Craziest thing you ever saw at a show...

I don't think MidsummerFable means that they suck. But it really doesn't make sense for people to pay a lot of money per class, enter multiple classes, then have to pay all the various costs of going to a show and then show a sloppy, dirty animal or arrive in ill-fitting tack or improperly attired or trying to show an animal that obviously isn't working in the discipline they're trying to show in. It's not about sucking - it's about respecting yourself and your horse as well as your fellow competitors. Not everyone can win a ribbon, true, but everyone can at least look like they're trying for one.

A local fair had the same horse show judge year after year, for many years. One time when my kids went into the halter class, all us spectators waited at least 1/2 hr watching those poor kids walk around and around while the judge stared here and there off into space. Finally someone asked what was going on....the judge thought he was waiting for more entrants!
After that, we all voted to get a new judge each year, and that poor guy hasn't ever been invited back.

-my friend spent 2 hours + cleaing a saddle for a show and barely went in anything

-a little girl fell off and the whole bridle came off the pony too

- a girl was trying to get her horse to jump but instead of jumping it just charged straight through the jump. It was like it didn't know how to jump

:P

That is the ring steward and gate person's fault. The announcer should always let the judge know when the class is in the arena and the gate is closed.

At a dressage show a year or two ago, a rider was just on her way out of the arena when her horse spooked, he jumped forward slightly but quickly went back to a walk. Despite this, the rider took her dressage whip and gave the horse a massive smack ( the sound echoed, and the horse was visibly confused). The judge stood up, asked the rider why she felt that was necessary, to which the rider gave no answer. The judge just shook her head and sat down.

Not overly exciting but something out of the norm none-the-less lol

I don't have any good ones, but i'v recently started going to watch shows at my local saddle club, to support my riding instructor and her show team, and to know what to expect when my horse and I are ready to show.

The last show I went to was rather adventful lol

A little girl trying to jump some small jumps, brought the horse in at the wrong lead each time, horse refused each time, so they were disqualified from that class, so she got the horse out the ring and ran him because she was mad.

A horse was loaded into the trailer, and managed to snap its halter, and slip under the bum straps and go charging off across the open feild. People are yelling to close the gates so the horse doesnt excape into town lol She was caught, a few people got to the gate and though they couldnt catch her, they sent her off in the other direction where the owner was waiting, and as soon as she saw the owner, and heard her voice she walked right over. Luckily they also sell some tack at this saddle club so the owner was able to buy a halter for her lol

The same people also had another horse with, a beautiful bay! Placed in all there classes, very well behaved, and a great mover! Apparently he wasnt in the mood to go yet tho, as try as they might they couldnt get him in the trailer! They got him in once and they people standing outside the trailer "helping" clearly don't know what help means, as they didnt do up the bum strap and the horse backed out. For ever an hour they tried to get this horse into the trailer. They tried forcing him in, tapping him with a whip, putting the other horse in first ( see above paragraph to see how that turned out), walking him away and trying again, lunging him, finally they moved the trailer to the opposite side of the grounds and tried again. Still wouldnt get in! A few people went in and tried to help, either failed, or were told no, they didnt need help. Apparently this horse is a rescue, and blind in one eye, and bumped his head once so has to be handled diffrently, and he knows the one lady that was leading him on. Clearly knowing her, wasnt helping to much! Lol IMO rescue or not, your horse is well trained, and has trailerd before, so don't coddle him because of his past, because I doubt he's thinking of it, but that's just my opinion. Anyways, eventually! After much frustration, and failed tactics they got both horses on, and the trailer closed up, and headed for home! Which is good, because they tried almost everything, so other then asking someone with a stock trailer for a ride home, I don't know what else they could try! Lol

At an open pony show there was a girl who got bucked off her pony in the show arena, gets up, yanks on the bridle and starts kicking the poor thing in the ribs over and over and over again until the ring steward makes her stop, then this girl also didnt under stand why she couldnt show in EVERY class, like why she couldnt show her 15 yo mare in the yearling stallion class. Then what really madw it an O.O moment was when the superintendent tried to explain to her that she wasnt allowed to show in every class and shouldnt kick her pony like that, her dad comes over to the super. The superintendent is litterally 5 ft. Nothing and the dad is like 6'5 and a bodybuilder the dad rips off his shirt and says 'you don't know who your messing with, I amMr. Kalamazoo 2 years running' and starts doing the whole 'pec bouncing' thing and she tells him that he 'had better get his boobies out of her face and take his pony home.'

We were all standing there like O.O O.o
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This is only my second show season so havnt seen anything to crazy but at last months show the people parked beside us had a horse that was rearing and acting crazy, I noticed he had leg rapps on and thought "omg there burning that horse" but just let it go an figured they didnt want him to scratch his legs in the trailer. Later that night I watched them take the raps off.. it took them about 45 minutes to an hour and were late getting in the ring. I was shocked. (it was a horse with a package or pads on or whatever that junk is) I also heard later that they had to give the horse a shot of whiskey to calm him down.
Same show a girl was leaving the ring after getting second or third place (cant remember) and the horse just falls, kinda like he triped. I laughed when the owner said "oh he just gets lazy somtimes"
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Bump, anyone else?
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I've only shown 2 years so far, but boy I saw some interesting things this year.

At one show this one mother clearly fancied herself a riding instructor and would yell and scream at her kids while they were riding. One of the girl's horse bucked and took off while they were exiting a class. The one man with her caught the horse and told me to be careful and to keep my distance AFTER he walked the horse toward me. I said it was okay and he gave me crap for being too close and that I need to be careful, sorry that you didn't want to move the horse to an area that wasn't right next to the arena gate. The boy with her also had a really hot horse and when he was doing the working hunter class. The horse refused a jump and his mom(the one mentioned earlier) yelled at him to start again. He was DQed for going off course and wondered why he was. The same show also had a girl fall off in the working hunter class and she wanted to know why she didn't get a ribbon. I felt really bad accepting my ribbon in that class because it was just the three of us and I was the only one who did it without a fault.

At another show, a boy got overconfident about winning the jumpers class and was really looking forward to winning it. He was having a good time boasting about it as well, he promptly destroyed the course after he couldn't make a turn.

Finally, one show had a woman with a half-cheek on upside down and frequently complaining about the judge while she was right beside her. Oh boy did I have to bite my tongue that day.