as criticism of your post, but personally I find that the difficult thing (obviously not with umbrellas etc, which are portable and freely available, or roadworks, which are at least stationary) is obtaining controlled exposure to some of this stuff. So dirt bikes for example - I don't have one, I don't know anyone who has one, so the only time my last horse had seen them was when they were roaring past him on the public road through the village. It wasn't like you could stand and watch quietly from a distance because their presence is unpredictable. Definitely one of the downsides of being on a very quiet rural yard. However all our horses are bombproof to low flying fighter jets - they give me a right shock when they come screaming over, but the horses literally don't even twitch an ear because the jets come over their fields all the time!

 

[twobearsarthur]

This is just me thinking out loud, and not intended as criticism of your post, but personally I find that the difficult thing (obviously not with umbrellas etc, which are portable and freely available, or roadworks, which are at least stationary) is obtaining controlled exposure to some of this stuff. So dirt bikes for example - I don't have one, I don't know anyone who has one, so the only time my last horse had seen them was when they were roaring past him on the public road through the village. It wasn't like you could stand and watch quietly from a distance because their presence is unpredictable. Definitely one of the downsides of being on a very quiet rural yard. However all our horses are bombproof to low flying fighter jets - they give me a right shock when they come screaming over, but the horses literally don't even twitch an ear because the jets come over their fields all the time!

You have just woken a memory of mine. I had a huge ISH who was absolutely terrified of metal gates. But had lived under the flight path of various RAF bases and would happily watch them do their fly pasts.

 

[Cortez]

You have just woken a memory of mine. I had a huge ISH who was absolutely terrified of metal gates. But had lived under the flight path of various RAF bases and would happily watch them do their fly pasts.

It's up to the horse what it feels afraid of; it's up to the rider to make him confident with whatever that is.

 

[Bernster]

As weve gone slightly off topic, I’ll add that Finn is the only horse I’ve come across who is more curious about stuff than spooky. Anything new/potentially scary/spook-inducing in other horses - he’ll be unsure and snort but he’ll go towards it, give it a sniff, and usually try to eat it if it seems vaguely edible, or stamp on it!

 

[oldie48]

Back on the subject of horse being distracted during a test, here is the lovely Matt Frost and his horse coping with a helicopter, he recovered and got 66%+ in an inter 1.

 

[MagicMelon]

So many of these made me laugh!

That photo of Matt Frost reminded me of my second CIC*, I was beyond nervous for the dressage, as soon as I was about to go in, the tannoy from the main ring started up with the bloody dog agility. They lady was screeching "go go go!" etc. really loudly across the tannoy. My horse lot the plot, he was doing some impressive leaping about and was like a very very tightly coiled spring the entire test. I began to cry the last half of it. He went on to storm round with a double clear but I was so upset about the dressage which was already our weakest bit. Literally as soon as I finished my test it went quiet, I think they turned that particular tannoy off Was so gutted as it was the highlight of my career getting to this level as a true amateur so for me, it was a big deal.

 

[[153312]]

As weve gone slightly off topic, I’ll add that Finn is the only horse I’ve come across who is more curious about stuff than spooky. Anything new/potentially scary/spook-inducing in other horses - he’ll be unsure and snort but he’ll go towards it, give it a sniff, and usually try to eat it if it seems vaguely edible, or stamp on it!

Diva does this. She just stands and snorts if she's really worried, then try and eat it?

 

[Bernster]

Diva does this. She just stands and snorts if she's really worried, then try and eat it?

its very odd, like he hasn’t heard that he is supposed to be a flight animal!

 

[[153312]]

its very odd, like he hasn’t heard that he is supposed to be a flight animal!

I'm convinced my horse is appaloosa cross hoover honestly. It's very much a case of 'eat first, think later'.