Wimp at home, wimp warming up, brave as a lion in the ring!

K

kickonchaps

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 February 2011
Messages
354
Visit site
Does anyone else get this?!

I have my first BE100 tomorrow but I know that if the collecting ring spread goes above 2'9 I'm going to be bricking it! I get the same at home, and feel the butterflies as soon as the jumps go past 3' but as soon as I get in the ring it's a different story. My horse is bolder, my strides are (almost always) spot on, the jumps feel smaller...

Sometimes walking the cross country after I've been round I can't believe what I've jumped (big Stratford Hills trakenher, I'm talking to you) but during my round they're just jumps, no biggie.

I know this contravenes all the rules about jumping bigger at home than you would at competitions, but I'm just braver (and my horse is 1000 times more focused) when we're competing!
 
Lol. Sounds like you have a good adrenaline rush when you get competitive :D

I look at jumps and think yeah, fine; then I get on the horse and the jumps suddenly look bigger! How does that work lol :rolleyes::D
 
I'd like to think they grow a couple of inches when we're not looking! I did read about a showjumper who snuck in to walk a course the night before and was so freaked out by one of the parallels he dropped it a couple of holes and no one noticed! Now he coursebuilds and checks everything on the morning :p
 
Yes! Even when I was jumping 1.30 I couldn't jump bigger than a meter in the collecting ring! I think when I get in the ring I am focused on where I am going and get an adrenline rush so don't think too much about the height. At home or in the collecting ring I think about getting it perfect and how big the fences are and what stride I am on and start panicing! But then I just hate collecting rings anyhow, having had too many near misses to feel very comfortable....
 
Yes! I thought I was the only one but I'm exactly the same, any higher then 90/95cm in the warm up I freak out but as soon as I'm in the ring its all good.

Glad I'm not the only one :p
 
it's adrenalin, plus a big dose of 'just got to get on with it' once you're in the ring.
btw, horses get it too, even some of the best ones. i never realised my grey did it until my trainer was at a few comps in a row with me, and told me... no wonder i was sometimes flummoxed, because she behaved totally differently in the ring!
there's nothing wrong with jumping little things in warm-up, that's all it is after all, just to loosen the horse up and get your eye in. better to jump little things and go in with sky-high confidence than overdo it.
 
Yep im exactly the same! I just like to get my eye in then crack on in the ring.

Anyway the work is done at home, the practice ring is just a warm up. Your not going to learn anything on the day!
 
You're describing me exactly! It has become a real problem for me, I can have complete meltdown in the warm-up yet go in and jump a near perfect round in the ring.

Last year at one BE100 the SJ was carnage as it had got really slippery and anything that stopped was just sliding into the fences. I totally lost it in the w/up and just about managed to jump a small upright. I almost withdrew, I was having such bad meltdown - honestly. Was breathing deeply going in and we went and pulled off one of only about 6 clears all day! (Got a good placing that day!)

Friends say to me 'see, it doesn't matter if you only jump a small upright' and I know they're right, but I really would feel better and more confident going in if I could confidently pop a couple of bigger fences in the warm up. However, we get to the first fence and somehow it always seems to come together.

Interesting what you say Kerilli, I wonder if any of this has to do with my horse as well as me. Sometimes I feel she just 'can't be bothered' in the collecting ring, but I have always put this down to the way I'm riding her, try as I might to be positive.

kickonchaps, I don't know what the answer is, but if you find it please will you tell me!!
I have just the same at home but I do find that once we get going, particularly if there's a whole course up, it seems to come together in the end.
 
Yep, I get this, although not exactly 'brave as a lion' in the ring, just less of a wimp! I'm hopeless at home - can't get a decent jumping canter, then I become obsessed with striding and mortified when it goes wrong...! I'd rather jump 3 small fences nicely in the warm-up than risk messing up with 3 minutes to go, and as kerilli says, by the time I'm actually cantering to the first fence in the ring it's a case of 'just kick on', which, strangely enough, often gives me that lovely jumping canter and if I'm really lucky the strides suddenly just appear!
 
I'm also with you on this one - I just can't understand why people put the practice fences up so high in the collecting ring - then have a nasty stop or get it all wrong just before jumping a round - great for the horse's confidence! (and the rider's!) I was doing the BE100 at Oasby yesterday and only jumped up to 90 in the collecting ring - I have to get wait till it's quiet and get them put down! and my girl came out and jumped a near perfect clear - full of confidence. But I am a total wimp unless I have to do it!!! - So I will jump higher if my trainer tells me to and only then! The adrenelin rush in the ring for both rider and horse makes you focus in a different way to the collecting ring and at home.

I was at Vale View recently doing arena eventing and the practice fences were put up to stupid heights in the collecting ring - 1.10-1.15 for a 1m class - Why??? By the way I came 2nd with a lovely clear having jumped no more than 90-100 in the warm up
 
Ahh I'm so glad I'm not the only person who gets this, we'll have to pipe up next time some fool in the collecting ring starts showing off how big they can jump!
 
I was the same- I never really jumped at home other than over the hunt jumps out hacking and if I did it was to try and do something like angled fences so I could ride them properly at a comp. These were just to iron out technical faults so the fences were rarely above 2'! Warming up, I'd also be the biggest wimp. Often, I'd be in tears before we worked out our warm up routine- walk, trot, canter on both reins. Jump a cross pole off both reins, jump a small straight (usually about 2'3, maybe 2'6 if the course was bigger) once and then a spread with an cross in the front twice. Go into the ring. If it was XC, I'd do some going faster, going slower malarkey for a bit. Meant I stopped myself from panicking, and I always knew exactly what I was doing so couldn't knock my confidence. In the ring/ on the XC course I had no qualms at all.

Though warming up over bigger fences than in the ring is something both my sister and I have always considered unnecessary and slightly stupid it's something she's about to start doing with her horse... She needs to get her blood up a bit to ride as positively XC she needs to, and by doing some bigger fences out of a forward gallop both her and Reg end up being more "let me at them!".
 
can this apply to dressage as ours is normally a total git in the warm up but something changes when the bell rings .serious heads on all round
 
debsflo said:
can this apply to dressage as ours is normally a total git in the warm up but something changes when the bell rings .serious heads on all round
Click to expand...

You're lucky! We do a very polite, slightly dull dressage warm up, then get in the arena and it's OMG LOOK at those flowers, LOOK at that judge's car, OMG I just saw a horse, did you see?!
 
OneInAMillion said:
i NEVER jump anything above 3ft warming up no matter what class i'm jumping. I ride so badly warming up he would lose confidence!!
Click to expand...

Im exactly the same! Im a wreck in the warm up so just concentrate on getting a good canter etc. Once im in the ring it all changes and I become confident and start to resemble a rider rather than a lemon lol :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top