andrew hoy

diggerbez

diggerbez

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anyone else seen the letter of the week in H&H about andrew hoy letting someone tag along into a coursewalk he was doing at an event...what a nice story...lovely of him to do that :D anyone on here have any similarly heart warming stories to share?!:D
 
Yes matt Ryan at Aston le walls few years ago and Francis Whittington at nurstead. Both really nice, Francis even asked how I got on when I bumped into him later on!
 
they really are nice stories! But noted both are eventers....Has anyone had any good experiences with showjumpers? Not sure if its just me but I find showjumpers rather clicky? I'm prepared to be proved wrong but from my experience top showjumpers who I won't name look down on amateurs at shows like poo on the floor and my presence in the warm up was an annoyance to them. Someone please tell me that a show jumper helped you out (for nothing! doesn't count if they were trying to sell you a neddy for x grand!)
 
Many years ago I was warming up at a show and Tim Stockdale lost control of his horse and it nearly knocked me and my pony flying, he was very apologetic and after he had completed his round he came over and helped me warm up!!
 
does it count if the showjumper is your trainer?! :D actually i think that my trainer (Tracey Newman) would help out a random if they asked her how to ride a line or whatever...she's nice like that :D
 
diggerbez said:
anyone else seen the letter of the week in H&H about andrew hoy letting someone tag along into a coursewalk he was doing at an event...what a nice story...lovely of him to do that :D anyone on here have any similarly heart warming stories to share?!:D
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Yes I saw this too and thought it was nice story and nice that the person had taken the time to write in about it
 
Ha! Tracey Newman does help out randoms! :D

Although I had a lesson with her years ago on my old horse, last year at sykehouse she was helpful to me and my sister, although I seem to remember her biggest tip being 'if in doubt, kick, pull, and shout' Think it was tongue in cheek though! :D

TBH most showjumpers I have come across are pretty friendly, even the bigger name ones! Maybe I just have a thick skin, or am oblivious to things, but I never had any problems with them (apart from a certain irish showjumper) in warm ups etc, even when they have very scary looking grooms!
 
Lucinda Green at Blair who, after being eliminated herself, came and helped me with some bitting issues having never met me before - she offered, I didn't ask.

Bettina Hoy who answered some striding questions when I was bricking it about my first intermediate. For some reason I didn't expect her to be nice and she was lovely.
 
Ferdi Eilberg, when he was down here at the sunshine tour let me watch listen and learn so much, when he is training his pupils, always says hallo and stops to talk, and is very willing to answer any queries I have. He is a superstar, as is Pammy Hutton.
 
What nice stories!

At an event here, I was warming up waiting to go in for the DR when Heath Ryan (Aus based olympian) commented that Beau looked nice and gave me some very good advice on riding the leg yeilds (basically pointed out everything I was doing wrong!) I credit him for the 8's we scored for the movement, the rest of the test got 5's and 6's!
This was totally out of the blue, I've never had a lesson with him before or even met him.

I don't know why we don't expect them to be nice really. If I was at an event and saw someone staring in confusion at a fence I would at least say how I was going to jump it, even if it was just a starting point for them to work out their own line. So why shouldn't a Pro? They are only human after all (though WFP, MT and AN stickability is not!) ;)
 
Won't post name as a long time ago but I wasn't sure in a jump off if I would get eliminated or upset the timing equipment if I went through the "end" timing equipment to cut a corner in the jump off, so I asked a top rider who was also in the class (it was a newcomers or something similar) and they said it was fine, so I did it and won the class. Yeh!

Can always remember as a complete and absolute no-one, walking round the collecting ring at Royal Windsor and Malcolm Pyrah rode alongside me having a chat. At the time he was major top rider and it was quite nice that he bothered.

Interestingly enough my current competition horse is at a particular yard because years ago one of their employees came and started chatting to me at a show as my then horse was having a difficult day and offered to help.
 
Back in my PC days I used to be a mounted galloper at Bramham horse trials. I was riding my horse who I had only had about a month one year. She got very wound up as I was walking her onto the course to get in position. At that moment an austrailian bloke all dressed for the XC rode up next to me (we were on the horsewalk going down to the XC start), and started helping me get my horse settled. He also said my horse was lovely and was obviously raring to go round the XC course!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was non other than Andrew Hoy, and I remember being completly starstruck!!!!!!!!!!
 
I've seen quite a few showing riders offering help to amateurs, I think it's lovely especially when they are so busy with lots of rides
 
Many moons ago I was helping a very 'authoritative' friend at an event. I was on kids 'nanny' duty while another lady called Ann was on 'groom' duty.

Zara Phillips was running just after my friend. In the show jump warm up our 'groom' Ann wasn't fast enough acting on the instruction to put x pole up to an upright, cue friend who was riding shouting across the warm up 'Ann get a move on I said an upright NOW', cue Princess Ann who was helping Zara jumping to attention and putting the jump up:D I hide behind the pushchair for the rest of the day:D
 
alwaysbroke said:
Many moons ago I was helping a very 'authoritative' friend at an event. I was on kids 'nanny' duty while another lady called Ann was on 'groom' duty.

Zara Phillips was running just after my friend. In the show jump warm up our 'groom' Ann wasn't fast enough acting on the instruction to put x pole up to an upright, cue friend who was riding shouting across the warm up 'Ann get a move on I said an upright NOW', cue Princess Ann who was helping Zara jumping to attention and putting the jump up:D I hide behind the pushchair for the rest of the day:D
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That is hilarious! Great story! When I was doing on of my very early events years ago I was walking the course and pondering when a lovely lady came up and asked how I thought I might ride the fence. I was so nervous as I didn't really know. She very tactfully offered some great advice and walked the rest of the course with me. It was Jane Holderness-Roddam. I was slightly embarassed to beat her! Am grateful to her to this day.
 
Mark Todd once gave my daughter and her horse a lesson. She was only about 16 and had saved her wages up for about a month to afford it, at the time the horse was verging on being too much for her and she was so nervous about what he'd say.

I am sure that he took one look at us, at our ex racer and realised we weren't like his usual clientele, but that didn't stop him from being interested, kind and very helpful to us. In fact, he even reversed my trailer for me on the way out!
 
Princess Anne always was and is very nice and very normal :) She was the first one to come over (having only just finished her own round) when a friend's horse that I was grooming for collapsed and died near the end of the course at Frensham one year.

OH used to be team farrier for the Oz lot, he always said AH was a top bloke.

My favourite is Andrew Bennie (was on the Olympic team with MT a few years ago) who is always happy to help anyone - he actually asked me, very diffidently, if I would mind him riding my horse (er, hello, you don't have to ask, here you are ...) and then made him look like some Olympic dressage prospect :D:D.
 
alwaysbroke said:
Many moons ago I was helping a very 'authoritative' friend at an event. I was on kids 'nanny' duty while another lady called Ann was on 'groom' duty.

Zara Phillips was running just after my friend. In the show jump warm up our 'groom' Ann wasn't fast enough acting on the instruction to put x pole up to an upright, cue friend who was riding shouting across the warm up 'Ann get a move on I said an upright NOW', cue Princess Ann who was helping Zara jumping to attention and putting the jump up:D I hide behind the pushchair for the rest of the day:D
Click to expand...

PMSL - love it :D

Not really a helping story but friend was warming up for her sj round just as Clayton Fredericks was helping a couple of his WPs warm up. Friend saw that the parallel was huge so went to circle but CF encouraged her on, horse cleared it by miles and CF said that he was the best jumper he'd seen all day. Certainly cheered my friend up as it was very much a pro-dominated event.
 
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