Sore losers

Haha we came 4th today in our first in hand showing class... Ok so there were only 4 in the class but we managed to TROT like, consistently! The only prize I wanted was not to be embarrassed, the best prize of all!
 
The first show I took my Clydesdale to when she was just 18mths old she won the 3year old and under Heavy Horse against 13 others horses of varying ages.

She was so excited that when she did her trot up she flew in an extended trot - my feet barely touched the ground.

The owner of the horse who had come second to her was seriously put out and was searching through the rules for a way to exclude my horse. His horse was an expensive import from Australia and had been unbeaten all season - talk about sour grapes.

Sometimes it's frustrating when you know full well that a particular thing knocked you down a place or that today there are better horses than yours competing. But it's all part of competing - getting a ribbon is nice but its the quality of the placing that counts.

When one of my youngsters was placed 3rd in a Sporthorse class I was over the moon - there were a lot of horses in his class - it was a more worthy placing than a 1st in a very small class.
 
I have placed second in hand as my appy was too long in back for breed. She's not an appy. Ive been in one class where something scary blew past and half the riders fell off, the rest proceeded to just walk as too scared by it to trot. I did everything asked and didn't even spook at scary thing but girl who fell off won and we placed third. I didn't say anything but the people I didn't know who were watching did! I prefer jumping I'm afraid either you go clear or you don't.
 
There's some sore losers in jumping too! I remember as a kid seeing this guy coming out of the ring, got his horse back to his trailer as I was walking past and started unashamedly flogging the horse with a whip!
 
FfionWinnie said:
I really love when folk say "if I hadn't have had a pole down/cantered on the wrong lead/ gone the wrong way, I'd have won" er yeah, and so would everyone else duh!
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But that's exactly how you have to think to be a competitive rider, so you go home with that thought in your mind and strive to be better to eliminate silly and unecessary errors .
 
hmm reminds me of our last show we went too, in the lead rein class, one little boy got third place then proceeded to throw a tantrum because he wanted a Red Rosette! he was super cute mind you and was happily doing round the world on his pony in the line up, oblivious to everyone else!
I'm lucky that my boys are both happy to just compete, if they get a rosette even a special happy days, think they look forward to their ice cream treat at the end of the show more than anything!

one lady pulled her daughter out of a class early because she didn't get placed, she would have got a special rosette if she had stayed, I thought that was incredibly rude of her!
 
Ahh the old sore loser post again, I think these crop up about once a month and unfortunately it'll never change. Horse shows, dog shows, flower shows, vegetable shows, beauty pageants etc my god they all have them!

I was never a sore loser as I really don't like the pressure of shows so my favourite part was getting out of the ring fullstop! However, my dear Dad (bless him) put so much pressure on me, the expectations were higher than the moon and completely, laughably unachievable! He would rant and rave and lost a lot of money through stewards inquiries, very embarrassing! Although I never paid much attention to his expectations I knew many others who had pushy parents and constantly heard "you don't need good luck, that red ribbon is yours". It's such an unpleasant thing to do, especially to children as they will expect a first so when they don't get it and the parents rave I'm not surprised the kid will react in the same manner!

Of course that doesn't apply to everyone but I've seen a LOT of it.
 
Its not always a sore loser to say crap i blew it, rather a competative rider examining their performance, if i hadnt had that last pole down, id have been placed, what did i do wrong that i can do different next time ? nothing wrong with looking at and examining a round that can be improved on.
Its sore loserville when they blame the horse and anyone and everyone around them for their poor performance .
 
Nah, you're so right. A great day for me is not getting lost on course. If I leave them all up and remember my course, it's been an awesome day! I have low expectations so easy to please.

Terri
 
I think everyone goes out wanting to do well or else what's the point? Showing is so opinionated, thats the problem. One judge will place you 1st one day and another last the next, thats showing and it can be irritating. The last show I did, my horse was way too skinny (has come out of winter badly) and the others were flashy things, BUT he did a nice sensible show whereas the others were lazy or misbehaved so I was placed 1st. You could still see them in the line-up looking at my horse gob smacked thinking "you placed THAT above me?!". Ha ha. I do get irritated though sometimes so I'm always glad its only during the summer I show, couldnt cope with more than that - prefer to go back to showjumping / eventing.

You soon learn which judge likes your horse and which ones don't, so whats the point in showing under judges you know dislike your horse? No matter how well you go, some judges just dont like some horses. All the people I know on the showing circuit will find out the judge and only enter if they know he/she is a liker of their horse ;)
 
Fixes happen reguarly. Talking to lady recently (who wasn't annoyed amazing, just matter of fact), whose horse one one class at a county show, & was placed 2nd in another. She knew she wouldn't win second class as winning driver was also judge on the circuit. Names & associations do happen. She was just chuffed at what she had done & enjoyed the day.

Friend showed her horse (previous HOYS winner), judge asked her name of horse (which he wasn't allowed to do, obviously did to confirm identity as horse had been off circuit few years). He refused to judge horse, steward refused to judge, so they ended up giving bowler to girl holding clip-board to judge class! Friends horse came last btw, behind all sorts of rubbish. She didn't expect to win, just have horse judged on his merits. This was a national breed show.

I've also experienced prejudice in showing, why I've stopped asking anyones opinion of my horse (after all what does it really matter what a judge thinks), & did sj now endurance. So much easier & clear cut rules.
 
Showing does seem to give free rein to some of the most unpleasant aspects of human nature, especially from parents/grandparents.

A fair few years ago now my daughter was at only her third local show. In order to get experience in just being independent in the ring we did tend to enter her in two or three of the showing classes, first ridden riding pony, first ridden mountain and moorland etc (she had a Welsh B).

On this one occasion the class between FRRP and FRMM was cancelled so we had no opportunity to strip out plaits etc. I did say to her before she went in don't be too disapppointed if you're last because he isn't turned out properly, she happily went in and for once ponio decided to behave and did a beautiful show.

Anyway the judge pulled them all in and gave my little girl 1st place saying that he had showed exemplary manners and was a beautiful little pony (little did he know what a b*gger he could be). The grandmother of the child in 2nd place then made a big scene saying that her grandchild needed the points for the championship (it was a little local show - no qualification for anything) and that the judge should not have judged my daughters pony becasue it was incorrectly presented. Anyway the steward spoke to the judge and then removed my daughters rosette and relegated her to last place.

Cue tears !

I was fuming to say the least. Not at an objection being made but at the way it was made. They could have dealt with this outside the ring and just adjusted the points for the Championship accordingly if the objection was upheld.
 
Pip6 - The judge may well have recognised the horse because they have previously owned, bred, loaned, produced or had financial gain from the horse and thus wouldn't been.allowed to judge it anyway. Some judges would just send such an animal out of the ring, others will step down to allow you to compete.
 
You also get this from those who fail their driving tests. Being 19, I've heard many of my friends going 'I clipped that wing mirror because there wasn't enough room' or 'My examiner was a miserable old man who didn't like me and that was why I go 15 minors', or even 'that's not a major, it's a minor, I SHOULD have passed!' :rolleyes:

At Joe's first show we placed 2nd out of 3 in his first ever class. I was over the moon purely because he did as he was asked. The boy who's pony came 3rd was rather annoyed, head in his hands sitting on the grass after we left the arena. I mean, it was a 1/3 chance one of us would be last, so I really don't think there's anything to be upset about :D

I then obviously didn't get anywhere in the champs because all the other horses had just come from classes of about 10, but I wasn't remotely bothered. The others were hardcore showing people, it meant more to them. I know nothing about showing.

Then I had to withdraw from our final class because he wasn't enjoying it and had enough frankly. I wasn't going to push it for the sake of a placing...

... Does anyone see people that push their horses when they shouldn't, and it all ends up in tears? Too many times have I seen tired ponies being pushed and having paddies in arenas with red faced riders who need to know when to accept when to call it a day.
 
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