Hovis_and_SidsMum
Well-Known Member
Hubby and I took a girl from the yard to a big comp today. her mum has had a serious operation and so can't drive her lorry for her. So she could go hubby drove her lorry for her and we acted as grooms / horse holders and entertained her little sister.
It was the first time I've ever been to a big show at a posh place and I was amazed at the quality of the horses there. Some of the lorries were pretty amazing too!
She was jumping 85cm and 95cm and the classes were huge. Just looking at the height of the jumps made me feel seriously ill but it appeared there were enough nutters there who wanted to do it!
However what shocked me was how badly some of the riders rode. I am a pants rider but honestly I think my hands were better than some of those there. It was horrible to see these beautiful horses bitted up to the nines and being yanked about so violently.
It appeared to be a hard course as loads of people knocked up cricket scores or fell off but the number who then leathered the hell out of their horses afterwards was scary. There was one guy (very very well built shall we say) riding a horse that was too small for him proudly telling us the horse was 17 and had had 2 years off after a kissing spines operation. He yanked it around the 85cm and flattened most of it then took it in the 95cm (where thankfully he came to his senses and retired)!
Another little cob fell in the warm up ring and took ages to get up. We assumed they'd withdrawn it but nope they just put it in the competition with another rider.
There were a few amazing riders who were so quiet and fluid I could only dream of being that good but on the whole it seemed a lot of expensive beautiful horse flesh and a fair few people with bad riding habits. Is that normal for these big posh events?
It was the first time I've ever been to a big show at a posh place and I was amazed at the quality of the horses there. Some of the lorries were pretty amazing too!
She was jumping 85cm and 95cm and the classes were huge. Just looking at the height of the jumps made me feel seriously ill but it appeared there were enough nutters there who wanted to do it!
However what shocked me was how badly some of the riders rode. I am a pants rider but honestly I think my hands were better than some of those there. It was horrible to see these beautiful horses bitted up to the nines and being yanked about so violently.
It appeared to be a hard course as loads of people knocked up cricket scores or fell off but the number who then leathered the hell out of their horses afterwards was scary. There was one guy (very very well built shall we say) riding a horse that was too small for him proudly telling us the horse was 17 and had had 2 years off after a kissing spines operation. He yanked it around the 85cm and flattened most of it then took it in the 95cm (where thankfully he came to his senses and retired)!
Another little cob fell in the warm up ring and took ages to get up. We assumed they'd withdrawn it but nope they just put it in the competition with another rider.
There were a few amazing riders who were so quiet and fluid I could only dream of being that good but on the whole it seemed a lot of expensive beautiful horse flesh and a fair few people with bad riding habits. Is that normal for these big posh events?
