The Royal Show 2008 Coverage on Horse and Country TV

[trotter259]

I was watching the coverage of the under 16 riders and their ponies last night and I was totally disgusted.

All of the horses were wearing martingales as short as they possibly could be, which made the poor horses ride with their noses stuck in the air and not able to stretch over the jumps at all, they were all wearing some sort of gag, which in my opinion most of them were totally unnecessary. They were also all wearing flash nosebands, now to me this seems a little odd as not all horses need all these gadgets. I just feel that they are dressing these horses up to make them look more experienced than they really are.

The riders, although they are very good in principal, we all jabbing these poor horses in the mouth, most of which had run outs or refusals and if they so much as looked at someone they got a great whollop from the rider.

Am I overreacting or were these poor horses subjected to bratty riding and unnecesary equipment?

(just to point out, I feel that these riders are all very good but they just lack some disipline when it comes to mistakes).

 

[longtalltilly]

mmmm yes I do agree but TBH you could go anywhere and get the same!

 

[flyingfeet]

No I think you are being harsh and unrealistic!

These riders were jumping 1.30m and 1.35m on 14.2hh's and under, so kudos to them.

Being sharp, you may complain about bits and martingales, but I challenge you to get anyone jumping 1.30m on a mad (they have to be to do it) pony without them, then I'll respect your opinion.

 

[trotter259]

Im not slating the riders, as you said kudos to them. What im saying is that they don't really need all these gadgets attached to these poor horses. Their head carriages force so high that most of them couldn't see where they were going.

Again, im not slating the riding, im purely stating that most of these horses did not need all the gumpf that they were wearing.