Hopetoun showjumping disgrace

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Imp Monster

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I am writing on this forum in the hope I can prevent an incident similar to the one which occurred to me at Hopetoun Horse Trails on Saturday. Whilst competing in the BE 90 section of Hopetoun on Saturday my horse and I were going brilliantly round the showjumping course until at fence 8 my horse put in a very out of character spook and I was unseated. I am not in the habbit of falling off and am well known for my stickability I can accept I fell off, however its the events which unfolded after this fall which really upset me. The fence was at the far end of the course therefore the showjumping stewards had plenty of time to ensure the rope was up and my horse was contained in the arena. Right?

WRONG no the stewards made no effort to ensure the entrance to the arena was blocked by the rope or any effort to catch said horse which slowed down at the entrance to the arena instead these irrisponsible people allowed my horse to escape out in to the parkland. My horse isnt used to people falling off his back therefore was very upset and galloped round the parkland before being caught. What upsets me is that during this time he could have injured himself or anyone in his way (a 16.3 Irsh Horse can cause a lot of damage I hear). What also upsets me as the horse was allowed to leave the arena I was eliminated and not allowed to remount and attempt the fence as stated in the rule book.
I very my horse now has an elimination on his record which was soley the fault of the stewards. I could have accepted elimination had the incident been due to myself or my horse screwing up however, im very upset it was due to the stewards total lack of professionalism. I know they are all volunteers however they should at least be paying attension.

I was also very upset by the BE steward who somewhat fobbed me off and told me the answer is simply not to fall off. This is a very hurtful thing to say to someone who has just fallen off!!!!!!!!!!!!

Furthermore I was very upset at the lack of support and attitude of the stewards following the event who did not appear to know what to do and were extremely rude to me.

I would however like to take this chance to thank who ever caught my horse I have no idea who you are and my mother can't even remember if I thanked you.
Thank you to the First Aiders and the doctor for checking me out.
Thank you to the Air training corps cadets for attempting to catch my horse.
And thank you to all the comptitors and spectators whom supported my complaint and all agreed such an incident should never have been allowed to occur at a British Event.

I was given stewards permission to run cross country and after some doubt I decided to run I would like to thank the start team at cross country for their support and encouragement and there standing ovation as I crossed the finish line.

This post may sound like a ranting competitior however I volunteer regularly for BE this year I have been a dressage steward at Floors Castle and I am also assisting in some form at Hendersyde horse trails. I am also on my local riding club committee have been involved in organising and stewarding many events. I also have assisted in the running of BUSA univeristy riding competitions. I have been competing and volunteering for many years and have never seen such a dangerous occurrence or allowed one to happen. This incident has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth and I dont think I'll be returning to Hopetoun Horse Trails next year.
 
Hi- as one of the start team, I couldn't believe it when you told us what had happened, total madness! Can't believe they thought it was a "less dangerous" option to let him out of the SJ arena into the main park/lorry park. :confused: And that was indeed very tactless of the steward to say "don't fall off" to you. :(

Glad the whoops and claps were appreciated, I told you you'd end up enjoying it and doing more than the first 4 fences...! ;) Hope it was a good XC run to finish off a not-so-good earlier part of your day. A real shame you had such a bad experience (sounds like none of us escaped without something odd happening, even if mine wasn't as traumatic as your's). Good luck with the next one. :)
 
Thanks Figjam

Hopefully heading to Eglinton this weekend. Horse seems fine and have been doing extra showjumping practice at home (might also pack the super glue).

Cross country was fabby after the first few fences my horse totally settled and was like an old pro. So far this season really hasn't gone my way I missed scone cause I was ill and missed hexham due to a lame pony. Hopefully things are on the turn now fingers crossed for Eglington and who knows sometime this year I might finally get my horse upgraded to BE100.
 
I do think it is very bad that the string is not put across for competitors. Like you say you would expect this at small local competitions never mind BE! I saw someone get eliminated in SJ at Hutton when their horse ran out at a fence right by the arena gate and straight out the arena. So of course they were eliminated - which would not have happened had the string been across. I would have been fuming if it had happened to me and I did see them putting it across later so perhaps they learned from it but hardly fair on the person it happened to.

Glad you enjoyed XC afterwrds and good luck at Eglinton. We are headed there too next.
 
rather shocked that happened as well. I was at Winkleigh this weekend and without fail the rope was put up between every horse entering/exiting the arena. Infact at every event this year either the gate/rope to the arena has been closed or in the case of Stockland Lovell where the arena is split the main gate (by which you enter the warm up) was always closed other than when a horse was entering/exiting so to prevent such an accident.

I'm glad that you and your horse were both uninjured and glad because of that you were also able to finish the day on a good note going XC.

I would hope that you made a polite complaint to the organisers who no doubt will be just as shocked as yourself, and I'm sure their reaction will be to ensure for their next event that the stewards are reminded of the importance of closing off the gate during rounds to prevent such a reoccurance.
 
Quite frankly the bell should not have been rung until the arena was secured, i.e. the rope put across. That, to me, is general common sense. We run low key jumping events at my yard and I do the ring judging and I would never, ever ring the bell if the arena was not secured.

You are well within your rights to be furious, I would be too!
 
I'd never have an open rope at small unaff SJ .... though granted there is sometimes more chance of people toppling off then. What a shame. Did they start putting the rope across after the incident?
 
That does sound like a disgraceful thing to happen at a BE event - they were lucky that no-one equine or human was injured. Did the organisers give a reason why the rope wasn't put across?

Perhaps this is the sort of issue which should be raised on the ERA site that Kerilli has posted about above?
 
Wouldn't say you're ranting at all, I too would be ever so slightly annoyed by it. They were very lucky it didn't cause a serious accident. Good to hear you had a nice ride xc to finish on :)
 
I may be wrong, but a few people were disgussing this prior to a prizegiving, and all were agreed that it was appaulling.

Anyway, the general consensus was that the rope was indeed over after you entered the arena and the previous horse exited, as it was with all horses....it was only re-opened after you and your horse parted company...??
Apparently the gate steward believed that your horse was safer careering around the car park than inside the arena...and opened the gate to let it out...if this is indeed what happened...they should be shot...
 
I can't comment about Hopetoun, but from when I was ring stewarding at Burgie for the BE event, we did have rope across the exit/entrance. We were briefed to open the gate as the horse in the ring was jumping fence 8 with 9 being the final fence in a related difference. This was to get the next horse in, so hopefully they could speed the SJ up. However as someone who does compete I was always a bit reluctant to do this as the last fence was v. spooky, catching several people out. I therefore decided to hold back opening the gate until over the final fence. However if someone on the gate is not used to horses or obeys what they are being told without thinking then they would possibly have kept the gate open (and have horses escaping).
I dont want to sound as if I am standing up for the person on the gate but just wanted to give my view on what I have experienced at BE events. Therefore maybe gates should not be opened until the horse is over the final fence and for stewards to be clear not to open the gate if a horse is loose in the ring.
 
I can understand why you are so frustrated. I did notice that when FJ went in to the arena (first horse of the day) the steward didn't shut the rope, but was rushing off to get to a good spot to video her, and figured they would close the rope in a minute.

Only thing that springs to mind though, playing Devil's advocate, is that if you fell off on the xc, there wouldn't be an arena to contain your horse? I do see that if the steward did actually drop the rope after you fell off, it's pretty poor; but if you fell xc and your horse cantered off, the same situation would occur ie elimination because of the time elapsed.

I'm sure I'd be just as frustrated as the OP; but is there actually a rule that states the arena will be completely roped off? There may well be (afraid I'm not au fait with every single rule ;) ) but if not, I'd probably chalk it down to an unfortunate event.:(
 
now_loves_mares said:
Only thing that springs to mind though, playing Devil's advocate, is that if you fell off on the xc, there wouldn't be an arena to contain your horse? I do see that if the steward did actually drop the rope after you fell off, it's pretty poor; but if you fell xc and your horse cantered off, the same situation would occur ie elimination because of the time elapsed
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True no fencing BUT far less people/horses in immediate vicinity to run into unless at start/finish. Granted if fell off XC the horse could continue at speed all the way back to SJ/dressage/trade stands but in the immediate area it will probably be fairly empty and there would be chance to warn over the tannoys that a horse was loose so people in the more crowded areas could act appropriately. When loose in Dr/Sj there is little chance to warn anyone until damage is done so to speak.
 
i'm fence judging at eglington this weekend what's your horses name and i'll cheer you on :-) xx (if the blooming weather clears up that is)
 
I was actually there when this happened and agree that it is unusual to have let the horse out of the arena however I can confirm that the rope was up while you were jumping and your horse came towards the rope in a complete panic and I think at the last minute that the gate steward thought that your horse was going to career out wether the rope was up or not and knock them over in the process. He WAS in a bit of a blind panic.
I guess at the end of the day you have to remember that the gate steward was a volunteer too who just made a split second decision as your horse was careering towards the gate. There were quite a few folk standing at the arena entrance and I think that the decision was as I say split second in case the people at the gate got knocked flat which did look like it might happen.
 
I am glad you have modified your attitude since you posted about this on the BE forums and they had to remove it due to the stewards being upset by your attitude .I can understand you are upset but you have to accept that the steward on the day did what they thought was best in the situation,they may have made a mistake but so had you before this.It happens and I am sure they didnt do it to put people at risk.What do you do in this situation as if the horse is leaving the arena at any cost a piece of rope is not going to stop it but could cause further mayhem with a length of rope being pulled up with all the people around it and the horse panicking more.On balance most horses would have left the arena and gone to another horse.
Can you tell me hand on Heart that whenever you have stewarded at SJ you have never dropped the rope with a horse in the ring.
The people who volunteer at these events do not get paid and give up a day to put on a sport that we all compete in.Without them there will be no eventing so lets not blame them so publicly ,you will not like this but if you had not fallen off this would not have happened . At the end of the day nobody was hurt or injured so as much as you will disagree you could argue that the steward did the right thing.
Carrying out a witch hunt over something like this will only end up with no sport at all.
 
tantallon said:
I was actually there when this happened and agree that it is unusual to have let the horse out of the arena however I can confirm that the rope was up while you were jumping and your horse came towards the rope in a complete panic and I think at the last minute that the gate steward thought that your horse was going to career out wether the rope was up or not and knock them over in the process. He WAS in a bit of a blind panic.
I guess at the end of the day you have to remember that the gate steward was a volunteer too who just made a split second decision as your horse was careering towards the gate. There were quite a few folk standing at the arena entrance and I think that the decision was as I say split second in case the people at the gate got knocked flat which did look like it might happen.
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Can I just add that this person's horse was caught quietly within about 10 seconds of leaving the arena so no harm done - better than galloping through the rope and getting in a bigger panic. I would also like to add that the steward in no way deserved the dogs abuse that was given to her by someone presumably your mother. Please remember that, as you yourself pointed out stewards give their time as volunteers and don't deserve this kind of treatment either!
 
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Imp Monster said:
This incident has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth and I dont think I'll be returning to Hopetoun Horse Trails next year.
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I am one of the organising committee at Hopetoun. However, this post is my own opinion and not necessarily that or the rest of the committee.


Dear Imp Monster,

I am sorry you fell off in the SJ - not Hopetoun's fault.
I am sorry you were unable to keep hold of your horse once you had fallen off - not Hopetoun's fault.
Also that your horse chose to leave the arena at speed in a 'blind panic' at the shock of losing his rider - not our fault.

However, I am not sorry that the steward took the split second decision to not allow your horse (approx 500kg ?) to gallop through a rope. And therefore potentially get tangled in it, rip out stakes and several meters of rope and potentially injuring himself and several spectators.

You were correctly eliminated. However, you were allowed to go XC - not all events would have allowed this.

You and your connections were very rude on the day and also on the BE web site.

As I said this is not an official responce from Hopetoun but re your Quote above "This incident has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth and I dont think I'll be returning to Hopetoun Horse Trails next year" As someone you personally put in several days of blood sweat and tears to run the event I find your post and attitude very offensive and would be delighted if you chose to take your one woman witch hunt to a different venue next year.

I wish you luck at Eglinton and hope you manage to SJ without falling off. It was your fall in the SJ that was the catalyst to the chain of events that unfolded and not the actions of our hard working volunteers.
 
popsdosh said:
.I can understand you are upset but you have to accept that the steward on the day did what they thought was best in the situation,they may have made a mistake but so had you before this.It happens and I am sure they didnt do it to put people at risk.What do you do in this situation as if the horse is leaving the arena at any cost a piece of rope is not going to stop it but could cause further mayhem with a length of rope being pulled up with all the people around it and the horse panicking more.On balance most horses would have left the arena and gone to another horse.
Can you tell me hand on Heart that whenever you have stewarded at SJ you have never dropped the rope with a horse in the ring.
The people who volunteer at these events do not get paid and give up a day to put on a sport that we all compete in.Without them there will be no eventing so lets not blame them so publicly ,you will not like this but if you had not fallen off this would not have happened . At the end of the day nobody was hurt or injured so as much as you will disagree you could argue that the steward did the right thing.
Carrying out a witch hunt over something like this will only end up with no sport at all.
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Have to agree with this.

When I first read the OP, my immediate thought was spoilt selfish brat which might sound a bit harsh but that's how it came across to me so heaven knows what your posts on the other forum were like and I would have been mortified if, as that steward, you slated me in public for doing what I thought safest at the time for all concerned. The fact you couldn't see the humour when a steward told you not to fall off says a lot too about your attitude even in the heat of the moment.
If I were the organiser of Hopetoun, I would be loathe to allow you to compete there again for the abuse you gave the stewards, there is never a good reason to do that. By all means complain to the organiser if you have to, but never to a steward and never in public as you have done. It doesn't take much to upset people and as pointed out before, the sport needs voluntary stewards, upset them by being rude, whether you think it's justified or not and you'll not have any events to go to.

A friend is 'steward of the rope' at Aintree race meetings where the horses that have unseated can run up the funnel. They have instructions that if a horse is in a blind panic, as OP's seems to have been, they should drop the rope rather than risk injury to both the horse and others which is what this steward sensibly did.
 
Ditto the last couple of posts: you didn't come across well OP.
It's very frustrating to end up E in the show jumping, but you were allowed to go XC all the same. Your fall and time would have given you a cricket score SJ anyway.
I have seen a horse panic and take the rope and stakes out of an arena and it did a lot of damage to itself. Split second decisions are just that, and if the steward's judgement was to let your horse get out then it was for a reason.
You say:
Imp Monster said:
I could have accepted elimination had the incident been due to myself or my horse screwing up
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Sorry, but falling off was you and your horse's problem, not the stewards!
 
I have to say - I think you where very lucky to get to run the XC esp after falling off, and sounds like the people running the event where very kind to let you do so.

IMO - The steward did the right thing, no piece of rope is going to stop a horse which is in blind panic and at the end of the day it would have ended up with a far worse situation than an E in the SJ. I know at the time you would have been gutted and really annoyed but at the end of the day - horses have their own minds too and there is nothing to say your hourse wouldnt have simply jumped over the rope or event worse, got tangled up in it.

As a volunteer at BE events - I find people are far too quick to be rude, I have only jumped judged once and have first hand had to put with up with rudeness from competitors which I found shocking. I was giving up my day for free to help out to allow them to compete and it wouldnt hurt for people to remember this.
 
Oh dear :o I guess this just goes to show there are 2 sides to every story.

My understanding from OP was that the rope had not been across which allowed the horse to escape when it would otherwise have stopped. Not that someone had to make a split second decision when said horse was in blind panic which of course puts a totally different slant on things.

Also, in my opinion, there is never, ever any excuse to be abusive to stewards and organisers. If in the heat of the moment I lost it I would be extremely embarassed and apologetic afterwards. If OP spoke to officials as badly as it sounds on paper then I would say very lucky indeed to be allowed xc - after all there was no right to be able to do this.
 
DarkHorseB said:
Also, in my opinion, there is never, ever any excuse to be abusive to stewards and organisers. If in the heat of the moment I lost it I would be extremely embarassed and apologetic afterwards. If OP spoke to officials as badly as it sounds on paper then I would say very lucky indeed to be allowed xc - after all there was no right to be able to do this.
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Well said DarkHorseB...
 
I think the steward in this instance now we have BOTH sides of the story made a very wise decision. I have seen what ropes to do horses in a blind panic, those that have seen the rope and continued on regardless and those horses who haven't seen a rope!

You should count

1) yourself lucky that you didnt hurt yourself badly
2) your horse lucky that a steward was quick thinking and saved injury
3) yourself lucky you got to go on and do the XC phase


Your best course of action would be to accept that **** happens, you fell off, obviously are not used to falling off, had a big bump back to reality in this case and been extremely rude to people such as yourself who give up their free time to support the sport.

I suggest you contact those you have been rude to, with tail between your legs and apologise.....you do sound like someone who is used to all the good stuff and not used to tasting the bad.

IMHO steward did bang on the right thing, blind panic horse and rope are NOT a good mix........

And so what if E is on your horses record, you have a tongue in your mouth clearly so can explain what happened?

Chillax and apologise....I wouldnt let you back on course if it was my venue!
 
DarkHorseB said:
Oh dear :o I guess this just goes to show there are 2 sides to every story.

My understanding from OP was that the rope had not been across which allowed the horse to escape when it would otherwise have stopped. Not that someone had to make a split second decision when said horse was in blind panic which of course puts a totally different slant on things.

Also, in my opinion, there is never, ever any excuse to be abusive to stewards and organisers. If in the heat of the moment I lost it I would be extremely embarassed and apologetic afterwards. If OP spoke to officials as badly as it sounds on paper then I would say very lucky indeed to be allowed xc - after all there was no right to be able to do this.
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Agree with this (DarkHorseB, you are very wise!), at the time of my first reply it sounded like the rope was never up in the first place, but having heard more from other witnesses, sounds like there was some vital information missing from the OP...
 
very interesting to read both sides of the story

a very similar situation happened at hexham and my reaction was "why didn't they have the rope up"
but when you think about it if your horse was moving at the same speed as the horse at hexham was , a piece of rope is in no way going to stop him.

he would have no doubt fell when hitting the rope or like already said ripped the posts out and injured himself and spectators around the arena

you should be thanking the sj stewards for there quick thinking in preventing a dangerous situation.
although its not ideal to have a loose horse galloping about , this seems to me like a well thought out plan of action from BE

you should be gratefull to them for allowing you to run xc as even riding club would not allow this.

i would be very embarrassed if i were you
 
I have read your post and the replies, I also read the post that you put on the BE forum and I must admit I cannot believe that your attitude, or refusal to appologise.

As has been pointed out, the stewards are volunteers and if it weren't for them you wouldn't be able to compete at all. They have given up their day, for free, and don't deserve to be openly critised on a public forum.

Obviously I wasn't there and can't comment on the circumstances of what did or didn't happen, but you cannot blame them for being eliminated. Which is what it comes down to as you say yourself your horse was caught without injuring himself or anyone else.

Even if they haven't read this, I suspect that the volunteers who you blame for the whole incident will never volunteer at an event again. The volunteer community is a small world and word gets about. It wouldn't be difficult to work out who you are from the results at Hopetoun. This isn't meant as a threat, but a statement of fact.

We all get angry and frustrated in the heat of a competition but I think a public appology is definitly in order.
 
In response to all the messages my ranting on the BE forum only demonstates my passion for eventing and the horror that my horses welfare was placed in danger. My horse was not in a total blind panic and could have easily been stopped by the rope. As a volunteer myself I have seen this done and done this myself and have never seen a horse injured from this.

I was not rude to the steward in question all I asked was for them to radio the BE steward and why did they let the rope down.

My mother was never rude the only time she spoke to the steward was to ask why the rope was lowered.
 
ok I wasn't there but have you ever had to make a split second decision?


I imagine it wasn't easy for the steward, who doesn't know your horse and you say he was very upset, to decide if the horse was just running away or in blind panic.

sometimes stuff happens.... and its nobody's fault just a serious of unfortunate events. You cannot say for certain that your horse would not have gone through/tried to jump the rope. He wouldnt be the first.
 
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