Bad behaviour at show jumping events...

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Annie0809

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I have been taking my daughters to shows for 15 years. It’s a dangerous sport but people usually behave with consideration for others. However, in recent weeks we’ve seen some disturbing events (this is all at Solihull Riding Club)

1. A couple of youngsters were warming up, obviously fairly novice. It’s busy in the warm up, a good dozen or so horses. Their father calls out to the 2 kids ‘Just do what you want to do, don’t care about anyone else’. So that’s the way they carried on.

2. Yesterday another youngster was warming up over the jumps for ages, no one else getting a look in. So I walked over and put one of the jumps into a cross. Her mother comes marching across and says ‘Excuse me, we’re using the jumps’. As if they have exclusive use of the warm up jumps. I told her everyone was entitled to use them. After they were put into a cross several other people also had a chance to jump and get warmed up. So we were not the only ones being denied the use of the jumps.

Then the mother says to me ‘We’re finished now, you can use them’. Selfish arrogance or what?

3. And then, to cap it all, my daughter was waiting to go in and the rider before (another youngster) came charging out of the arena at a canter and crashed into my daughter ramming her horse into the wall. So after that the round was pointless, he was totally not in the mood. So all the time, effort and expense of going to the show was wasted due to another kid doing what they want without a care for anyone else. No word of apology from rider or parents of course, the ‘do what you want and don’t care about anyone else’ attitude.

Riding is dangerous enough, if kids are being brought into the sport with the attitude of ‘don’t care about anyone else’ they’ll be a danger to themselves and everyone else.
And the laugh is they probably will be successful by virtue of denying people the chance to warm up properly and getting peoples backs up by inconsiderate riding. Plus they’ll put people off going to places they frequent, I’ll think twice before going back to Solihull.

Is this becoming a prevalent attitude or is this just Solihull Riding Club? Is this the rise of ‘riding mums’ (like soccer mums) who are desperate to have their kids win at all costs??
 
Show jumping warm ups can be a free for all, you nearly always get one or two trying to take over and the only way to deal with it is to be assertive and go in to put the jumps up or down while your daughter is warming up, if I go anywhere with people from my yard I always go in and change jumps for them and take others into consideration while doing so, otherwise they tend to just stay the same until someone knocks one down.

It is similar everywhere, i have seen far more than a dozen warm up perfectly well with no one causing problems other times 2 can struggle if one has no idea what they are doing and no respect for anyone else.

The final complaint is something you should have complained about, at ALL shows I attend horses must leave at walk, a jig jog is acceptable but cantering out, unless by accident, is not allowed anywhere and the judges will take it seriously with riders being disqualified if it is felt they did it on purpose and not tried to come back to a walk.
 
The people running the show need to enforce rules in the warmup for everyone's safety and for fairness. I'm chair of a riding club and always speak to people who are inconsiderate in any of our warmup rings - jumping, ridden and in hand. Often it's ignorance, but if it's just rudeness, I warn people that they will be asked to leave. Speak to those in charge at Solihull. They may not have realised, especially if they are short-handed as places often are. We're always appealing for help, and don't often get any!
 
OP I used to jump a bit and found the warm up area so stressful that i just hacked round the car park instead and rarely jumped a fence before my round. People hogging the practice jumps were common. I was usually on my own so just had to keep out of it.
 
I'm afraid this is all too common - especially where the warm up is not stewarded. I'm afraid you can only chalk it up to experience. Low level affiliated shows are sometimes not much better -although the show sec tends to take reasonable complaints more seriously. At higher level shows the warm up is stewarded.
 
Unfortunately, this is how many kids are brought up now days. They are so over indulged and spoilt they do not know how to behave, it is the parents fault. See it all the time here.
 
I've never seen anything like that if I'm honest, usually its the adult riders that can be rude ;) I'd complain to the riding club then perhaps they could put something written up or an email out to all competitors that there have been reports of selfish behaviour and do a list of "competition rules" regarding behaviour?! If its putting of other kids then they have to do something. Nasty parents is all I have to say! I fear I'll be a competitive mother if my son gets into it more but I would never be rude to anyone or selfish - drives me nuts. I have come across those certain people who hog the warm up fences, its incredibly annoying especially when for BSJA there's always one who will put the jumps up massive - I just report them to the judges box and they usually make an announcement over the tannoy ;) I would definately report your experience, surely the club will want to do something if its putting off competitors attending??
 
Annie0809 said:
I have been taking my daughters to shows for 15 years. It’s a dangerous sport but people usually behave with consideration for others. However, in recent weeks we’ve seen some disturbing events (this is all at Solihull Riding Club)

2. Yesterday another youngster was warming up over the jumps for ages, no one else getting a look in. So I walked over and put one of the jumps into a cross. Her mother comes marching across and says ‘Excuse me, we’re using the jumps’. As if they have exclusive use of the warm up jumps. I told her everyone was entitled to use them. After they were put into a cross several other people also had a chance to jump and get warmed up. So we were not the only ones being denied the use of the jumps.

Then the mother says to me ‘We’re finished now, you can use them’. Selfish arrogance or what?
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I disagree with this, having groomed at top National & International shows usual protocol would be to give priority to people jumping in front of you, I would usually approach the warm up fences, when my rider was ready to begin jumping (usually with 6 to go) I would ask the other grooms/helpers if they had finished, they will usually tell you we want one more, or one bigger whatever or say they have finished thankyou. We then jump, along with any other riders who fit with our warm up, next riders helpers turn up etc. I would then walk away & say "we have finished thanks" so quite a usual thing.

When competing at smaller shows it is really irritating when you are warming up, someone randomly comes along, walks in front of you & alters the fence without asking & you then discover they still have about 15 to go, so actually they could wait as still plenty of time. Personally I never alter the fence without asking other people if they have finished, if we are desperate for the fence as say only 2 to go, I would say "Please can we have the fence, we have only got 2" & there is never a problem.

They couldn't have been using the vertical & the oxer, so if you were waiting you could have taken the back rail off the oxer to use as your cross until they were ready to use it, then swapped over?
 
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We just had someone steward the warm up arena at a yard I helped at. Only the steward would change the height of fence. Also made it a strict no change to schedule rule. A "horse mummy" came along one time and asked for her daughter to be moved from first to go as she was nervous. I just said no changes are allowed sorry. I got glared at and had her saying it's not a big deal but it is really. Her daughter couldn't have her slot changed at an even bigger show what's the difference for smaller ones? If you are gonna spend so much money on the horse and lorry I take it you are serious about competing so get serious about the rules. The girl didn't even seem nervous and she still did really well I think her pony tried being a bit funny too but she controlled him well. Much ado about nothing.
 
OP I am in agreement. I have just returned from a young horse training session at Lion D'Angers. It is a fantastic venue which we use a great deal We took our 6 year old Shagya filly in preparation for 2016 season, she was ridden by a Professional who is training her. Riders ride as per competition but results do not appear on the FFE website. Young horses can re take a jump after faults or a refusal.

It was total mayhem, I will be posting later on my FB site RaceRare Cleveland Bays and Shagya Arabian Horses. A big stallion in the arena bronced round the warm up arena. People did not respect each other. Most of all we arrived at 11.00am expecting to jump before noon, our filly was in the warm up arena for two hours. Rider and his brother, who is a Cadre Noir SJ trainer, were not well pleased.

Now for the UK. I was in Surrey to watch my Shagya stallion jump, ridden by Sebastien Poirier, also a professional. After Seb. took a jump in the warm up arena a woman rode in front of the fence. Seb was furious, what could he do? The stallion was 3" in the air!!!

Last year, in France my stallion was actually crashed into in the warm up arena.

Whilst so much effort is put into bits, boots reins etc. A bit of effort should be put into basic good manners and respect for other riders.

The problem is that events attract riders of differing abilities. There should be much more supervision. Notices such as "only number of horses allowed" are ignored.
 
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