FMM
Well-Known Member
My son (who is just 10) and his pony who we have had for two months, did their second ever dressage test at the weekend.
The pony has never done dressage before and was previously mainly ridden by adults with children being put on board just before the class (he is a show pony by trade!)
He did the intro test which was OK - he rode nicely and Harry went obediently. Then went into the Prelim - I was reading the test for him as my son only rides twice a month due to living 150 mile round trip from the pony and he had only ridden through the test once before. In hindsight, probably a big ask, but we had practiced it on the carpet at home, so he knew where he was going and the movements.
Did all the trot work pretty well (for 5s and 6s from a pretty hard marking judge), including half 10m circles and return to the track etc. Unfortunatley, the pony broke in his 20m circle at E (or B - I forget which!) canter and my son was muddled and rather than continuing his 20m circle, he ended up at A. I asked the judge to ring the bell to signal error of course, so I could get my son back to me and we could ride the movement again. However,the judge did NOT ring the bell. So then I had to try to work out where to start from, with my poor son still trying to remember where the circle was. He knew there was a change of rein, so when I said H, he made a beeline for it, rather than going around the arena. Again, I asked for the bell to be rung, and again nothing.
So I STILL could not stop the pony and get them to pick up a point where we both knew what we were doing. My son was getting progressively more flustered (but still determined to get his change of rein, when the judge finally rang the bell and said eliminated!!!!
My poor son (as I said, 10 years old on his second ever dressage test) had to do the walk of shame with quite a few people watching. He was desperately upset as he hates failing at anything. I asked the judge if he could just finish the test as he was a novice on his second test, and she replied that he was clearly very confused and there was no point.
Now, if she had RUNG THE DAMN BELL so that I could have got him back to me when I had ASKED her to, there would not have been a problem. But she let us muddle along, then rang the bell to eliminate him WITHOUT ringing the bell for the previous two mistakes. So as far as I am concerned, she was wrong.
And if she HAD done as I had asked, then my son would have been able to pick the test up and could have continued.
Some children would give up - mine is a stroppy individual and has just decided that he will work harder at getting it right next time.
Oh - and she also referred to him as a "she" - which mortified him.
And just to show it was not all bad and he DOES know what he is doing (he was 4th in his first test) here is a very bad pic!
My son has only really learnt to canter properly in the past few months, so working in by himself, and riding in a very spooky indoor arena on his pony, is really quite a big ask.
I am still appalled that an unaffiliated show would treat a small novice child in this way - who the hell does she think she is and how dare she belittle ANYONE, let alone MY child the way she did. The more I think about this, the crosser I am getting. I have done a fair amount of show judging over the years, and I like to think that with the obviously novice combinations I am nothing but helpful (well, the same goes for the more experienced ones to be honest!) and I would go out of my way to ensure that no one ever has to leave the ring. I hate even not giving them a rosette, let alone eliminating someone.
Rant over (for the moment). Or am I wrong and is it acceptable for a judge to refuse to ring the bell for an error of course so that they can explain where the error was made? I thought I had read the rules inside out (my concern with my son is him leaving the arena by mistake, not getting the test wrong, so I had not factored those rules in!)
The pony has never done dressage before and was previously mainly ridden by adults with children being put on board just before the class (he is a show pony by trade!)
He did the intro test which was OK - he rode nicely and Harry went obediently. Then went into the Prelim - I was reading the test for him as my son only rides twice a month due to living 150 mile round trip from the pony and he had only ridden through the test once before. In hindsight, probably a big ask, but we had practiced it on the carpet at home, so he knew where he was going and the movements.
Did all the trot work pretty well (for 5s and 6s from a pretty hard marking judge), including half 10m circles and return to the track etc. Unfortunatley, the pony broke in his 20m circle at E (or B - I forget which!) canter and my son was muddled and rather than continuing his 20m circle, he ended up at A. I asked the judge to ring the bell to signal error of course, so I could get my son back to me and we could ride the movement again. However,the judge did NOT ring the bell. So then I had to try to work out where to start from, with my poor son still trying to remember where the circle was. He knew there was a change of rein, so when I said H, he made a beeline for it, rather than going around the arena. Again, I asked for the bell to be rung, and again nothing.
So I STILL could not stop the pony and get them to pick up a point where we both knew what we were doing. My son was getting progressively more flustered (but still determined to get his change of rein, when the judge finally rang the bell and said eliminated!!!!
My poor son (as I said, 10 years old on his second ever dressage test) had to do the walk of shame with quite a few people watching. He was desperately upset as he hates failing at anything. I asked the judge if he could just finish the test as he was a novice on his second test, and she replied that he was clearly very confused and there was no point.
Now, if she had RUNG THE DAMN BELL so that I could have got him back to me when I had ASKED her to, there would not have been a problem. But she let us muddle along, then rang the bell to eliminate him WITHOUT ringing the bell for the previous two mistakes. So as far as I am concerned, she was wrong.
And if she HAD done as I had asked, then my son would have been able to pick the test up and could have continued.
Some children would give up - mine is a stroppy individual and has just decided that he will work harder at getting it right next time.
Oh - and she also referred to him as a "she" - which mortified him.
And just to show it was not all bad and he DOES know what he is doing (he was 4th in his first test) here is a very bad pic!
My son has only really learnt to canter properly in the past few months, so working in by himself, and riding in a very spooky indoor arena on his pony, is really quite a big ask.
I am still appalled that an unaffiliated show would treat a small novice child in this way - who the hell does she think she is and how dare she belittle ANYONE, let alone MY child the way she did. The more I think about this, the crosser I am getting. I have done a fair amount of show judging over the years, and I like to think that with the obviously novice combinations I am nothing but helpful (well, the same goes for the more experienced ones to be honest!) and I would go out of my way to ensure that no one ever has to leave the ring. I hate even not giving them a rosette, let alone eliminating someone.
Rant over (for the moment). Or am I wrong and is it acceptable for a judge to refuse to ring the bell for an error of course so that they can explain where the error was made? I thought I had read the rules inside out (my concern with my son is him leaving the arena by mistake, not getting the test wrong, so I had not factored those rules in!)