Warming up at events

Kenzo

Kenzo

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I was at an HT event yesterday and was horrified to see some people not only late for their start times but didnt even bother to warm up or holding up the competiton while shouting accross to the stewards 'hang on we'll just take them over the practice log first' when their start time was due 10 minutes before someone found them in the parking area.

Just wondered how many other people would choose to run your horse/pony over a XC course without warming up first?

:eek:

Ok so we all know the importance of warming up (muscles etc) to avoid injury and I'm sure they did however it was their choice, their risk also its true to say that some horses require warming up more than others as some benefit more mentally and perform better etc

But would you dare? I mean most importantly your risking an injury to your horse and you can live with missing your class ( yes you'd be gutted) and loosing out on your entry fee and travel costs, but not only that, I'd feel too bloody ashamed!
 
Gosh that's just such a stupid thing to do! I know some horses need less warming up than others... mine for example, performs much better with just a quick warm up... but to do a HT with no warm up is madness and unfair on the horse
 
Besides that I don't understand why anybody would want to add extra risks of injuries, by riding horses that is not properly warmed up, I would have thought there was a rule that said that they had to start within xx time, or they would be eliminated?

:confused:
 
That has just given me a brilliant idea. Even at BE with set times there are often big gaps where there's no-one warming up, let alone ready to go XC. If they changed the rules so that unless you had agreed to change your time with the secretaries and XC steward beforehand the clock was started at your set time and ran until you actually finished the course. That ought to focus a few minds!
 
i dont think thats totally fair - if the XC is really late, it is invariably because something has gone wrong with the SJ - I have never been to a BE event where people have just taken their time and not bothered going up at the right time. The only event where it went badly wrong was at Firle one year, when they decided to actually rebuild the novice SJ from scratch - there was a huge backlog of riders waiting to go because they were then so far behind and started really late, which of course then had a knock on effect with the XC.

As for the people not warming up properly - yes they should have but maybe they were held up for some reason - probably best to give them the benefit of the doubt but I can't understand why if people were running late - why others couldnt simply move in ahead of them?
 
I'm almost always first in the warm up. I think you really need at least 20 mins before your horse is really working at its best.

It really winds me up when I've timed how long I need to warm up and then I end up waiting around because the class is running late because people don't come when called. I would never have the nerve to tell the ring steward that I wasn't ready and that the class would have to wait for me.
 
I don't do much at all on my horse- trot a bit, canter a bit (max 2 laps each rein of a 20x40 area), pop 3 fences then go in. Its how he goes best but to some it must look awfully minimal.
 
agree completley.there is no excuse especially when so many events give you your time.went to daughters first hunter trial at the weekend ,got their in loads of time to warm up then hanging around as horse due to go before wasnt ready and eventually turned up but hadnt warmed up or jumped practice fence before her round.she did actually have a quick canter and jump delaying every body else but it is really selfish in my opinion.
 
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