leaving ponies alone at shows - just a moan

coffeeandabagel

coffeeandabagel

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We were at a hunter trial yesterday with lot of mini classes - so lots of ponies.We were parked next to a lorry where the man "in charge" dozed off and small pony untied its self and wandered off. We woke him up and got pony back. The whole family then left for over an hour and with two ponies tied on same ring and smallest pony escaped again. Ponies at the lorry across from us got in a pickle over the haynet they had pulled down and were trampling on and started fighting - nearly kicking the car which was parked too close to them.I know its hard if you have to leave a horse alone (and I have done but only if I am alone on the day) but surely some common sense needs to be in place!
 
have to agree with you...I witnessed it at a show...where one broke free...one got headcollar caught on lorry and two were tied so close to each other that they went back to back kicking. I wouldnt leave mine...I wouldnt relax......its the what ifs with horses and to be fair just ridiculous to leave them unsupervised.
 
We have left ours occasionally but never tied up to side of lorry - if we have to leave they are always safely inside the lorry - usually eating!!!
 
Best one has to from a friend.... Two ladies park up section A on board ifor Williams. Both walk off, pony ok for 3 mins then kicks off, gets feet over the breast bar...free pony, tie up and 2 secs later it does it again. Go to secretaries to get call out, they wait with pony for 45 mins...... Ladies seen walking leisurely back to be told about pony only to say, oh yes he always does that when we leave him.....omg
 
No, we were at Chesfield, Hertfordshire.As to horses getting legs on tack lockers etc - I have seen that twice at Keysoe this year. And yes, after various rescuers putting themselves at risk the owner eventiually turns up and "Oh yes, he always does that"
 
Horses are always in the trailer, I know where they are then. We have 2 venues which are about 1/2mile from the main A30 and it is quite shocking how many leave their horses tied to trailers/lorries unattended.
 
The other problem that we saw yesterday at a hunter trial was when a rather wild looking horse went ballistic for no reason, broke free then galloped about the lorry park taking pot shots at anyone who tried to catch it. Said owner was parked in from of us, so when they had finally caught the horse, what did they do, tied the broken rope back together then tied it up again, 10 minutes later it was loose again. There were about 5 people and one horse, they could have taken it in turns to hold him if he could take being tied up or put him on the trailer rather than potentially cause damage to people, vehicles and horses. There is a lot of selfishness/thoughtlessness at shows. We also rescued a person who had noticed a horse tied to the trailer next to her that had broken its tie up, we had plenty of spare string so that he could be tied up again, his owners never even said thankyou when they came back.
 
Even leaving a horse alone inside a lorry or trailer can be asking for trouble...take the horse with you if you want to watch other competitors or don't take the horse at all....people never fail to amaze me at shows, whether its welfare or riding
 
We had similar - kids (teenagers really, old enough to know better) on ponies cantering/galloping around the carpark, literally going within a couple of metres of the horses tied to lorries and trailers. Some of whom were completely freaking out. Why is common sense so rare!!
 
Micky said:
Even leaving a horse alone inside a lorry or trailer can be asking for trouble...take the horse with you if you want to watch other competitors or don't take the horse at all....people never fail to amaze me at shows, whether its welfare or riding
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But if you are alone how can you walk the course? I travel to shows 2 hrs away so it is impossible to drive the day before to walk the course etc...... I do however have an A4 note in the windscreen saying I am alone and leaving my mobile number.....
 
The majority of events I go to, be that dressage, jumping, RC, unaff, etc, have 'no horses to be left unattended to the side of lorries or trailers' in the rules. At every single show it is ignored. I am very fortunate that mine will stand on the lorry all day and snooze, and would never leave her tied on the side without me there. Was at BD with trendybraincell the other week and a woman with two horses got on her second, left the other tied to the box, came over to us on her horse and basically told us to keep an eye on the horse for her! We were ready to go and had a long drive back so couldn't stay. Surely contained on the box is safer than going mental tied to the side of a lorry or trailer?
 
people are stupid !!!

i have to admit ive left mine on a box for an hour once, eating ahaynet - checking on her regularly (literally every few minutes)!

i wouldnt leave a horse knowing it was an idiot on a box!!! nor would i ever leave one tied up outside the box - ever!!
 
Micky said:
Even leaving a horse alone inside a lorry or trailer can be asking for trouble...take the horse with you if you want to watch other competitors or don't take the horse at all....people never fail to amaze me at shows, whether its welfare or riding
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I can't always get someone to come with me to shows, so my horses are expected to stand on the box alone, and do so.

Taking your horse with you at all times or not at all is a ridiculous statement. What happened to good old common sense! Good grief.
 
I wouldn't leave one tied outside without supervision as although mine would usually be well behaved you can't control someone leading another horse too close to them etc. I leave mine inside for registering, checking out etc and they are perfectly happy with a hay net in there. If I'm on my own there is no other choice but to leave her somewhere by herself so I choose to leave her in the trailer.
 
I know its not a perfect world and we do have to leave them sometimes but there were several adults in these groups and no one stayed........ or said thanks! I have just put a Wanted ad on my local fb group for a volunteer helper to come to shows with me....... no pay just lunch and teas/coffee, experience / reference if wanted and just being around horses. Have found two people and turned away others - it is possible to get help.
 
Frank is much better tied on the side, I'd never leave him on the trailer he starts to get a right fidget going and I wouldn't trust him not to do something stupid. Tied up with a net he is happy as larry.

Whereas Cally is known to pull pack and is happy in the trailer so always left inside it.

Both mum and I go to competitions on our own so they have to spend some time unattended- if we are together we take it in turns to watch. Have also asked others if they will keep half an eye if they are about (usually with the caveat that I don't expect trouble!) and have done the same for others. The only time we properly lost cally was when mum was by the truck and the horse next door pulled back and set her off.. they were both gone by the time my middle aged mum had got there :D. Always interesting if they need to land the air ambulance if everyone unattended too though.

Re. taking the horse with you.. Frank quite likes a trip to the ice cream van- the secretary's tent/portaloo not quite so much :p.
 
I was at Chesfield yesterday! I heard an announcement over the tannoy about a horse that was in distress or had injured itself alone. Hope it was ok.

It's difficult if you're on your own as you do need to register, go to the loo (particularly with my nerves!!) etc. I never leave tied to the side, but I do put them back on the lorry if I need to be away, but I try to keep that to a few mins at a time and ask a neighbour to keep an eye out. I tend to go out in a group though so makes it a lot easier.
 
I heard that message - they had to repeat it after a while - probably because the owner was walking the course and didnt get back in time. It was a bit sad - dont know what happened to that one - another problem from the ones I saw.Did you have a good day Bernster? The 80/90cm is such a tricky course!
 
miss_c said:
And the confectionary van for candyfloss! ;)
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yeah but I didn't let him have any of that :p bad for his teeth ;). But he did try and mug me for my mr whippy at the beach :p.

(I do tend to go to the loo in the trailer- I often wonder if I would then have to deal with an emergency with my knickers round me ankles :p )
 
coffeeandabagel said:
I heard that message - they had to repeat it after a while - probably because the owner was walking the course and didnt get back in time. It was a bit sad - dont know what happened to that one - another problem from the ones I saw.Did you have a good day Bernster? The 80/90cm is such a tricky course!
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No, we were rubbish ! I thought the course was a bit too tricky in places. I did the 65-75cm and it had some questions in it! But we didn't get that far as it happens, got eliminated at fence 6 which was easy peasy but it's the first time I'd taken her out to a comp. and now I know she's not great on her own!

Our group had a mixed day, rosette in the mini pairs, one eliminated numpty (me), one faller at fence 17 and one 6th place finisher. But we all got back in one piece, safe and sound, and we all had positives to take from the day.

How did you get on? Weather was glorious so it was fun. Given that I was in danger of losing the contents of my stomach, the fact that I got out of the starting gate is an achievement in itself !!
 
Pray you never come to France for a show then! Standard practice to to tie your horse to the lorry/trailer/convenient tree with a haynet as you go and do whatever is necessary.

I often see upwards of 5 horses tied to a lorry at once, completely unattended, and no one blinks an eye.

Earlier in the year, someone left a stallion unattended, tied only by two headcollars to a tree in full view of at least 2 mares. That was fun. Poor thing was a raging maniac and dripping in sweat by the time the owners came back several hours later. It was at the same show when a riding club picketed their 8 or 10 ponies to a single string hung like a washing line between two trees. I don't know how many times I went and untangled them, or rearranged legs and leadropes.
 
Oh dear, I have never left mine as take someone with me for this purpose, but if I was on my own I would rather leave them on the trailer and it would only be for a minimal amount of time while I get my number and that sort of thing.

I would have thought people could ask their neighbours to keep an eye while they do that sort of thing anyway, better than nothing and I would be happy to do so if I'm not about to go off to a class.
 
Casey76 said:
Pray you never come to France for a show then! Standard practice to to tie your horse to the lorry/trailer/convenient tree with a haynet as you go and do whatever is necessary.
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Oh yes I forgot about those sort of antics, when I was in Italy they were all tied to trees if they weren't being used as armchairs by big fat western riding men chain smoking in the baking heat! They were mostly ok really, my horse is inexperienced so gets a bit panicky even when I go in the trailer to get changed, my boyfriend stands there nervously saying 'hurry up she's getting a bit mental!' She'll get used to it bless her :-)
 
At the races pretty much everyone ties their horses to the sides of their lorries and wanders off for food/drinks/to watch the racing. They mostly have impeccable manners, although some do fidget/jump around it's only a short-lived thing.

Standard practice, some people do leave their horses tied in the lorry but most of us think it teaches them good manners to stand tied to the lorry, plus it's nice on a warm day before/after they race for them to have the sun on their backs! I guess if you know your horse won't behave then it's irresponsible to leave them unattended?

Only this weekend I saw a horse tied to the lorry wingmirror quite happily; he couldn't have been stood closer to the track either so had full view of each race hurtling towards the first corner but he was totally chilled!
 
Micky said:
Even leaving a horse alone inside a lorry or trailer can be asking for trouble...take the horse with you if you want to watch other competitors or don't take the horse at all....people never fail to amaze me at shows, whether its welfare or riding
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Mine would stand in a trailer all day no problem because I've bothered to train them to do so.
 
MadisonBelle said:
But if you are alone how can you walk the course? I travel to shows 2 hrs away so it is impossible to drive the day before to walk the course etc...... I do however have an A4 note in the windscreen saying I am alone and leaving my mobile number.....
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I guess you have to have a doting family along with you, or at least a husband who has no hobbies, who can wait on your every whim? Or pay for a groom? I train my horses to stand happily on the lorry themselves, admitted if they got worked up, I wouldn't do it, but then I couldn't have a horse like that as I have to do it a lot. I do however sometimes leave them tied up outside on a nice day rather than inside, but again because they behave. I can't account for someone parking too close but I do usually ask people not to park so close that I can't tie up outside, as the only way I can untack one and put him into the box is to tie both of them up to swap them around! People who park their cars too close to my horsebox, or in the lorry parking at all when there is limited parking for lorries, is my bugbear!
 
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