To even things up - your most embarrassing/cringeworthy moments?

kerilli

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I've got too many to list, but having my only ever xc fall off my homebred in the middle of a Mr Stickability clinic comes pretty high. Mare tapping 1 Adv fence at MK years ago and me flopping off over her shoulder on landing is also right up there. Tons of others...
Yours?
 
my worst ever approach to a fence, i was out bsja...and GOD KNOWS what i was doing...i literally just FORGOT how to ride
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haha

it was a 1m05 speed class, and i cantered Monty up to the first fence...and i turned off the corner on an angle, no leg, kindof long reins and just sat there... and he just stopped (obviously) - as i had no power or momentum... it was really embarassing!
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i dont know what came over me...i just forgot how to ride!! and i bet people watching just thought i was a right novice attempting to go round a course...haha, well i buckled myself up ready for the 2nd approach and acually rode, so cleared it fine, but dear me
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hahaha

CRINGE.


another moment is when i was just getting off to put a jump back up in a warm up at bsja, (again with lots of people watching
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) and i forgot to take my left foot out the stirrup...so swung my right leg over his back and just fell off
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hahaha embarrasing...

ETA - oh, and another, (i have too many of these!
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haha) i forgot to tighten my girth at a bsja once (typical all these moments have to be when lots of people are watching!) - so i went to get on, and my saddle slipped completley round!
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hahaha xxx
 
I've fallen off a fair few times when horses have stopped trotting into a tiny cross pole and I've done a lovely somersault over the jump
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Hence I now absolutely HATE trotting into jumps!
 
falling off 2 times at one competition? when my horse stopped.. ok yes it was a nasty stop, but still!
also falling off in the warm up arena at hartpury- embarassing!
I used to fall off my old pony ALL the time.. i got over the embarassment and found it funny! despite getting hurled on many occasions!
 
far too many
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although i think if i had to say one..... falling off in the lake at Hartpury and then having to do the walk of shame back with squidgy feet and my lucky knickers showing through my jods (4 leaf clover pattern-maybe not the best choice
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) and smelling of POND for the next 2days
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Que quite alot of mocking off regional camp (and probably more that i didn't know
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)

Forgot to add Father bought the series of pictures of me falling and they are now framed and placed in our downstairs WC for everyone to see and continue the cringing
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At Normanby Hall ODE I did a reasonable dressage, fell off in the jumping warm up, but did then do a clear round. Then to my eternal shame set off XC, was sailing along jumped into the woods then got lost started to come back the way id come! realised too late id just jumped that fence going the other way and jumped it back out of the wood! All my family etc were stood waiting for me to come out and i popped out the same way id gone in!! lol I did a swift U turn jumped the fence for a 3rd time and carried on!! Big fat E!!
 
I was 16, at a dressage clinic with a well-respected and extremely popular Olympian... and fell off my horse for NO reason. She had asked me to work without reins or stirrups (and I was used enough to that, my regular trainer always had me without stirrups or reins..we even jumped like that, it's not like I wasn't used to it!) and the horse did a very minor spook or tripped (can't remember but it was really minor) and I just slid off, it was SO embarrassing, it really looked like I was totally unable to ride with an independent seat.
Still makes me cringe when I think about that, no idea how it happened.
 
Definitely making a complete tit of myself at a recent KC clinic when my pony decided now was the time to revert to her stopping self and saying she "can't" possible jump a double
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and then being given up on... double
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they know how to show us up! Took her home quietly devastated, straight off the trailer, tacked her up and jumped her round a 3' course no issues what soever then took her to an eventers challenge three days later and she was a superstar.
 
I decided to take my 4yo (now rising 5) SJ last summer to my local Riding Club show. I am one of the trainers at this Riding Club so alot of people know me as I teach them, so everybody was watching me when I went in to jump my round (it was that huge height if 65cm!). All the way around the course Colin was doing this:

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But it was fine I stayed on. I was clear as I came round to the second last fence which was a double. I jumped the fence in ok, but Colin found the striding a bit long so tried to chip in before the second fence, couldn't manage it and stopped. I was fine, stayed on. Then Colin decided the grass looked really rather tasty over the other side of the jump (it was only 65cm), so put his head over the jump to graze on the other side. At which point I went rolling straight down his neck (it was a perfect somersault), landing sat on my ar$e on the other side of the fence. I have never lived it down!
 
have several but the couple that spring to mind..

Falling off in the collecting ring right at the feet of John Whitaker who was warming someone else up over the same fence when Dan decided he didn't like my striding so deposited me in front of the fence. I didn't even look up just said yes i'm fine when he asked if I was ok and made a hasty exit
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Other one Bicton main arena novice 1.05m derby few years back now with a good couple of hundred people watching round the arena. Riding friend's horse who was in tantrum mode hence me riding him and had previous day got as far as fence 1 in 95cm derby. I decided on a very forward start which worked really well over fence 1 but he stopped at very last minute into fence 2 (plain spread!) leaving me up his neck. I clambered back on (to round of applause
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) then came round again, he went to stop again but then decided better of it (i have a good growl
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) and he cat lept very very high, I lost all contact with him except reins as turned out both stirrup leathers had been pushed back on bars when he stopped first time and then when he jumped they came off completely. End result I landed flat on my back on the other side of the fence! Got straight back up before having to run across entire length of Bicton Arena chasing after horse who had made hasty exit back to his mum and picking up the stirrup leathers on route
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Falling off twice by fence 4 at Charlton Park years ago! First fall was at fence 3...horse had dirty stop and demonstrated her party trick and put me on the floor, got back on jumped the fence, then did exactly the same at fence 4...not one of my better days!!
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Oh, I also nearly squashed Matt Ryan with a practice jump, he was warming someone up and standing by the jump when the demolition expert decided to destroy the entire jump warming up at Mount Ballan last season
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These are brilliant!!

I have had some embarassing falls, but nothing rates as highly as my humiliation in a handy pony competition. You had to jump off, put on some shorts and jump bck on. I grabbed the biggest pair of shorts there and jumped back on. Halfway through my jump, my shorts fell round my ankles, pretty much tying my ankles together. Very neatly, I rolled over and landed on my back on the other side and just lay there laughing...
 
I've twice fallen off absolutely automatic Children's Hunters (the saints of the North American hunter discipline) when showing them for sale. Both times I cantered into a jump thinking I was too cool for school, that I could jump horses like that standing on my head . . . and ended up standing on my head. Serves me right.
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[ QUOTE ]
Warming up a Novice level event horse for show jumping. Came to the cross pole he stopped and I sailed over his head!

[/ QUOTE ]

SJ I'm so glad it's not just me who's done that!
 
Local RC event not very long ago.
Warm horse up having walked the course, come down the line to the first warm up fence (1ft x pole), horse stops, I dont, and off i tumble onto the floor.
FFS, it's a 1/3 of the height of the course, so i got straight back on and rode like my life depended on it.
 
Oh I think I can top these!! Following on from "What are you most proud of" post. Imagine the scene, just gone clear, inside the time at Badminton and lying about 10th. Pass the trot up then go into the Show Jumping. The bell goes to start and then half way around the bell goes again. There must be a fault with the equipment thinks I. BUT OH NO stupid me has only gone and taken the wrong course and got myself eliminated!!! I can tell you that I wore sun glasses to hide my red eyes for weeks after that!! So now when ever anyone goes the wrong way I always say "better here than at B....y Badminton!! Top that!!
 
Last September, a rather full equitation class, judged by a lady who I suspect doesn't think terribly highly of me or my pony...the ground was deep, deep mud, and being new to this hoof-boots thing, I didn't realise I should have taken them off. Class starts well, pony actually on the bit, being so good, and then we're supposed to canter...it seems his boots nearly got sucked off his feet: he tore off, nearly crashing into the others, and finally put in a nice big buck as I was stopping him. I flew into the air, legs and all practically straight (so I was told by observers, of whom there were many) and somersaulted completely, landing flat on my back in the mud. Cue me uttering choice juicy words, concerned judge asking me if I was ok, and my RI expressing disappointment that he'd just missed the entertainment and that no one had filmed it.
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Couldn't I at least have fallen off infront of a different judge?

...I did stick around for my two dressage tests later, though, and they went much better.
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[ QUOTE ]
Oh I think I can top these!! Following on from "What are you most proud of" post. Imagine the scene, just gone clear, inside the time at Badminton and lying about 10th. Pass the trot up then go into the Show Jumping. The bell goes to start and then half way around the bell goes again. There must be a fault with the equipment thinks I. BUT OH NO stupid me has only gone and taken the wrong course and got myself eliminated!!! I can tell you that I wore sun glasses to hide my red eyes for weeks after that!! So now when ever anyone goes the wrong way I always say "better here than at B....y Badminton!! Top that!!

[/ QUOTE ]

You win without doubt!!
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Cringeworthy/horrible/embarrassing...you name it...

At a hunter trials, I decided to take one of our Spanish mares around, she wasn't known for her jumping prowess but I loved her. Anyway, obstacle 3 was a ditch that we jumped out hacking, but she wouldn't go near it, and we were still within watching distance from teh start and I was SO humiliated. I eventually got off and to my utmost shame I smacked her with my whip on the neck (I was about 13/14 and cross
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) Anyway, Pepita looked at me with a *f you* attitude and then wouldn't let me get back on, literally would not let me near her saddle, I ended up having to leg a friend up on her as by that point I was dying a death of embarrassment and shame and thought I had killed her spirit for good
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The YM made me go back to the yard and get one of the 12.2hh ponies out and take that round, very shameful as even at that age I was about 5ft8!!!

Lesson learnt tho, never hit a horse when you are angry with YOURSELF!
 
Ive told this one before but Mistatiga has won anyway!

Got knocked out briefly at the water at Scone, shipped off to the Drs ambulance with a wee crowd, Dr asks where hurts, I say back of my hip/pelvis, he says, right if you would just like to drop your breeches!

No I bloody wouldn't!!!

Moral of the story, wear decent pants, even when XCing!
 
Mistatiger, you win, but the 'clear round Badminton' part wins hands down too.
I can't remember who it was, but someone once had a run out at the first fence on Badders (or maybe Burghley?) xc and then went clear from then on, that would be v cringeworthy too.
 
I was doing MGA at Oxford County Show the day after a 2 week bender at Uni - it was my last 2 weeks ever of uni. I didn't feel too good - not helped by my very white pony being slightly tinged pink by the mud. I lent over to pick a mug up of the floor and just kept sliding and fell off and landed on Michael Hestletines feet. I had already fallen off once before as I had vaulted on and totally missed the saddle and ended up sat on her tail.
 
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