Should dressage riders be allowed to request quiet from the audience?

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Today we're asking whether you think it is fair for top dressage riders to request that the audience do not clap during their test, or does this give them an unfair advantage over others?

To vote, visit question of the week on our homepage, www.horseandhound.co.uk
 
Absolutely. and I agree with Spookypony. It is etiquette & for those that don't know, the organisers & stewards should ask for quiet during the tests.

The riders shouldn't even have to ask. It's seen as the norm for golf & snooker & whatnot.
 
Standard etiquette - although the other day a woman kept trying to steal my slot and then insisted on standing about 2 metres away from the arena for the duration of my test
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Can't see why not but then there is a limit to how quiet or still you sit
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I mean ..... god forbid if you cough or sneeze
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For instance at tyrella on saturday we sat "quietly" might I add, Had little mini JTR with me who also sat quietly on my knee , Didnt budge .

We sat well up into the hill , dressage was quite abit away , and said rider was entering arena at A obviously on the other side of us .

We were very quiet and didnt move in the slightest , Watched as a man and his grey horse went to enter the arena when horse napped and slightly reared , eventually horse proceeded with test and done a nice test .

We watched another and then decided to go and watch abit of cross country when we where near enough to the cross country this man on his grey came trotting after us and decided that we were to blame for his horse napping !! que me PMSL !!

I told him to catch himself on and walked away
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Seriously though ..... We were miles away from him, there was plenty of people about with dogs alot more misbehaved than mini JRT .

There is line that you cross and well he totally crossed it, He was being plain silly .
Perhaps horse was having a bad day
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maybe doesnt like dressage anymore
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Yes, they should, especially here in Spain.
In the sunshine tour the audience were really loud and close to the arena and have no idea of how to behave, they were all over the place at the weekends, even walking through the ring, and the camera was so close (at F) that as Maria Eilberg and Jordi Domingo rode by it it was actually inside the arena.
 
Whilst it would be good manners to keep as quiet and undisruptive as possible during someones elses test surely these horses should be concentrating on what they are doing and not what is going on around them At Poplar last year the horse in the arena next to me buggered about and shot into my arena during my test , my horse looked at it and then carried on ,
Dressage riders at all levels should be able to cope with a few distractions which although not ideal are all part and parcel of competing away from home
If you stand by the exit of any dressage arena you will hear 101 excuses about why it didnt quite go to plan , " that dog , woman in the audience , ginger cow in the field next door etc etc
If noone is allowed to breath during a performance the dressage lot may as well video the test at home in the quiet and then send that in to be judged, that said I still think it is courteous to be as quiet as possible
 
In lower level tests in, for example, Germany, there will often be more than one horse in the arena at any time, you will have goodness knows what going on all around, and plenty of noise and clamour too. The horses learn to cope. Ok, at international level its a different story, but I think its part of the learning process of a horse to concentrate despite distractions, and riders should not be such prima donnas about it. IMHO.
 
I think that yes, your horse should be able to cope with some distractions at shows, which are busy places and it's good for them to get this experience. But I would count distractions as things outside the actual competition area, other horses, dogs, flowers, commentators, flappy things etc. Once inside the arena where the test is taking place then I think quiet should be the norm to allow for concentration. Four or five minutes or so of sitting still and not chatting surely isn't too much to ask? It's like takng an exam - you wouldn't go into the exam room expecting to find people wandering around, chatting, moving the chairs, listening to ipods etc. It's not just the riders - it's the audience as well I suspect may like to watch the tests quietly.

Wish someone would tell Burghley to turn off that background music they seem to have now behind the dressage tests. It's so distracting! Half of you is hearing the rhythms of the music which is either too loud or then gets turned down to where it just irritatingly intrudes on your hearing, and half of you is watching the rhythm of the test and of course the two don't match up! I don't think it's there all the time, but what is the point? Or am I just getting up there with Janet Street Porter and Jeny Eclair as a grumpy old woman? (Yes).
 
I would say yes I think so, a test isn't that long for people to be quiet for is it. I'm now racking my brain thinking which other sports require silence, I can only think of:

Golf - when they're taking their shot
Snooker
Tennis
 
I think clapping during a test is going too far, but also think that this whole thing about total silence and nobody must move is daft.

Some (not all) dressage horses live such sheltered lives going from stable to school and back again that anything is going to set them off. If they went to a few shows, got hacked out, got turned out they wouldn't be so precious about a pin dropping during their test.

How do county show horses cope with the bouncy castle being next to their ring or helicopters landing etc

Also what happens when these horses compete internationally and the rider can't ask the spectators to please don't move a muscle?
 
Yeah, and I think that this should be the case from the lower levels up. It's just courtesy - barking dogs etc can put young/green horses off, and makes it difficult for the rider.
 
I think audiences at any equine event should have the curtousy of waiting until their test or round is finished before applauding.
 
I have never come across this being said before at unaffiliated level but I imagine this is the case for some top competitors. However, I am in two minds - the point of dressage is to harmonise horse and rider and the harmony should block out the other things going on but yes, there are spooky and highly strung horses. But surely the dressage rider should understand this and try to work on it more and not fully rely on compliance from the audience.

I'm not sure I wrote that too well.
 
I agree it is the norm for quiet during tests but at lower level I dont think you get total silence. At the competition I went to a week ago there were two arenas set up in the one sand school so I had to cope with the other competitor going in and out, car horn sounding for them etc. It was good experience for my mare to get used to that. But my second test was in the indoor and the few people in the gallery watching kept quiet for me which was great.

Maybe if the spectators are really quite loud and distracting then the rider has a right to ask them to be more quiet but I think most people in this country are rather good especially when watching dressage.
 
What would happen if I had a coughing fit or kept sneezing and a grand prix horse spooked and it was all blamed on me.

The same is for all disciplines, many people know to keep quiet when a horse is moving or doing a test or course, but there will always be situations that this isn't possible.
 
nope, don't think they should be able to. The horses should be listening to the rider enough to be controlled, no clapping during the test but asking people not to move etc. is silly.
 
i was at a pony club event many years ago, my friend was doing her first ever dressage (she was about 10 at the time) , and it was the first test of the day. she entered down the centre line, halted at x, at the same time the comerical garden centre next door started its watering system, the spray of water landed straight on x, soaked the pony and kid. the judge got out of the car, and told she had to carry on, drenched and rains slipping
 
No, I don't. I think that within reason they should get their horses ready to be out in public. If you allow the riders to expect silence for their test then it opens the door for some poor sod who coughs or sneezes at the wrong time to be blamed for poor performance.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Today we're asking whether you think it is fair for top dressage riders to request that the audience do not clap during their test, or does this give them an unfair advantage over others?

To vote, visit question of the week on our homepage, www.horseandhound.co.uk

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, no you aren't, I followed the link to vote and got this

[ QUOTE ]
Should the Royal Show continue as a purely equestrian event?



[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry
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I reserve the right to break wind loudly during a dressage test! Also, I might slurp my coffee loudly. Some dressage riders could do with removing the rods that were inserted up their backsides!

Oh and I also crisps or pork scratchings loudly.
 
I think the question itself answers the question, "why are they known as Dressage Divas?" Some of them can be so precious (and that includes ones competing Unaffiliated Prelim Level
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) that a pin dropping during their test would count as a distraction in their eyes, let alone anything else.

Sorry, but like horses/ponies competing at County Shows, they should really get a bit less precious about things and just get on with it, like my children have to do with flying geese, the Kings Troop firing cannonballs off and goodness knows what else....
 
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