Does it worry you when you come last?

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pipper

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Do you take it badly? I am often well down the rankings when doing dressage - sometimes I feel very embarrassed. But I try to tell myself that no one is interested/notices! I certainly never look at other peoples scores, only to see how many points are between competitors. How do others deal with disapointment?
 
First or last, it's the taking part that counts. However I think if a came last often id be reviewing the level I was competing at. I mainly compete in RC competitions so it's always friendly & everyone supports each other. Most people are only bothered about their own scores so I wouldn't worry about what others think. If they thought badly of you it's says more about them than your performance! :)
 
Dressage you need to take with a pinch of salt, if you are happy with the test then that's fine, if you aren't happy with the test, take on board the comments and move forward.
 
I came last at our first affiliated dressage, in both classes I was a bit downhearted thats for sure, as I know he could have done much better...buttt that is horses for you - just have to work harder next time, it can depend on so many things on the day that you just have to go with it I think :)
 
I like to keep my sheet and compare it when i get home. If i have a better score then i'm happy, if i haven't then i look at which bit i didn't do as well at. Yes there will always be the look at me brigade and the i ONLY came 2nd sort, but i don't give two hoots about them. If you feel you have done your best then great, be happy about it regardless of where you came in the rankings.
 
If I very strongly believe we were better than other combinations there on that day I get very annoyed with myself. I think I can be very hard on myself too when I make mistakes (like striking off on the wrong canter lead in my individual show at the British elite.)
 
I get annoyed when I come last undeservedly in the show ring but then I laugh and say - never going under that judge again!

When you are asking for someone elses opinion you have to accept that not every one will think or look at your horse the same way you do.
 
I think dressage at local level can be terrible. Lots of people on horses that have competed much higher with previous owners, or riders that never go past prelim, preferring to sit and pot hunt, so the horses and riders that should genuinely be in prelims don't stand a chance. Its a shame that the name gets shortened to Prelim - it should be preliminary, which means its for horses and riders in their initial levels of training and before novice.. Its best to compete against your previous marks - compare how you did to previous tests and allow for a slight difference in marking..
 
I'm quite deeply competitive so I do tend to go out to win, no matter how unlikely (very, with dressage on my old boy!). But I literally couldn't care less about who beats me/ I beat! I'll glance at the other scores in the class to put my own into perspective and move on.
 
I entered our first Novice test a couple of weeks ago having been doing Ok at prelim for a couple of seasons. Of course we came last (out of 12) but I expected that. But my boy did his very best, we learned where we need to put in a bit more work before next time and enjoyed the occasion. So, am I worried about it? ... no, not at all. Chalk it up to experience and tomorrow's another day.
 
It depends, im a strange one because placings arent really what makes me happy, me and my horse doing the best we can is what does it for me. I've won before and come home very unhappy with how i rode. Always been the same.

I do look at other peoples scores and places, not to judge, just out of interest really. If i did the best i can and i got beat fair and square i will be happy with what i did. Last or not.

I think most of the time, its myself im actually competing against!
 
As long as I am happy with how the horse worked and I feel that hes happy and comfortable enough then i don't care at all. I will glance at other scores to compare but I am more interested in my own previous scores and whether we are improving
 
Not too bothered tbh (atm) as we're just getting used to going out and about and while I am competitive and I want to do well there are times when that doesn't seem to be possible and I accept it and move on :)
 
Yes, I would be upset if I was last unless I agreed with the judge - e.g. in a showing class the horse bucked, or repeatedly took the wrong canter lead, or horse was entirely not the correct type and I was only entering for an outing.

In dressage I generally know how well I have done, good or bad. This is one of the reasons I haven't done a dressage competition for 12 months! If I was doing, say a Novice test, for the first time then I would more or less expect to be at the end, as the other competitors are moving up. Hopefully after a few outings at that level I would be getting better marks. I always like to read the judge's comments and see if we agree, generally I know what they are going to say!

I think if you kept entering and came last, and you didn't really know the reason why, it would be time to ask another person (instructor) for their opinion and advice and make an effort to improve.
 
pipper said:
Do you take it badly? I am often well down the rankings when doing dressage - sometimes I feel very embarrassed. But I try to tell myself that no one is interested/notices! I certainly never look at other peoples scores, only to see how many points are between competitors. How do others deal with disapointment?
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I don't do dressage, its not my thing, have not done it since 70's, but showing i have and not even selected. I don't mind as long as the class is judged fairly and not biased again those you know or the wrong horse in the class takes the first. Then no I do not take it as fair and have known the class to complain against it.
 
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Orangehorse said:
Yes, I would be upset if I was last unless I agreed with the judge - e.g. in a showing class the horse bucked, or repeatedly took the wrong canter lead, or horse was entirely not the correct type and I was only entering for an outing.

In dressage I generally know how well I have done, good or bad. This is one of the reasons I haven't done a dressage competition for 12 months! If I was doing, say a Novice test, for the first time then I would more or less expect to be at the end, as the other competitors are moving up. Hopefully after a few outings at that level I would be getting better marks. I always like to read the judge's comments and see if we agree, generally I know what they are going to say!

I think if you kept entering and came last, and you didn't really know the reason why, it would be time to ask another person (instructor) for their opinion and advice and make an effort to improve.
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I agree with you there..i tend to have a good idea what score i have got in dressage before looking.

Also about a couple of years ago the same people where competing most weeks in the same classes and it got the point i could pretty much guess who would get placed where; it got boring and i had a break from it. Show jumping has abit more luck involved i think. At the minute my young horse is still getting better and better so im enjoying seeing how well we can do together! Trying to break to 70% mark!:)
 
Dressage doesn't bother me as it's not my thing. I only take my boy to dressage to teach him that trips out are not necessarily exciting. Unfortunatley he does his best to make them exciting which means we usually come last.
 
I'm very competitive and really beat myself up over it if I come last!! But then I remember that each outing however successful or not is a learning experience particularly if your horses are still young as mine are and that eases the pain as the day can then be viewed as useful even though it didn't go the way I wanted!! I really don't believe I'm a sour loser though and always make a point to congratulate the winner - after all I know how nice it feels when someone does that when I win and besides it's not the winner's fault that I lost :D
 
I also tend to compete against myself really. We only do local RC and we're never going to reach the higher echelons anyway (nor do I want to - don't have the time and my mare has other ideas). We started from the bottom and are working our way slowly up from intro to prelim and I get a huge boost when we improve on something and that's what it's about. She wouldn't even walk a circle when I first got her so I'm chuffed to just be able go in the ring and not get honked at! Daft to beat myself up about not qualifying for Rio....;-)
 
pipper said:
Do you take it badly? I am often well down the rankings when doing dressage - sometimes I feel very embarrassed. But I try to tell myself that no one is interested/notices! I certainly never look at other peoples scores, only to see how many points are between competitors. How do others deal with disapointment?
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Not really. I just like to 'escape' for the day, just me and my horse. I really cherish the times I am with him at a show and the weather is really nice, the sun is out, and he is jumping well. Whether I get placed or not is irrelevant to me. We don't need to prove ourselves. It is nice to win, and obvioulsy I give it all I've got when I'm in a jump off but I don't get upset if I don't come home with a rosette. The bar is set quite high these days in terms of the standard of horses at shows and sometimes the number of horses in a class. In 2012 I went out 9 times, did two classes per show and got eight and a half double clears, being placed nearly every time in classes of 45. That was lovely and a real thrill.

I just love going out for the day, and look forward to it all week, its really what keeps me going with my horse as I find him very stressful and problematic most of the time! Without being able to compete I don't think I would find horse ownership very satisfying at all.
 
The only thing you should be competing against is yourself. Too many people get lost in comparing against other people's horses. Go out, enjoy yourself and if you and your horse have made improvements/scored higher than the last outing, then you're a winner. If not, learn from it and work harder.
 
Not so much with donovan, but with benson, when we used to do dressage, I would just compete against myself. amd try and get a better score than the last time we rode that test.
with donovan I know he is capable of keeping up with the others, so again, in the dressage part of the driving we try and do better than last time, but with the obstacles with us, its more luck than judgement!!
 
Billy the kid said:
It depends, im a strange one because placings arent really what makes me happy, me and my horse doing the best we can is what does it for me. I've won before and come home very unhappy with how i rode. Always been the same.

I do look at other peoples scores and places, not to judge, just out of interest really. If i did the best i can and i got beat fair and square i will be happy with what i did. Last or not.

I think most of the time, its myself im actually competing against!
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I very much agree with this. I take the view that it's all good experience, whatever the outcome and as long as I am pleased with our performance, I don't give a stuff what anyone else thinks. If I am not pleased, then I know what I need to work on for next time.
If we do do well in the marks/judging then that is a bonus but not as big a bonus as if I am pleased with us! This probably comes from taking very inexperienced horses to events and being over the moon if they manage to put one foot in front of the other without freaking out :-)
 
I used to come last or thereabouts for so long that I counted from the bottom not the top placings. However with perseverance and lessons/experience I rarely came home without a rosette and usually two.

Never bothered me, onwards and upwards, someone has to come last.
 
It's not exactly a happy cheery moment coming last but as already mentioned someone has to!

I did come in last 3 times in a row at the same venue one year so I made a point of going a 4th time with my instructor and watching other peoples tests and seeing their scores. Now my instructor was a bit of a perfectionist and not bias at all and she put at least 10 people beneath me, however, I still came last with an atrocious score and the same quite bitchy comments towards me, not my horse. I didn't know the judge from Adam!

An extra £10 of petrol the following week and a different venue (and more importantly a different judge) and I got 4th place in a class of 20 odd. It did me so much good, those 4 last places one after the other really knocked me back. I'm not competitive, I just love taking part but the whole last place thing with really mean comments (4 times over) was a really degrading experience and wrecked my confidence!

Sometimes it's just not a good day, sometimes you are running before you can walk and sometimes you get a meany for a judge!

That was years ago, these days I am just happy if I get a nice photo to keep as a momento for the day even if I get eliminated :D
 
moleskinsmum said:
I very much agree with this. I take the view that it's all good experience, whatever the outcome and as long as I am pleased with our performance, I don't give a stuff what anyone else thinks. If I am not pleased, then I know what I need to work on for next time.
If we do do well in the marks/judging then that is a bonus but not as big a bonus as if I am pleased with us! This probably comes from taking very inexperienced horses to events and being over the moon if they manage to put one foot in front of the other without freaking out :-)
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I am very competitive though and like to get placed, and try to win. Its hard to explain really; if im on an experienced horse id go for it and want to win, but on a youngster 'winning' to me would be just getting round the test/course. Its all relevant i guess. When i go dressage this weekend i will be hoping to get top 3, but xc the week after ill be over the moon if he gets round it.
 
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