surviving the warm up...any ideas

Wizzkid

Wizzkid

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Hiya

I'm jumping tomorrow, the first time in ages and more than anything i am worried about the warm up.
The arena is really nice and well run but for some reason the warm up is always carnage!
I'm thinking of putting a red ribbon in his tail even tho he doesn't kick just give myself some space.
Can anyone think of any other tips?

Thanking you
 
Well thanks for all the help!
Turns out when your horse starts leaping around people tend to clear a space anyway!! haha
 
Have a drink beforehand and a drink afterwards as a reward - I hate warm up arenas! ;)

Dressage warm ups are the worst when people thing I'm a move target to practise 10m circles around me when my girl is in orbit!
 
Lol thanks for taking pity on me!
Yes we were ok once we got in the actually arena thanks.
My friend overheard the best comment in the warm up from a mum "Stay away from that horse" !!
Well at least we got noticed!
 
I hate warm ups too!
Especially when people do the following:
Cantering right up and stopping up your horses booty.
Cutting in front of jumps.
Jumping them the wrong way.
Taking a follow over a jump from your horse.
Walking double breasted chatted round the arena warm up.
Standing watching or chatting on the track.
Riding at you for you to of course get out of their way as they obviously own the warm up.
Taking complete control of the warm up fences and putting them at ridiculous heights that are much higher than the class thats running.

So if you dont do any of the above you should be fine and to all the buggers that do just smile, grit your teeth and hope karma bites them back in their class!
 
Glad you survived it. Warm ups are a nightmare, for jumping, i try to warm up else were, fly in jump two and then back out for class.
Prince doesn't like being jumped a million times before a class, so suits him.
 
My worst nightmare!! My horse sent me flying once after some idiot's horse spooked RIGHT into him - cue 3 hours in A&E.

It is really horrible when you are trying to settle your horse and get them concentrating, and you've got 16 other people cantering around and cutting you up.

Now, I hack him for about 45 minutes in mainly walk, with some walk-trot-walk transitions and a bit of lateral work on the roads. I go in the warm up for 5 minutes before my class to get him working and then go straight in. This has worked extremely well for us so far.
My trainer does SJ and Working Hunter classes and she does this too. She'll pop three practice fences max before going in and this approach has really settled her horse.

Fortunately the clubs that organise most of the shows in our area are quite sensible and have limited access to the warm-up arenas to six horses.
 
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