When photographers get in the way - your stories

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Overread

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So I was nosing around the news randomly and saw this in one of the 10-whatevers pages

"7. You’re galloping across the course, the wind in your hair, congratulating yourself for not falling in the water jump, when the official photographer pops out from behind a brush fence, causing your horse to spook more dramatically than that time on EastEnders when Ronnie stole Roxy’s fella or something."



Which got me to wondering if this was humorous enough to fit into one of those pages there might be a few more similar stories out there that people here have experienced or heard of. If so it would be interesting to read of your experiences in these situations - what happened - how - what was the result etc....

Might be a bit of harmless fun swapping stories and might also pass on a few lessons for some to learn (esp those of us who are apparently very scary photographers;))
 
More of a 'when the horse got in the way of the photographer' story ...........
At the end of a Pony Club camp my son was taking his then very green horse round the cross country course. Parents and a photographer were invited as it was the last day. Horse didn't really like the look of the rail at the top of the hedge that divided two fields. He veered sideways but cleanly jumped the wire next to the rail AND the photographer who was sitting just underneath ..........
The poor chap must have been cr*pping himself! Eight years later he still reminds of this incident every time we see him.

Son and horse went on to a successful BE career, fortunately without further photographic mishaps.
 
Not the photographer but the first time I took my boy to a ODE he kept spooking at the fence judges on the XC course and he'd never come across it before, people just sitting about on course, lol.
 
First time ever doing Forest Cross, fence monitor at each jump, first jump my Po is like eeerr there's a person there, I'm like Roy Rodgers jumping one handed as he cat leaps jump, then second fence eeerr someone at this fence as well... not quite as bad, then fine rest of course on a total mission, we got a first :-)
 
Not so much XC - although we have jumped a fence judge who was unwisely close at one point. But photographers in the SJ arena can actually be quite common - especially if the rider has an innovative turn planned. My daughter lost out on a national qualifier when she was about 9 or 10 I think when the official photographer suddenly popped up in her line on a turn back making her change course. Ever since then we have had a "Yell and keep coming" rule. She asked me what to yell (bear in mind she was 9 or 10) and I said that on that occasion and that occasion only I didn't mind if she swore -just to yell whatever came into her head. Fast forward quite a number of years and although swearing is far from common in our family it certainly is not jumped on in quite the same way but the rule still holds. If someone is in your way in the arena - at competition - yell and keep coming!
 
Not photographer but a judge lol my pony shot off with me in the ring and judge had to leg it and dive under the fence to avoid being run over!
 
On one horse I had a XC sheet collector on a motorbike cross my path in front of the last jump, so horse and I jumped the back of his bike and jump. On another horse we jumped Mark Corbett when he decided that the best way to deal with my horse that locked on and jumped pretty much anything in front of him was to stand in front of the second part of a double and tell me to only jump the first part, in my defence I did warn him what would happen, I believe his reply was something along the lines of "don't be daft that will never happen", he was all kinds of shades of brown wrong.
 
I jumped a car bonnet once.
Going XC and the road crossing steward was obviously daydreaming, hadn't stopped a car just as I was mid air over a wall onto the crossing.
Car driver froze.
Horse popped their bonnet cleanly
 
Not an equestrian related one, but I saw a ski race on TV once where a photographer lost his footing and slid onto the racing line just as a skier was zooming past. Don't think the skier was too impressed!

We had a new photographer at our local venue a year or so ago, and on the xc course he was standing in a great place to get a shot of horses coming over a jump, but had to move once they landed and had a choice of two directions. He always moved in the same direction without reading the horse's body language, so on a few occasions he had to jump out of the way pretty fast. He's got a bit more experience under his belt now, so tends to stand further away and use a longer lens.
 
TBH it's normally the people out walking the course :D
Nearly ran a couple of them over at somerford one year, fence judges and other bystanders were yelling at them but they were trundling on obliviously!
 
Only "bad" experience I've had involving the official photographer at an event was simply my horse spooking like hell at him who was sitting hunched over in a big waterproof jacket and hat with his camera under a waterproof cover - basically sitting too close to my dressage arena. My horse refused point blank to go anywhere near that particular corner, what annoyed me the most was the photographer just carried on taking pics of us... you'd think he would have had the sense to move. I was only a child then, if that happened again I'd just stop and ask him politely to move!
 
Pedantic said:
First time ever doing Forest Cross, fence monitor at each jump, first jump my Po is like eeerr there's a person there, I'm like Roy Rodgers jumping one handed as he cat leaps jump, then second fence eeerr someone at this fence as well... not quite as bad, then fine rest of course on a total mission, we got a first :-)
Click to expand...

Whats "Forest Cross"????? Never heard of it!
 
First time my sister took her boy into the novice SJ at a local show, the photog had positioned himself outside the ring just after fence 2. He kept his camera lens lowered but then raised it every time a horse approached the fence. I think there were only about half a dozen in the class who didn't refuse because of this massive camera popping up on the other side of the jump when they were down to their last 2 strides!
 
I'm starting to think its dangerous being in the ring-side of things - although sounds like being a photographer is a bit safer than a few other positions!

MagicMelon said:
My horse refused point blank to go anywhere near that particular corner, what annoyed me the most was the photographer just carried on taking pics of us... you'd think he would have had the sense to move. I was only a child then, if that happened again I'd just stop and ask him politely to move!
Click to expand...

That and the "camera appearing out of nowhere" are always my fears when out shooting. Even though I've generally been behind the fence (well its normally a bit of rope held by a few stands so not really a fence) its still a worry; esp if a horse seems to stop hard at a jump whilst coming "at" the camera.

I'd always say do tell the photographer - although the story about lots of people suddenly stopping/avoiding should have possibly told that photographer something. Then again its almost your own little world being behind the camera (much as being up on a horse is) so its easy to get a (pardon the pun) blinkered view of things.
 
Last week at Breckenbrough BE! photographer was on the exact line I was taking in the sj so when he didn't move I just stuck to my line and he gave way eventually. I was quite shocked that he didn't realise given I was at the end of the class!
 
I once knocked a photographer over at a cross country event! He was stupidly stood near a fence, my horse decided he did not like that particular fence that day! He ran out last minute, running straight into the poor photographer and knocking him over backwards! He was OK though.

When I jumped round later that day on horse number 2 he'd moved position and wasn't stood as close as he was earlier in the day! I wonder why haha!
 
I was the 3rd runner out on the XC. The 2 fence judges and the photographer were sat near the water jump. The first two trotted through, Iwecantered. Apparently all 3 disappeared under our bow wave. They moved after that.
 
Was team chasing last season. The course required us to jump a fence then do a really tight turn to the next, going around a tree to make the turn. Photographer was outside the rope fence but for some reason as our team started the turn, he jumped up under the fence, right in our path and started taking photos. He wouldn't move, despite 4 horses galloping right at him. He only just made it out of the way, with us yelling at him. Absolute idiot. I was fuming!
 
The course designer asked me to video horses going over a new fence he had put in. He came with me and showed me exactly where to stand. I stood exactly there. The first horse came straight at me, rider yelling at me to get out of the way....
I didn't film any more.
 
We were at an unaffiliated ODE when we slid into the bottom of the fence, the buzzer went and the fence was put back up. Represented and the photographer stopped us to adjust the filler which had not been put back straight. Was extremely annoyed when looking at the scores later to find that we had been give a second refusal and about 20 time faults.

Live and learn and definitely would be telling them to get out of the way in future !!
 
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