Scottish_Miss
Well-Known Member
A few weekends ago I offered my services to jump judge at my local riding clubs autumn hunter trials at Craigie in Fife - as I was going to watch I though why not do my bit!!
Any way I was totally shocked at the amount of problems the riders experienced on the course. The ambulance was kept busy!! Now my own personal feelings were that 80% of the riders had not got the horse fit enough; I was only a third of the way around the course and far too many horses were blowing hard at this point already. Let alone the riders not being fit, how often we seen them hanging on to the neck or sitting doing nothing and picking up a silly run out. Iaslo feel that too many came out without enough preparation before hand, this is my opinion due to refusals being seen at very straightforward fences.
Further to this I was shocked and flabergasted to say the least at one juniors attitude. Two girls were competing in the pairs when over the radio it was announced that one of them had had her allocation of refusals and was to be stopped and advised to walk home. So when she was approaching my jump I advised her of this and she burst into tears. Her partner then started shouting at her to ignore me as they had paid their money and it wasnt fair - and to just carry on!! Hence I got hold of the girl in tears explaining that if he(pony) wasnt going well then today wasntt the day to 'chase' him around and cause more problem etc etc. Again her partner shouting all the time at me - so I lost the plot a little and told her in no doubt that the rules are there to be followed and by enerting the event she had agreed to these rules which were to avoid injury to both the horse or rider and that was the end of the conversation..... phew
It astounded me the attitude of such a girl - prob around 14 yers old. Hopefully after raising my concearns to the riding club she will be banned from entering again.
Further to this one woman gleefully went around ona rather nice appolossa which she announced to all that it had been broken 10 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! one way to blow his mind......
Sorry for the rant but was very disappointed at the attitude of some - not only from the fitness and preparation but the sheer naivety of people. I am more involved in eventing and this was an eye opener.
On a good note the sun shone all day and a free lunch x
Any way I was totally shocked at the amount of problems the riders experienced on the course. The ambulance was kept busy!! Now my own personal feelings were that 80% of the riders had not got the horse fit enough; I was only a third of the way around the course and far too many horses were blowing hard at this point already. Let alone the riders not being fit, how often we seen them hanging on to the neck or sitting doing nothing and picking up a silly run out. Iaslo feel that too many came out without enough preparation before hand, this is my opinion due to refusals being seen at very straightforward fences.
Further to this I was shocked and flabergasted to say the least at one juniors attitude. Two girls were competing in the pairs when over the radio it was announced that one of them had had her allocation of refusals and was to be stopped and advised to walk home. So when she was approaching my jump I advised her of this and she burst into tears. Her partner then started shouting at her to ignore me as they had paid their money and it wasnt fair - and to just carry on!! Hence I got hold of the girl in tears explaining that if he(pony) wasnt going well then today wasntt the day to 'chase' him around and cause more problem etc etc. Again her partner shouting all the time at me - so I lost the plot a little and told her in no doubt that the rules are there to be followed and by enerting the event she had agreed to these rules which were to avoid injury to both the horse or rider and that was the end of the conversation..... phew
It astounded me the attitude of such a girl - prob around 14 yers old. Hopefully after raising my concearns to the riding club she will be banned from entering again.
Further to this one woman gleefully went around ona rather nice appolossa which she announced to all that it had been broken 10 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! one way to blow his mind......
Sorry for the rant but was very disappointed at the attitude of some - not only from the fitness and preparation but the sheer naivety of people. I am more involved in eventing and this was an eye opener.
On a good note the sun shone all day and a free lunch x
