warming up at a competition

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Out of interest, what do you do in the warm up at a competition, particularly if your horse is a tad excited?!
I have seen/been told so many things - put him on a circle until he relaxes; use the whole arena but keep his mind busy with transitions and small circles and changes of rein, walk for 10 mins on a loose rein ; go straight into trot and ask for an outline to help direct the energy...

So what do you do?

 

[*hic*]

Take it out and work it elsewhere until it settles enough to take it back into the warm up. THat's because I get flustered and embarrassed and it gives us both a chance to simmer down.

 

[amandaco2]

Depends on the horse. Imho the most important thing is if they want to go forwards let then, esp a baby horse.

 

[Triskar]

I use a SoundSchooling warm up on my MP3 player

 

[Lolo]

If they're overexcited, I try and let them trot/ canter it out with either going large with some 20m circles thrown in when they're relaxing a bit. Once they've got the twinkle out their toes they can listen to me- I think that's fairer than trying to demand attention from the beginning if they're overexcited.

That's what my sister tells me anyway. My instinct is to grab and try and control straight away.

 

[Theocat]

Mine is usually massively distracted, hates hates HATES other horses getting close (but also can't stand being too far away from them), and has a nervous pilot , so I'll find a quiet bit in the middle and do teeny tiny figures of eight in walk, and walk/halt/walk transitions until he starts to settle down a bit. We're at a very very low level and still getting used to going out and about, so my warm up is less about perfecting his performance and more about just getting us both calm in that environment.