Disgusting display of riding

[Santa_Claus]

Went down to watch local HT at Bicton today. Was going to do it myself but as unsure on ground conditions (which turned out to be perfect) and warnings it would be twisty as I want a first run over flowing course (was very very twisty!) decided against it but thought would still go watch. Right mix of people in the intermediate and open I watched lots of BE riders obviously rerouting as B&W was cancelled and on other end of scale your cobs/heavy hunters and little ponies ridden by your local riders.

Now on the whole some very good riding especially in the open (3'-3'3") where they had that odd distance of the step up to the very narrow skinny. Some very intelligent riding showed by a lot.

but then there is the BUT and its a big one. One rider came round and we at first see the horse trotting, hmmm ok its the open but still. Then it jumps and tanks off. rider sawing it on the mouth whilst completly dropping the outside rein (err hello!!!!) poor horse was chucking its head in the air trying to escape the gag it had in. To make it worse several people were nearby shouting at the rider to stop trotting into the fences and canter. Errr think they were trotting to try retain some control. Me and my housemate were cringing though at the sawing of the reins that was going on. I would have been far from surprised to see the horse come back with a bleeding mouth. Would like to see what the rider would have done if we put a bit in their mouth and yanked like they did to their horse.

Ok rant over other than that was lovely day and was great watching lots of cute kiddies jump round the mini course

Also was sad to see all the new BE jumps that just won't be jumped this season. Looked like a new combination of skinnies for the advanced before the water as well as three sets of brushes (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) coming out of the water which were lovely for the novice and evil for the Advanced (in my opinion

) even though the advanced was only about 10-15cm higher!

 

[jesterfaerie]

I really cannot stand to hear about people riding like this, let alone seeing it.
The poor poor horse

I think some lessons are seriously needed for this horse and rider, but yes I do think putting the bit in the riders mouth is an brilliant idea!
Glad to hear apart from that you had a good day

 

[the watcher]

It might not have looked good, but I think you have to be careful when making judgements about the riding of other people. I can't think of a good reason why somebody would appear to be riding so badly, but there may well have been a reason.

 

[Santa_Claus]

one can only hope but they were literally yanking back and forth on the mouth. Personally if i was having that scale of braking problems I would gracefully retire go back sort out the bitting/schooling issues and come back another day. The poor rider did seem pretty terrified which never helps any situation (came within metres of us due to missing turn from lack of brakes.

oh well I know I shouldn't rant as yes I wasn't riding the horse so can't comment on what I can't feel but what I saw was for me painful to watch.

 

[hunteress]

I agree with the watcher I always think what if I were sitting on that horse what would I do, it might be perfect at home then this is the reaction at the show and she was trying to get in controll so she might have been able to do nothing else but try to get it going better but I also see your point ive been to many shows and thought what a bad rider its scary !!

 

[spike123]

it sounds to me like the rider was out of her depth doing something she perhaps wasn't ready for. I must say though that the horse may have reacted totally differently through training and possibly even other events but that doesn't excuse the rider sawing on her horses mouth. Poor horse!

 

[AmyMay]

Did you bring your observations to the notice of the show secretary???

 

[Kezza]

Maybe the horse took the rider by complete surprise and they panicked a bit. How many of us manage to stay completely calm if our horses bolt? I think it's common for someone to just react and sometimes this results in doing things you wouldn't normally do as you're so frightened. I don't see this as an act of cruelty or bad riding really, the rider was just trying to stop the bolting horse in any way they could as quickly as possible.

 

[Santa_Claus]

no for a couple of good reasons (including who the rider was and how they were linked to the organisers!) but trust me i would of otherwise!

Again I know I wasn't on the horse and yes could have acted very differently at home but saw it bolt to varying degrees over at least 5 fences, and 'personally' i would have by that point decided to retire and come back another day. I know its easy to say it but I would hope if I ever did that to a horse once never mind 5 times within a minute I would want to be pulled off the horse.