Kids and dogs at competitions..

[henryhorn]

I enquired yesterday why one of our homebreds got a 42 dressage when last time it was a 26 which is more his normal score.
Apparently a boy was runnning round and round the judge's car then took to slamming a portaloo door loudly repeatedly causing the horse to explode in Medium canter..
Then a dog fight broke out behind A. The rider stopped mid test, yelled at the fracas then carried on, but of course both her and the horse were quite wound up.
Can I make a plea to anyone with kids/dogs etc, yes of course they can go to BE events, but for goodness sake stay away from the rings when people are competing.
We all know horses have to be immune to these things but I would ask you put yourself in that position and see if you would be cross.
It's been said so many times yet 90% of people at an event must have enough horsey know how to understand how much of a distraction they can cause.
As for those who allow their dogs to actually chase the horses on the XC, well, words fail me..

 

[BeckyD]

I would second this. My horse slipped and fell in a dressage test when something similar happened at the edge of our arena. The comment on the sheet was "disobedient" which I thought was pretty harsh as it would have taken a police horse to tolerate that happening about 4 metres away, during canter, and the rest of our test was ruined. The cuplrits had run away by the time I finished my test which was a shame as I had planned to give them a piece of my mind.

 

[Millie-Rose]

It surprises me how unthinking even horsey people can be. Me and my mum were sitting watching the pony trial dressage at Oasby. We were very very quiet only got up and moved in between tests etc. The arena was an end one and seemed to be very spooky particulary as it was a windy day and first event of season. We were joined by some parents/other competitiors/trainers after a while and although they were lovely and friendly they were also very loud, laughing the kids pushing each other and joking etc. It was not in any way malicious but I was very glad I wasn't doing a test in that arena at the time and mine is pretty unflappable!

 

[PucciNPoni]

Wow, that is pretty rude - would be furious if I was trying to compete and had all that carry on.

Sometimes I think it goes a little overboard -- I compete an indoor venue now and again that has a cafe at the A end of an arena and we all do our best to be quiet particularly when sharp horse looks like is struggling to get thru a test without exploding. However the cafe people have been told off for making coffee too loudly.

I woudln't like to be anywhere near a dressage arena with a kid or a dog. It doesn't need to be golf quiet, but some sense of politeness should be observed.

 

[dressagelove]

I had a similar experience at a dressage show once. My horse was young and only learning, one of first trips out.
A lady went right past the arena with her 3 children and they were all running, whooping and screaming. Needless to say, horse went bananas and that was my 2 hour lorry trip a waste of time. I was livid.

I am not a confrontational person, but I went and found them afterwards and had a word. Give her her due, she did apologise and said she realised as soon as it happened, but I was so annoyed. Children should learn from an early age being around horses to behave.

 

[flyingfeet]

Or you could argue why don't dressage people train their horses better so they are unflappable and listen to the riders at all times

Now I'm not saying that is not bad / unlucky to have outside distractions, heavens knows I've done a RC area dressage test with a cocker spaniel chasing my horse, however it was me not my horse that was distracted when I should have been 100% focused (judge did put a nice comment about horse ignoring the dog)

I do think dressage riders get very uptight about external distractions and that's something to work on.

If you intend to take your horse to a high level then the ground work bomb-proofing when young is invaluable!

 

[wench]

Unfortuantly there is only so much you can do at home. When I had Henry, he was pretty much ok at home (he would use the odd oppertunity to spook at a child running past, or dog barking etc, but he wasnt really scared, just trying it on.)

Took him to a dressage comp, where the indoor school was flanked on one side by indoor stables looking into the school. There was a partition between half of the school and the stables, but you could still hear everything, and see most of what was going off.

When I was doing my tests, horses were being led up and down, and another horse was being clipped. Henry couldnt see the horses being led, this distracted him and made him more of a g1t than normal. He was also terrified of clippers, so what happened... he ditched me and tried to make off for the entrace.

IMO the horses in the stables should not have been moved whilst a test was going on, nor should someone have ever, ever been clipping their horse.

 

[WeeBrown]

Regardless of type of horse event or horse's reaction to distraction, the fact it that the main culprit was the child and its behaviour - where were the parents? I too would have been annoyed because this should not have been allowed to happen in the first place. What is normal about someone repeatedly banging a door and why should anyone put up with it. Absolutely nothing to do with children being horsey or understanding horses - this behaviour would not have been acceptable anywhere. Children need boundaries, they prefer them and sounds like this one wasn't getting any.

 

[NR99]

Quite right the parents should control their children and animals, but why did the dressage steward not intervene?

 

[wench]

Prob depends on where the dressage steward is at the time...

 

[Baggybreeches]

If I was judging I would actually have stopped and told the child to stand still. I have done this before when judging at events (unaff) especially when people think it's acceptable to stand behind the judges car after their test and talk loudly, it's not only distracting for the competitor it's very distracting for the judge and the writer.

I do agree that we can all work on desensitising our horses, but it sounds like this was just a case of a compilation of bad mannered spectators.

Children should not be left unsupervised at any event, regardless of whether they are horsey or not.
And lets not get me started on the dogs......

 

[JFTDWS]

I agree about loose dogs and children out of control - that sort of behaviour is not acceptable anywhere and certainly not at a horse event. I'd still expect my horse to behave, but I would be annoyed (whether I was competing or trying to spectate, actually).

This however is surely just normal yard activity and I wouldn't expect a whole yard to grind to a halt just because they're holding a dressage competition

IMO the horses in the stables should not have been moved whilst a test was going on, nor should someone have ever, ever been clipping their horse.