Warm up etiquette rant

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mitchellk

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Was nearly mown down today when adjusting an oxer in the warm up for my boss- I was clearly standing in front of the fence and bloomin stupid girl presented and jumped anyway- what happened to shouting OXER if someone is in the way. FFS could have been a very nasty injury
So just wanted to say next time you are warming up for SJ please shout if anyone is in the way, I would rather that than being squashed by a couple of tonnes of horse
Thankyou-rant over phew!
 
I am the only person I have ever heard in this country shout "Jumping Upright" etc - I do not understand why people do not do it over here
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I get really frustrated when working in for dressage as well - LEFT TO LEFT!!!! It's not flippin rocket science!!!
 
I worked in France (SJ) a few years back, and they all shout oxer, upright etc loud and clear and in perfect english, why can't anyone over here!!!!
Although did see a nasty accident at Lon-le-Sauniere when a plonker riding and talking on mobile walked his horse in front of fence whilst someone was jumping it and both horses were knocked to the ground, so it doesn't always work- but really give us poor grooms a fighting chance of survival please!
 
Doesn't always work - I've shouted 'jumping!!!!!' and had people gaily carry on without even bothering to look up, & had to circle away at the last second. Some people seem to go selectively deaf & think that only their rider's horse has the right to a decent warm up. Invariably the same people that are jumping 1 m 40 to warm up for a Newcomers...

Warm up for dr is sometimes little better - there is always one very loud mouthed trainer / mum behaving as if they've hired the arena for their private use, bellowing out instructions like 'inside leg to outside rein'. Then everyone ends up trapped in one end of the school cos the horse in question is very highly strung, doing airs above the ground & kicking at anything within 10 m at the other end...

Or maybe I'm just a ratty old bag who's on a short fuse at comps...
 
I will shout if i see someone in the way and if they ignore me/don't hear me I will always circle. Shame so many other people don't have the common sense to shout! Friend who used to be on the RAF teams had to shout every time she jumped a fence never mind if anyone near it because thats what all people in the forces apparently must do!
 
The thing that pissed me off the most was that the girls mother was standing next to me- not helping to get the effing pin through the cup. And after she said 'you might want to get out of the way' OMG bit late for that silly moo
There were about fifteen mothers having a social gethering in the middle of the warm up totally oblivious to what was going on around them and me running about like a headless chicken trying to put up fences. I know im just the groom but honestly, people have no idea! rant rant rant rant rant!!
 
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I get really frustrated when working in for dressage as well - LEFT TO LEFT!!!! It's not flippin rocket science!!!

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And dont forget the NO WALKING ON THE OUTSIDE TRACK!
 
I shout whether there is anyone standing by the jump or not - lots of people over here think it is OK to circle in front/behind the jumps (if you get me!). I get some VERY odd looks but I do not care, have never had anyone cause me a prob as they are too busy looking at me like a freak! As in France, in Spain it is a common thing to call what you are jumping, and IMHO it is the POLITE thing to do and I shall never not do it.
 
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I get really frustrated when working in for dressage as well - LEFT TO LEFT!!!! It's not flippin rocket science!!!

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And dont forget the NO WALKING ON THE OUTSIDE TRACK!

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Oh the amount of SJers that think it is acceptable
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Or even worse the ones who try and get round the NO TRAINERS in the warm up arena, so you suddenly find trainer on another horse shouting instructions!
 
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I get really frustrated when working in for dressage as well - LEFT TO LEFT!!!! It's not flippin rocket science!!!

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And dont forget the NO WALKING ON THE OUTSIDE TRACK!

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Oh the amount of SJers that think it is acceptable
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And they do it 3 a breast chatting as they go
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[ QUOTE ]
I get really frustrated when working in for dressage as well - LEFT TO LEFT!!!! It's not flippin rocket science!!!

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ash was in the warm up the other week and a woman came towards her forcing her off the track so the horses passed right to right and then had the cheek to growl left to left at ashleigh! ..muppet..
 
Was at a competition today, calmly cantering round and child came cantering the other way, straight towards me and I had to do a swift dodge left to avoid, complete with, I might add a cross' left to left'! And got a blank look!
Then another member from the team decided to run into me!
Is left to left sooo hard? !
 
Thins I hate are, as mentioned above,

People who dont understand/use left to left rule.

People constantly clicking at their horses drives me mad, especially if the horse I am on is very sensitive!

Walking on the outside track

Riders looking down at their horses head/neck instead of where they are going!

Riders that ride with their schooling whips sticking out a meter to their side so it brushes down your horses side everytime you pass them!!

Also hate the jumping warm ups, when everyone thinks that they are in such a rush they cant possibly allow you to jump that x pole before they whack it up to an upright!!

Not that I am a grumpy old man.....
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I simply avoid all this 'left to left', 'no walking on outside track' kerfuffle by my horse being constantly slightly sideways (crooked) thus he is technically doing lateral work.
Any shouts at me about left to left gets a response of "don't you understand lateral work takes priority?"
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Ooooh that's a clever one.

I find that bit bit of cheeriness gets you a long way. I try and stick with left to left, walking off the track etc, but inevitably crash sometimes. Then I smile and apologise.

What REALLY pi**es me off, is the arogant tw*t faced self important tarts who look at me like i'm an idoit.

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and breathe.
 
Don't get me started on people walking on the track!
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I am constantly having to say 'track please' when I'm riding in and the idiot in question often just looks at me as if I'm the stupid one. Aaaaaaaaargh!

Once, when totally pi**ed off I deliberately kept going and crashed into a girl who wasn't even warming up but was walking her horse off after her test. Yes, nothing wrong there, in fact to be commended as so often people do their test and then put their horse straight back in the lorry. However on this occassion this tw*t of a girl was meandering around on the track, I was heading straight for her in shoulder in, I say fairly loudly 'Track please', she looks blankly, I keep coming as I know my boy won't be phased and bash straight into her.
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I'm normally so mild mannered but by this time I was seeing red!

It hurt my shin but it was worth it!!!!

FFS the etiquette rules are in the rulebook, why can't people READ them?!
 
Yes, do you think BD could add a rule about being nice and friendly.

In fact, can everyone just be nice to me....? I try so hard to be pleasant to people and it really pees me off when people are rude.
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I think there must be more arguments in the collecting ring than anywhere else. For dressage the people who ignore the left to left thing is very annoying. I was taught the left to left rule at the riding school when I first learnt to ride and wonder if it isn't something thats taught these days. One dressage venue near us is a yard where a certain instructor teaches frequently. She is a pain in the a*** because she gives lessons to her pupils in the warm up and they act like they have right of way over everyone else and will not give an inch even if they are right to right as it were. This same instructor then "reads" tests for her pupils and doesn't feel there is anything wrong in shouting "leg, leg, leg" in the middle of a test like it is still a lesson! She gets away with it because she teaches the daughter of the YO.
Show-jumping warm ups I find often depend on the venue. I often go to comps on my own so don't have the luxury of having someone put the jump up and down for me. It annoys me if a pushy parent then takes charge of the jump and sticks it up to twice the size of the class I'm warming up for and then usually leaves the ring with said child leaving the fence up at the top of the wings. A lot of the venues here have red and white flags on the wings like XC jumps but why do people still ignore that - it is done for your own safety after all - do people not understand the red flag rule? I even saw a child jump a little spread in the warm up which consisted of a crosspole in front of a straight back bar and they jumped it with the cross on the landing side!! Unbelievable! Anyway I better shut up now as I can feel myself getting into rant mode.
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My warm up rant is slightly different. At Oasby we had a very large flat field to warm up in for the dressage. We have a volatile young horse so we go to a 'quiet' corner well away for the others and do a 15 metres circle - you wouldnt BELIEVE how many rude b.....rs felt it was absolutely essential for them to canter through the middle of the circle! It was perfectly obvious that everytiem they did it the young horse was upset. How rude is that! Any ideas as to how to thwart them - without using bad language???
 
i agree with FinnMcCoul, some people are just darn right rude in warm up arenas and its the one part i hate with a passion about competing. i find the warming up ten times more stressful than the actual competing! No ones seems to know the rules and i m always trying to be polite to people and so if i do end up crashing with someone i always say sorry but what really annoys me, is most of the time its not even my fault yet i still get glared at! Was really cross warm up for sj once as this girl was cantering along and crashed right into my pony, she didn;t even apologise! grrrr
 
Oh yes I forgot about long whips...my horse got whacked across the face really hard once by a stupid cow who rode past me (admittedly left to left) so close that we clanged stirrups. As if she couldn't see me at all, or as if it were beneath her to notice me. HELLO??? I'm on a 17 hh dapple grey!!! I'm SURE we're not THAT hard to see...
 
Yes i've had horses wacked with other peoples whips before! So bl**dy rude, it seems most people don't get the left to left thing, and those who do dont give you enough room! A few weeks ago warming up someone didn't give us nearly enough room, and my horse did the most almighty leap and nearly jumped out of the school, not exactly helpful just before a test!
So few people seem to know about not walking on the track, or just dont care, as they're obviously far more important than anyone else! x
 
I found the dressage working in ok, I just went as far away as possible, it was the showjumping that Sov got upset with. So many people all doing random things, and Karen Dixon had a young horse with no steering at all, which Kept making a b-line for Sov! I don't really have a problem with youngsters, but it would be nice if she were a bit more under control. Having said that there were some other people on horses doing the intro who found it necessary to put the oxer at max height for the Novice, but as per nobody takes any notice of the rules!
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Then there are the idiots that go into canter 3 strides behind you and expect you to get out of thier way with no warning. Ive had this, i was quite happily troting on the outside track when some kid who had been sitting on my back end for a while and had been warned several times that if she didnt back off she was likely to get kicked (come on how many horses/ ponies will tolerate nose in tail form strange horses), popped her pony into canter when she was all of 3 strides behind me, didnt shout (my latteral movements are good enought that had she shouted i might have been able to get out the way) barged into my ponies back end at a canter, got a kick for her troubles and then her mother had the nerve to have a go at me! i told her quite sharply that her kid should be taught the school rules and some manners before being allowed to compete!

It was annoying as my pony isnt one to kick and he had tolerated this girl for quite a while i'd warned her about 6 times to back off and get her ponies nose out of my ponies tail, my pony was giving every warning he knew of and i could feel him winding up under me, she ignored me and thus she got kicked not rocket science.

Common sense says if you want someone out your way you ask and give enough warning for them to get out your way and you dont go into canter 3 strides behind someone, thats what circles are for.
 
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