Humping broncing hair-raising Hargate AF report.....

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Prince33Sp4rkle

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lets just say it didnt go to plan in the slightest, but i hope CS has learnt a lot from it,so am putting on brave face and pullling myself together, although secretly feel like a bit of a cry :(

got there bang on time and got on to do first warm up session.....he felt amazing, a few snorts and jumps but nothing major and swinging over the back straight away, really soft and chilled, yay!
had one random *stand on back legs and walk entire length of arena* moment, but apart from that did some fab work and i was really rather smug (pride comes before a fall and all that.....)

plodded up to outdoor warm up, stopped and watched some tests, listened to the loudspeakers for a bit, and then wandered up to the collecting ring, felt fairly chilled......then heard the "beep beep crackle" of the stewards walky talky and oh.dear.god....sat down in shock and then WENT, for one awful moment i thought id had total brake failure and could see the single perimeter board comming up fairly fast, but managed to get him back, and then re-settled.let him listen and absorb a bit longer then went back to lorry, washed off and let him chill for an hour before plaiting and getting back on for proper warm up.

again felt really good, bit more on edge than before but still by a long way the most *through* he has ever been at a show.clever chap.

sadly just as we went in to the outdoor for out test, the loudspeaker started up and probably feeling a bit on edge in the dark, surrounded by just visible people etc, he flipped-leap,rear, spin,leap rear spin etc,more power to the velcro arse that i stayed on! managed to get him trotting and to his credit he went straight down and past the judges cars without blinking, but again as we went past gate, leap in the air and then tried to bolt again :(, lots of patting praise and again to his credit he settled and went straight in after the bell, but of course so damn tense, everything was a bit ridgid and lacking suppleness and the first canter was so sharp and on the spot, and i could just feel a change brewing, so didnt dare put leg on!!!

second half was better, but then the f'ing loudspeaker launched in to life half way though my walk and he just froze and then went up.
finished up with no more drama until after my final halt when again loudspeaker started into'ing next person-we exited the ring in a combination of rear/sideways bolt and passage :(

score was suitably horrific-56%, and im pretty gutted.

homework for the winter is clearly loudspeakers!!!!! will be riding at least once a week with the car parked next to the school with radio on full blast!!!!

so thats it, over and out on the competition front from us, until feb 2011.bring on the 6yo's and mediums :)

i am so so proud of how much he did hold it together for me, he did really try and i cant fault his attitude at all, was genuine terror at the booming voice comming out the dark, poor boy.

think we are all shattered!
hope everyone else had a better time of it.
 
Oh dear what a shame! Probably not how you wanted to end the season, but at least you know what you need to work on this winter. Look at this way it could be/have been a far bigger problem if you had found out at the 1st comp of the year...

But well done on sitting all his evasive manouvers! maybe consol yourself with the thought that they were so 'easy' to sit becasue he was all collected and under himself ;)
 
Poor boy - monsters in the dark out to get him. So know the feeling when riding Off the track TB's at their early competitions, the loud speaker comes to life and they go into race mode! All the schooling gone with one crackle.
 
I know what you mean about sudden noises!

At least it's something that is relatively easy to deal with. Can you leave a radio by his stable too? Change the stations regularly, sometimes have it just off station making crackly noises.
 
Oh dear, sorry to hear that...and he's been such a good boy lately.

Catembi was always *really* freaked out by the speakers at Keysoe...for the BS warmup, they played 'relaxing' music that came out of little speakers on poles so you couldn't see where it was coming from (if you were a horse...) & he thought that the 'invisible music' was the work of the devil...
 
Oh dear :( I suppose the only positive is that you know what frightened him and at least it's fixable. Hope the full-blast radio doesn't drive you mad though!
 
Oh dear what a shame - do you not compete over the winter at all then? Do you just focus on training and give him a few weeks off or how do you play it? (Am just interested in what people do over the winter really BD wise as i always used to carry on competing but a lot less, generally once a month and to a venue not very far away, whereas in the summer we would travel all over the place).
 
Oh what a shame - but at least is was genuine fear and something you can work on!!! Think my boy would :eek: at a voice booming out from nowhere in the dark too! Next year he'll be unstoppable :D
 
tempi-usually take oct-feb/march off as feel in order to progress, its more effective to not have to worry about show riding eg, i really need to get the changes perfect ready for the 6yo classes, and training changes and competing elem at same time would just be confusing for the horse, much easier to train until the changes are 100% on the aids and thus hopefully wont get random ones at shows!

also, i do feel he's had a long season, iv not over competed him i dont think, but he does feel a bit tired, a few weeks mainly hacking and a bit of jumping over the winter will keep him happy i feel :)

will keep going out to clinics and lessons and maybe some tiny tiny indoor sj, so he continues to get used to show atmospheres.

he cant be let down totally or his sticky stifle plays up (its fine when in work), so has to work at least every other day, even if just gentle walk work.
 
We are lucky in that almost all the venues round here play back ground music so they get used to the speakers.
At Wellington AF the issue was the plastic roofing over the seating which was taking off in the wind. I was lucky in the fact that we had our annual show a couple of weeks before and had bunting and banners flapping round the arena at home for 2 weeks so we coped very well with the flying roof! Others were not so fortunate and almost saw a flying dismount from one poor girl!
 
Sounds like a "very well sat" is in order.
Nightmare, but good that he held it together and worked for you even after having the bejeezus scared out of him. Sudden loud noises in tests are the work of the devil, someone slammed a huge metal door right outside the indoor I was doing a test in, once, horse nearly died of fright and it totally ruined a really nice test.
Lots of sudden radio-turning-ons I guess. Oh, and schooling with ipod or iphone blaring in pocket, that's my latest craze...
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
yes, off to dig out the yard radio, good tip about the crackling, ta!

wonder if there is a de-spooking horses random noises cd?! if not, there is a def niche in the market!
Click to expand...

If you google MP3 sound effects , there are thousands of different sound effects you can download, put them on a cd and voila...horse de spooking cd...:D
 
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Oh dear, what a shame! But (and this is a huge 'but'), don't feel too downhearted! He has had a super season, he is still a very young horse and these things will happen. Hope you got really good marks for your riding and well done you for not giving up! (I think I might have wussed and gone home, but at least you rode him through all of it).

Funnily enough Betty (dog) is not scared of anything other than the cracking of loudspeakers so clearly it does upset some of them!
 
You need to find an annoying little brother. So far this year my brother has welded, had a bonfire, craned & engine in & out of a car, jetwashed multiple vehicle etc all about 2 foot from my arena. It has led to some rather hairy moments whilst schooling but at least Podge is now Olympic flame proof ;-)

I may have a fear of fireworks cd still knocking about if you wanted to try that?
 
Poor you, its absolutely gutting when all your hard work goes down the drain due to onesilly thing isnt it.
You have my sympathy, took my baby TB who is going so sweetly at home, to a show fortnight ago and everytime the loudspeaker started he span and span. Didint even get into the arena as a result. Poor thing was trembling from head to toe. One of the joys of having a young horse I guess.

Its definitely the mark of a good rider to put it behind you and move on, not something I am very good at yet, I was gutted for days.
 
Ah bless CS, well sat indeed! As others have said, at least you know what caused it and you can work on all those sudden noises over the winter!

A friend of mine had exactly the same problem, but with applause! She managed to find a CD that had a number of common "scary" to a horse noises on and played it in the stables, increasing in volume over the days!

So get yourself a loud speaker and start recording...LOL! I'm sure you can probably download them now onto iphones etc!

I borrowed the cd for my horse, as he HATES chain saws and did the same and now he's a lot better in deed with them!

I'm sure you'll crack it ;-))
 
thank you all, feeling a bit less meepy today, think it will have helped in the long term, and been a good experience etc, and i AM still so pleased with how he tried to get through the test for me.

have found 2 CD's to use, on of *people noises*-laughing, clapping, shouting etc, and one of *everyday noises* like hooting, rumbling etc so fingers crossed, have also had the radio on only hafl tuned in so a bit crackly, which apparently made him snort a bit at first but then settled, so heres to a noisy winter!!!!!
 
Well done you for staying on him - and dear of him for having a *rather large!!* colly-wobbles! I'm sure you weren't saying dear of him at the time though - I know from when my boy is having a moment, the last thing I am thinking is dear of him!! And (touch wood) he hasn't done any extreme naughties like your boy did!

At any of the clinics you go to - do they have a speaker system in the school? Where I go for my lessons they have a speaker system, and quite often my RI will use it to talk to me over to save her voice. Its fab practice for getting them used to the PA, as its a top start of people talking, rather than a constant noise.

I'm going to take my 4yo scatty arab out for his first dressage on the 16th October - so I may well have a similar story to report back after that! :D We're just going out to do an intro test this time - his canter is fab - but I would rather be there early and leave fairly quickly after for his first outing - so intro test is just fine by me for this time!! :D (yes I know I'm a chicken....)
 
Ahh bless the captain...still he's been a super star this season so a little blip here and there is ok :) I hope he enjoys his time off and look forward to seeing him bigger better and brighter in the new year :D
 
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