Why is it so hard to look nice when riding?!

[timbobs]

Just musing on this on a wet Monday morning.

I’m happily riding along thinking I look happy and cheerful and instead in any photos/videos of me riding I either look like I’m having a horrible time or look absolutely terrified!

Does anyone else do this- please say it’s not just me!

 

[Bernster]

I do a marvelous puffer fish impression when jumping.

 

[JFTDWS]

I post an awful lot of photos with the caption "Pony looks epic, don't know why I look like I've been shot / tortured / generally forced into doing this against my will" at the moment too

 

[SEL]

Just musing on this on a wet Monday morning.

I’m happily riding along thinking I look happy and cheerful and instead in any photos/videos of me riding I either look like I’m having a horrible time or look absolutely terrified!

Does anyone else do this- please say it’s not just me!

I rarely have photos of me riding because I look either in pain or terrified and people just ask me why I'm not smiling......

 

[Mildlander]

Hate seeing photos of me when competing as I look like rictus has set in because I'm concentrating so hard to remember the dressage test or trying not fall off when jumping. Sometimes if I remember that I'm being photographed I can remember to smile but usually they aren't much better. The best ones are usually as I bow my head for the final salute then no one can see my face!!

 

[The-Bookworm]

It's because we are concentrating surely? If the horse has their ears back people assume they are grumpy when they may actually be listening. In my case to any rustle- but that does have it's uses.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I think that it is because riding is actually hard and takes a lot of concentration and most 'I'm really concentrating on this' expressions don't involve smiling. Some non-horse people may think that the horse does all the work and the rider just has to sit there and look cute, but it's just not the case at all.

ETA - M and the BW beat me to it!

 

[JFTDWS]

And when someone sticks a bow and a few arrows in your hands, it only gets worse, doesn't it @Faracat - I have reached new and unrivaled levels of gormless in recent months

 

[SpringArising]

I have to make a conscious effort to keep my mouth closed. I have ruined so many photos by having my mouth open!

 

[Fiona]

My gurny faces ruin any otherwise lovely jumping pics I have purchased

Fiona

 

[teddypops]

I post an awful lot of photos with the caption "Pony looks epic, don't know why I look like I've been shot / tortured / generally forced into doing this against my will" at the moment too

Same!

 

[shirl62]

Most times look like a bulldog chewing a wasp!

Shirl

 

[Annagain]

I don't know if it's the chin strap on my hat but in every photo of me riding I have a terrible double, nay triple, chin - even if i'm aware of the camera and lift my head to try to avoid it. This doesn't seem to happen to anyone else!

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Just musing on this on a wet Monday morning.

I’m happily riding along thinking I look happy and cheerful and instead in any photos/videos of me riding I either look like I’m having a horrible time or look absolutely terrified!

Does anyone else do this- please say it’s not just me!

Probably cos it's Tuesday......not Monday?

 

[BeckyFlowers]

I don't know about the rest of you but I look just like Bethany from the Mya advert when I'm riding

 

[Tarragon]

I just know that my face with glasses on and a few escaped curls of unruly hair under the huge riding hats we have nowadays is never a good look!

 

[Cowpony]

Every picture of me competing seems to show me scowling. I'm not, I'm just concentrating, but I don't seem to be able to smile and concentrate at the same time. Clearly I'm using the wrong muscles to remember which way I'm turning at C

 

[Pinkvboots]

I don't know about the rest of you but I look just like Bethany from the Mya advert when I'm riding

Hate those adverts they are ridiculous

 

[Meowy Catkin]

And when someone sticks a bow and a few arrows in your hands, it only gets worse, doesn't it @Faracat - I have reached new and unrivaled levels of gormless in recent months

Multitasking definitely makes facial expressions worse.

 

[BMWKIPP]

I've got my mouth open in all my jumping pictures 🙄🙄

 

[timbobs]

Probably cos it's Tuesday......not Monday?

Haha you can tell how much I’m with it this week 🙈

 

[abbijay]

I have the most horrific jumping face (especially my pokey-out, gurning chin) but when I first got my horse and started to compete my instructor used to mutter at me from ringside "smile, god damn smile, keep smiling" everytime I was near here and it's really stuck. This means I've got a healthy set of smiley dressage/showing pictures that I'm happy to print off and stick up. Maybe that's my I don't really jump anymore...

 

[Alibear]

I've moved on from resting bitch face and developed competition murder/death/kill face, as soon as we step out of the ring I'm grinning like a buffoon It's been commented on.

 

[PapaverFollis]

Bethany needs a better bra. And she's setting herself up for some nasty road rash if she comes off. But obviously Bethany never falls off.

I look like a flustered tomato when I'm riding.

 

[timbobs]

Ha I’m so with you on the flustered tomato look! When I get warm I just get redder and redder on my face and arms!

Combined with my angry/terrified expression I must look like I’m about to blow up!

 

[timbobs]

Does anyone fancy sharing any of their beautiful expressions? Maybe we need to turn it into one of the photo competition threads!

 

[OldNag]

I've never seen a pic of me jumping in which I don't have my eyes closed

 

[CMcC]

I am famous for not smiling, although I like to think of myself as a happy person. I have to be instructed by my friends when riding in the presence of a photographer to smile. The spooky thing is even though I am definitely smiling and looking slightly insane when the picture is take. When the picture appears on Facebook or wherever I am looking glum. I have achieved one smiley picture in 2019 so am not going to attempt it again this year.

 

[cindars]

I don't know if it's the chin strap on my hat but in every photo of me riding I have a terrible double, nay triple, chin - even if i'm aware of the camera and lift my head to try to avoid it. This doesn't seem to happen to anyone else!

Me too even when I was younger and didn't have a double chin which I do now.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Our instructor often tells us to smile as we go over the poles or obstacles... And tells us to breathe, and not to hold our breath as we go around.