Collecting Ring Manners

Quadro

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Well after yesterday im starting to think collecting ring manners don't exist!! Yesterday at a very popular show centre i was pretty taken back at the manners displayed by other riders!
Noone seems to remember the past left to left rule, i had to dodge out the way several times as other riders were clearly not going to follow the rule!
I also had a man start to change a fence when my horse literally had his front legs off the ground on take off! Im lucky that this did not bother him and he jumped the fence (and man ;) ) perfectly.

Maybe im getting old put should we have reminders up about left to left etc as clearly adults cant manage it off thier own back?
p.s This was a BS 1m15 class so i would have thought the riders were pretty experianced!!
 
totally agree! i am getting to the point where i dread taking the 4 year olds out because it is enough to blow their minds with people insisting on not riding left-to-left or halting on the track! i also have had people changing jumps as i have been riding down to them, and a few cheeky people pulling 20meter circles as i'm approaching - not a problem for my older rides but it can freak the babies out
 
god awful, went ot a show and because of the weather the showjumping and dressage warm up were in the same arena, I can't count the amount of times someone rode across the front of the jump while I was on approach and a mum who parked her kid 1 stride behind the jump as I was one stride out. I was shouting 'Coming to the jump' every time. Thank god my 17hh guy can turn on a penny when needed or there would have been a few squashed people!

Plus at a dressage comp an older teenager schooling a grey pony at a great rate of knots round and round snorting and ignoring everyones lines then hopped of and handed it to younger teenager to take in arena, never mind rude but against the rules too!

:mad:
 
maybe this topic merits and article in the H+H. I appears to be a problem everywhere. I am in spain, I only spectate, but have be disgusted with collecting ring and warm up area behaviour here. However, chatting to friends it is not just bad here in spain.
I think I have seen more bad riding and dangerous behaviour in the dressage warm ups here than in show jumping and eventing.
What is going on? Why is everyone ignoring basic horsemanship rules?
 
I agree on the manners bit, but have to say I don't always follow the left to left religiously, as it doesn't always make sense to, as in me and the other rider would have to do a massive detour just to do this.

Agree that people are idiots though, I especially like the shouty ones at BS who complain that everyone is in THEIR way, when they are the ones breaking every collecting ring rule and cutting people up left right and centre :rolleyes:

These are the same people who make huge oxers (so they can make the horse jump high without breaking the rule of putting the fence height above the height of the class) and leave them like it when they leave for us mere mortals :mad:
 
I know what you mean about the fences and the people who leave it like that are the ones who have grooms etc that barge in and change the fence when you are clearly still using it!
I just think there needs to be a list of rules to clarify things
Q
 
I know what you mean about the fences and the people who leave it like that are the ones who have grooms etc that barge in and change the fence when you are clearly still using it!
I just think there needs to be a list of rules to clarify things
Q

Haha my groom used to be very sweet and polite in the warm up until she realised that I wouldn't get so much as a cross pole unless she manned up a bit :D:D Now she's like a Rottweiler, because she has to be :D Fortunately I like to do most of my warming up on the flat and just have a quick pop before I go in, otherwise I don't think I'd keep my cool with the behaviour of people in the warm up. But I do think it's indicative of the basic lack of manners and consideration that you see everywhere these days :(

Ooh, ets that I don't mean she barges in when someone else is using the fence, rather that once she's got possession of it she doesn't let anyone change it till we're done (and we are very quick :))
 
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I find BSJA (sorry I hate the name "BS", I will always refer to it as BSJA!), to be the worst disipline for manners in the warm up. I lot of them seem to do it to either threaten other riders or simply because they have badly behaved horses who go all over the place! The amount of times I have to take evasive action is ridiculous, especially when on the approach to a fence - grooms will automatically rush out and start amending the fence as soon as their own rider has jumped it, sod everyone else. It drives me mad, Im forever shouting at them to move and they rarely apologise (or care). Then you get those on crazy horses who canter sideways bucking down the wall not leaving any room for anyone else to pass in between the wall and fences, again why should we have to get out their way - get your horse to behave at home first! As for the left to left rule, I find RC and PC riders far better at following this than BSJA...

BE on the other hand is always very polite, horses far better behaved (generally) and due to the stickers on the fences, you dont get people wacking the fences up to stupid heights.
 
I HATE SJ warm ups! On a young horse it's horrible as I'm cut up left, right and centre. I have to
shout 'don't come to close!' as despite a green ribbon they will gallop their horses right up my horses or arse or practically brush right pash him sending him into orbit. Then there are those riders that scream and smack their horses again right next to me upsetting my own horse.
Don't get me started on the people that pull the oxer out SO wide. FFs, how is scaring the horse witless by making it jump something the width of a hous before going into a BN helpful!
I hate it, it's what puts me off going.
There have been days when its been fine but those are few and far between I find! Unaff is the worse with a young horse. Try avoiding 80 kids on out of control ponies in a 20x60 before the 80cm!
Looking on the bright side my horse is becoming totally bomb proof to being barged into. Dressage is far more civilised and eventing I think it's helped that there is always SO much space. It's easy to find a quiet corner to warm up in away from the crowds. Also by the time of the SJ warm the horses have already done a dressage test and are a bit calmer. Watching some horses being lunged in the lorry park at BE events can be amusing but again there's so much space it's not a danger or an issue.
 
Agree that people are idiots though, I especially like the shouty ones at BS who complain that everyone is in THEIR way, when they are the ones breaking every collecting ring rule and cutting people up left right and centre :rolleyes:

These are the same people who make huge oxers (so they can make the horse jump high without breaking the rule of putting the fence height above the height of the class) and leave them like it when they leave for us mere mortals :mad:

haven't experienced it from on the horse but have groomed a few times here and a lot in Spain.

I waited for ages to amend said huge wide oxer until there were very few people left I asked only other grooms if they were finished only to get a sarky comment that they had no idea what i wanted to do but the rider seemed to have finished, walking at other end, so went to change the jump only to be ridden at when I was half way through and have to run out from the middle of the jump. I was highly embarrassed and rider seemed to think it was funny got evils from the grooms and friends for the rest of the comp :(
 
I HATE SJ warm ups! On a young horse it's horrible as I'm cut up left, right and centre. I have to
shout 'don't come to close!' as despite a green ribbon they will gallop their horses right up my horses or arse or practically brush right pash him sending him into orbit. Then there are those riders that scream and smack their horses again right next to me upsetting my own horse.
.

My old mare, out of no where, suddenly started being incredibly nervous of horses cantering towards her - I can only assume there was a crash/near miss in the field. I worked on it at home a lot, and went out with a green ribbon tied in her tail and forelock...no difference.

Changed both to a red one, and tied a red ribbon to the end of my schooling stick...that sorted them!

A little white lie, but now if I had a horse I felt needed that bit of distance I would immediatly just use red.
 
What venues really need - especially indoor ones with limited space - is a good collecting ring steward. They should also police how many are allowed into the warm up at any one time.
 
They scare the bejeezubs out of me! And even when I'm not riding :eek:

As I'm doing the dressage now (well, my version of it :cool:), the collecting rings have so far been fine, it's when D1 goes showjumping that my heart is in my mouth! At the last one (unaffiliated), I was so blinking stressed! I don't stress easily, but blinking heck, it was scary :mad:
 
You say they'll have to put signs with the rules up, around me there are two fairly big BS/BD venues with signs pinned around the collectig rings. Apparently people aren't even ignorant so much as rude! :mad: dreading taking my four year old out too, trying to get as much practice with other horses in the school at home :(

J&C
 
The warm up at the venue you were at is not the largest but is usually very well managed with the number of horses allowed in at any time closely monitored. Sounds like an off day yesterday!

I don't generally have an issue at BS shows in the warmup unless it is an Intro show but then you would expect riders to be less experienced at that category of show.

Quadro - hope you had a successful day nonetheless.
 
Quadro, I dont compete, but take my daughter competing and I cringe for her, lots, at BSJA and unaff showjumping. Nobody seems to have manners, nobody seems to care and I have seen her chilled out, experienced eventer go up on her hind legs through sheer frustration of being cut up non stop, mainy be adults on much bigger horses. She went up vertical and the poor kid nearly slid off the back end. Mind you, some dressage warms ups are pretty bad. She's been run at a few times in the warm up, which does pee her off. Some BE collecting rings are awful, and she had a bad experience in an xc collecting ring, and the pro who caused it is on my permanent hit list, but she did have the decency to go red when I gave her a mouthful - and yes, its a big name as well!

Reckon they should all go back to Pony Club, who only let so many into an collecting ring at any one time an insist on good manners. Well, our branch does, and I guess we are not unique.
 
Reckon they should all go back to Pony Club, who only let so many into an collecting ring at any one time an insist on good manners. Well, our branch does, and I guess we are not unique.

Unfortunately the branch of PC I was in (note the past tense ;)) was the polar opposite. They never taught anyone warm up etiquette and warming up areas at their shows are the worst.
 
Unfortunately the branch of PC I was in (note the past tense ;)) was the polar opposite. They never taught anyone warm up etiquette and warming up areas at their shows are the worst.

Oh that's like ours :( I was informed that if they had rules then nobody would want to come to things :confused: I've made a few non-friends because I have occasionally kicked off about lack of manners and safety issues in particular. Our DC spends so much time trying not to offend people that she manages to do it anyway, and the parents are the worst offenders when it comes to bad manners, so what hope do the kids have :(
 
Maybe I just like annoying people, but I love being sickly sweet to the knobs in the warm up, as I know this will likely be more painful for them to stomach.

I'm also ugly and thick skinned enough to not give a stuff about what other people are doing (whilst at the same time being v polite I assure you!). I used to be a travelling groom for a sjer and some of the grooms of the big boys used to terrify me - at a show in Cavan a certain irishman's groom was a total bint, shouting that the fence was hers despite the fact that her rider wasn't even schooling round, and she was at the entrance, and nowhere near the fence. By this point I had a good chuckle and did what I wanted with said fence. Can be funny at week long shows when you meet the same miserable grooms day after day, learn how to push all their buttons ;) :D
 
i find it ends up abit of a unspoken competition of who can make the biggest up-to-height-they-can-get-away-with upright or widest oxer possible in the warmup... Funniest is, that is tends to be the BN/Disco compeitors for some reason!? Anyone else experienced that?
 
I hate warmups!!

Every now and then people may accidentally cut accross, and if they apologise sincerely it is ok, i accept it and carry on!! it is the rude people that are oblivious to other riders that really get on my ****!!!

At BS shows i used to hate it when i was jumping a BN or Disc class and one person would completely hog the fence, whacking it upto 1m30 and leaving it there... so selfish!! Also people who start changing fences when you're approaching!! so dangerous!!

I am always so polite, and before i ask my mum to change a fence back to a cross or make it bigger etc, i always make sure no one is jumping it or wanting it left as it is for a bit. For example, i was ready to move a cross upto a straight, but someone else wanted to pop it a few more times, so i waited!! Its just polite and considerate!!

Urgh, people do irritate me sometimes!!
 
i find it ends up abit of a unspoken competition of who can make the biggest up-to-height-they-can-get-away-with upright or widest oxer possible in the warmup... Funniest is, that is tends to be the BN/Disco compeitors for some reason!? Anyone else experienced that?

Yes! It is always the BN and Disc classes, i swear, that always has someone putting the fences upto 1m30 or something ridiculous in the warm up!!
 
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