Please share your stories if anything made you go O.O at any kind of show. Could include riding, handling, over horsed, etc..
Here is mine from the weekend:
My friend is warming up her mustang in warm up ring at a gymkhana shows. I'm pretty focused on her and I see another older lady on a larger QH come in. As I watch her come in its apparent she is a beginner. The one compliment I can give her is that her horse is a SAINT and is obviously the perfect match for her antics. The saddle is sitting in front of the saddle almost two inches. She is riding in a tom thumb bit.... With the reins on the ring the curb strap goes on. ... As she was coming around cooling her horse off after cantering him on the wrong lead I noticed her was visibly loose. I don't know how this didn't end badly, I credit the horse.
To top it off her friend come in on horse she can't control. Literally RAMMED the back of my friend and had a few near missed 3 or 4 time.
The craziest thing that ever happened to me at a show was when I took my big black gorgeous warmblood to a show. He bucked me off and i broke my hip. I went unconscious for a few minutes then got back on and finished the course with a broken hip. All i remember is crying hysterically laying in the back of my friends car. Posted via Mobile Device
I have two crazy stories. Both of them happened at AQHA shows...
-A few years ago, during the Green HUS class, a middle-aged male trainer had a STROKE while riding.
-Also during a HUS class, a stallion riding in the class mounted the horse in front of it with the riders still on. Luckily, no one was hurt.
I haven't had too many "crazy" things happen at shows I've attended, just the typical stuff.
Probably the most memorable was actually at a show I was working, not riding in. There was a younger girl, maybe 9 or 10, riding this little palomino. They were both turned out pretty well, cute pair.
Well the pony took two steps into the arena and took off. The little girl, bless her, was a complete beginner (should NOT have been jumping, she was barely comfortable at the trot) and had no idea how to handle a run away horse. She managed to hang on a respectable time, but eventually fell.
We discovered later that the pony had actually been a barrel horse previously. He had been badly trained and was of the habit of rushing out of the gates and had a tendency to run off with his riders. Turns out they had just recently decided to make him a hunter/jumper and this was his first English show. No one had bothered to work him out of his past issues, apparently just thinking they'd go away on their own. *facepalm*
Sometimes I'd really like to know what goes on in people's minds.
1) I was in a warm up ring for barrels and this girl came in and ran around the arena as fast as possible. She ran into my horses hind end, and cut in front of me many times. Thing is, there was well over 30 horses and her good idea was to gallop in that.
Oh oh oh! I came up with a better one. I was doing flag, and on the run home my horse decided to forget his brakes.. My other horse stops at the gate. Wellll, his was running full speed at a gate and I had his head cranked to the side, but I had to scream at the gate worker to move before my horse slammed into the gate and dented it. Plus, he pinned my leg inbetween the gate, and many people were screaming thinking I broke my leg. Plus, with my good luck, the gate worker was an extremely hot guy. I did the same thing the next week, and put another dent to the one I originally made. And a week later, the judge said if I ran into the gate a third time, I would be DQ'd!
I've seen a few crazy things at the local schooling show in my town.
1) Lady entered in the w/t/c English class with a big, green warmblood. She won, but as soon as the judge handed her the ribbon, her horse spooked and went bat-crap crazy. Started bucking and running around to put a rodeo bronc to shame. She somehow managed to stick in the saddle and rode him out, but he was hell-bent on getting her off.
2) Girl entered her 2yo gelding on stock horse halter. He had never been to a show before and was understandably nervous and fidgety. She didn't place because they were poorly turned out and as she was walking back to the trailer, he spooked at something random. She flew off the handle at him and started shanking him HARD with the stud chain wrapped around his nose and screaming at him that he was worthless because he didn't win her a ribbon. She was a big girl, too.
3) Girl entered her grulla paint mare in WP that was so skinny you could see ribs, hips and backbone. She'd even body clipped the poor thing, so it was even more noticeable. Thing is, she'd been talking down a friend of mone's Arab mare earlier in the day, saying she was too skinny and shouldn't be ridden (Katie was anything but underweight). Posted via Mobile Device
Went to a local show over the summer with my barn.
There were four girls, including myself.
One of the girls had an older horse, who didn't feel like doing a barrel class with us. (we were riding english and it was definitely just for fun)
Anyway, a run or two after I had finished (I was last) the horse who didn't run broke off from the trailer and took off down the road.
All three of us took of down the road, as well as a few people on foot and others in their cars.
We went down the dirt road to pavement, and we kept going. We went down into the plowed soy fields. He was down in a second field. No idea how he got there from the road. There was a huge pile of rock covered in thorns.
A girl was riding in the warm up ring and her horse spooked and she got bucked off. Everyone left the ring and the horse was removed while people tended to her waiting for paramedics to arrive. She was stable, but unable to move and riders came back in the ring to warm up while the girl was laying on the ground! They're literally cantering around her in a small ring the size of a small round pen while she's laying there waiting for help!
Can think of two crazy things:
1. When I was a kid, I went to the county fair. I was super-excited to watch the horse show and bee-lined for the ring to watch the warm up. A girl and her horse were near the rail, and she was urging him forward as he backed up. He ended up going right in the air and flipped backwards on top of her. He got his legs hung up in the rail o.0 and the poor girl was just being GROUND into the dirt as the horse struggled to get up. The horse jumped up and took off, and the girl stood up, stumbled about a half-step and collapsed. She was not responsive when they took her away in the ambulance I always wonder what happened and hope that the girl made a full recovery from whatever injuries she sustained After that, I'm surprised I ever wanted to get on a horse!
2. We knew our newest boarder (at the time) was very into 4H and showing her horse. The horse had come to our barn emaciated and with serious behavioral issues (bucking/rearing/etc) and after a week, they took her to a show. I went to watch, and was horrified to find the girl riding the poor horse from sun-up to sun-down all over the fairgrounds, including the 5 classes they had signed up for. By the end of the night, at the trail class (11p.m.!!!!) the horse had enough and reared up and jumped around so much that the girl was DQd. She threw a temper tantrum about her horse being a "jerk" and not winning her a ribbon (when the horse had already won her two blues and placed in the other two classes before 3p.m.). Yep - she had been on that poor horse's back the WHOLE time. Ended up being just the tip of the iceberg - suffice to say, we were relieved when they jumped into the mud-pits, and they ended up giving the mare away because she was "uncontrollable". Happy for the horse to be out from under that situation!
Oh oh oh! I came up with a better one. I was doing flag, and on the run home my horse decided to forget his brakes.. My other horse stops at the gate. Wellll, his was running full speed at a gate and I had his head cranked to the side, but I had to scream at the gate worker to move before my horse slammed into the gate and dented it. Plus, he pinned my leg inbetween the gate, and many people were screaming thinking I broke my leg. Plus, with my good luck, the gate worker was an extremely hot guy. I did the same thing the next week, and put another dent to the one I originally made. And a week later, the judge said if I ran into the gate a third time, I would be DQ'd!
Well I too hate it when people give you that "you're worthless" look. I do not belong to a barn. I do not board. I take lessons once a week at a friendly barn. I showed yesterday at a different barn and got those nasty looks. lol. My gelding was not dirty or badly behaved. He was the only one braided too lol. I also see too little of warm up ring etiquette! People reversing in huge circles to the inside all of a sudden while people are passing (in a small covered arena) and stopping abruptly when they are towards the inside. People not watching where they are going. Oh it drives me nuts.
At this same show, I dont think the judge knew what she was doing or was looking for a reason to knock my gelding down. In our english pleasure wtc class, she told me when we lined up that he was not picking up his right lead at all. and of course I came in last. Well I took a look at the videos my mom took. Ummm...He only picked up the wrong lead once and I immediately took him back to a trot and then went at the canter again. He picked up his right lead every single time after that one time. There were only one or two other people in these classes besides me. My gelding seemed to be the only horse capable of covering some ground haha. He actually collected himself and moved forward. The other horses looked like they were in western pleasure. I passed them in every class because my 15hh arabian gelding moves bigger than these 16hh QHs. I thought that in itself strange! lol.
And one of the mares that were being shown had a 6 week old foal. That foal had to be in that ring too or both her and mom would go insane. The foal was very disrespectful on the halter too. But very cute.
So nothing crazy really besides a mini getting loose and a horse going crazy at the sight of jumps taken apart (this same horse later did jumpers fine).
I was at a local show waiting beside the dressage arena for my test, i watched the rider in the Arena and was totally shocked at what she was doing, she was a large girl on a nice, grey, gelding (around 15hh i think and an Arabian cross by the looks of it) she had forgotten the test and was yaning the horses mouth blaming the horse for her problems. It was my first ever show and y first ever dressage test so i was nervous. Until i saw that
I was at a 4-H show. I was about to enter the warm up pen and I see a horse go off. He bucked off his young rider, the saddle slid underneath him and he ran the arena for probably 15 minutes before he was caught. The expensive show saddle he was wearing was now missing a whole stirrup and fender. This all happened with dozens of kids and their horses still in the arena...
At the State Fair I saw a girl lunging her horse with his head tied (yes tied) between his legs. He could not get release from the pressure at all. I watched this as she lunged him like this for a good 15 minutes.
At a really small open show I saw a girl riding with an upside down kimberwicke. The judge didn't even notice until her 3rd class! When he finally noticed he did help her fix it. That horse must have been such a sweetheart.
This one was at the County Fair last year. I was there helping out. A mother was going off at the office staff because her husband said the pole bending pattern was set too close to the timer. I helped set up that pattern. It was set up painstakingly by the book. Literally, by the 4-H handbook. Her daughter still won the class but she went around the whole show telling everyone it was set up wrong. I really hope they don't come back this year...
1) Not at a show, but at a TB Yearling Sale - I was sitting outside my stalls and noticed that the yearling across the aisle from me was a bit difficult to get into the stall, to be honest he looked like he had just been pulled out of a field and had no handling. The horse got more and more difficult as the day went on, to the point the man grabbed and hammer and gave him an almighty smack on the **** with it - the horse shot forward into the stall out of shock.. shame he didnt give the man a boot for his efforts. I can not for the life of me understand why people would pay the €300-500 entry fee about 3 months in advance, and not prepare their horses for the sales. Surely if you are willing to pay stud feeds and sales entry you should be willing to handle the horse for 6 weeks?
My daughter competes in leadrein classes..... in the UK/IRE a lot of the parents take these classes very very seriously.
1) Some of the outfits... I struggle to keep my cool - they are hilarious! Last summer we saw a mother with a bright yelllow corset, black 3/4 trousers, jester's boots (there is no other way to describe them) and a small hat sitting to one side with yellow feathers sticking out. She walked by us and the people at the next horsebox and my group couldnt contain our laughter.... I felt bad.. but bloody heck.
2) When people don't enter appropriate classes. Very annoying when we entered a "best turned out family" class with Simba, who as a skewbald was not the ideal leadrein type. We were doing well, when half way through the class a well known rider comes in on her welsh pony, no lead line, and competes with those of us with our backyard ponies. This girl has shown and won all over Ire/UK on this pony, it is a proper show pony and she has won at the RDS (biggest show in Ire) on it. Why on earth did she feel the need to enter it in a class with no money value, where the kids were doing their best on what they had. Her parents are the worse for allowing it.
3) With our coloured pony we were not the "norm". Our first ever show was a major learning curve for the three of us (child, pony and myself). There were 4 entries, yet the woman who won had a groom for the pony, and a helper to polish hers/child's boots and refused to get out of the arena when we were asked to as it was so mucky. She didn't stop looking down her nose at us for the entire class, but we did finish second! She did kick our butts every show we met her at, but I didn't mind I was proud of our first season (two 2nds out of 3 shows).
One funny horse show morning a lady went to go get her big fancy warmblood out of the gelding field(12 chestnut geldings, all warmbloods or TBs). It was 4AM, pitch black and raining. She loaded her horse and drove the 2.5 hours to the show. when we got there she unloaded her horse...and found out it was the wrong one!!!! Instead of her well trained, 13 year old event horse she had grabbed a two year old who had never been on a trailer! Maybe the funniest moment of my life, fortunately the owner was not upset.
1. We were at a benefit show. Now this family is very well known for trying to run their horses into the fence to get them hyper. With the arena they had 3/4 of it used for the gaming, and the other 1/4 was the warm up ring, but it was pretty much the waiting ring. It wasn't big enough so we are all waiting there and their daughter goes in who is a 6th grader on a horse that its his first year running barrels. He goes in and he was already hot, but she starts pushing him into the fence, rears straight up in the air and almost just by a few inches flipped himself over... The last few shows I went to they didn't have him with, I'm guess they got him to hot.
2. At the last show I went to I took a young horse. Now she is a witch horse but placed 1st in Western Walk/trot, she loves pleasure. But she has the perfect build for a gaming horse and I taught her the patterns. We had run well trotted barrels and it was poles time. We walk up to the arena, she stops and I push her forward. Ended up rearing straight up 7 times, and she is a 16hh horse with long thoroughbred legs, bucked about 10 times. At this time the whole show grounds is dead silent and watching me. The gate person asked if he could lead her in. Yeah I said no because she would have kicked him. We had to tie a red ribbon to her tail because she attempted to donkey kick my friends horse twice for no reason at all.
3. Someone once brought a sick horse to a show, and it ended up getting 2nd. And they didn't make them go home, that horse had a horrible cough, dull buggar eyes, dull coat, everything of a sick horse. And it competed in Showmanship, English Pleasure/Equitation and Western Pleasure/Horsemanship.
my trainer was at a local show with a bunch of students, and the main ring (a very large grande prix sized ring) was sectioned off into smaller dressage rings and warmups using white rope tied to posts. a horse got loose during one of the test after a fall, and began wildly galloping about. unable to see the white nylon ropes, the horse became tangled in the ropes and continued to gallop around the stadium, catching other people and horses in the tangle as he ran. as a result of this, four horses needed to be put down and seven people were sent to hospital with critical injuries. one of my trainer's students was caught up in the mess and had her ankle broken when she was dragged by the rope. since then, it's been customary to steer clear of using rope as fencing at the shows, as the horses can't see it!
I have a couple, mostly with draft horses because that's what I helped show.
One four in hand of belgians broke sort of loose (took part of the wagon too) and ran threw the fair grounds, a little girl was seriously bruised and a broken leg when she got slammed into.
Watched an unruly six in hand of percherons (first time for most of them) being drove through busy fair grounds without anyone other than the driver.
A percheron stallion tie stalled next to a mare in heat and he wasn't happy about it to say the least.
A six in hand haflingers, owned by two different owners the rear two where not the drivers team. The driver wanted to use his wagon and the not even a lap around the front wheels fell off the wagon and it caught the back two haflingers hind legs doing a lot of damage. One was so scared of being hitched for a year.
We got to a show with the drafts when the light horses were leaving. A little girl's pony didn't do well in barrels to her father (think 200 pounds) got on this tiny, wiry pony (maybe 400 pounds) and kicked the pony until it would move. It wasn't pretty.
Well I was at a fun show not like what I usually show (which is gold shows) So I was doing the 3' jumping course and I was waiting for my class to start so I watched the two foot class. I around 15 year old girl I had seen doing barrel racing/pole bending went in with a horse that was strictly western. She went over the first jump and you could tell she didn't know anything. So the second jump came and she leaned so far forward she was almost touching her horses ears. So she fell on the jump and her parents took her to the hospital because she had hurt her arm. I was a really dumb mistake...
A couple of years ago I was at Dressage at Lexington grooming for a friend who was showing. We had some time in the middle of one of the days and decided to wander over the the coliseum to watch some of the in-hand classes. I believe it was during a two year old class that a filly was brought into the ring acting a little nutty. It wasn't exceptionally unusual as a lot of the babies tend to be pretty up (Especially in the coliseum. It's a scary place for a horse). The unusual part was that after she was taken out of the arena and back into the warm-up area, she came galloping back into the arena sans-handler. Apparently her handler had let the lead rope get too long and she bucked, catching him in the face. She tore off half his face and knocked him unconscious. Needless to say, he was taken away in an ambulance VERY quickly.
I have a few other stories but mostly they're just about idiots riding poorly and causing havoc in warm-up arenas. I do, however, have a rather amusing story from a steeple chase.
I go to the Radnor Hunt Races every year as it is held up the street from where I ride. Last year, during the first race of the day, out of a field of 13 horses, only two of them actually finished the race with a jockey on their back. Every single other jockey had fallen off (as far as I know, all were okay). One of the jockeys actually fell off over the first fence, and his horse continued the entire race (all three laps) jumping every jump without him. It was one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen.
We were at a Lil Britches Rodeo one year, and a pony didn't win the barrel racing class. The kids mother came into the arena with a big whip, and beat that poor little pony from one end of the arena to the other. It was horrible, and no one did a thing to stop her. I was told she was some sort of "leader", and behaved this way at every show. This was in the days before cell phones. i went to the pay phone and called the police.
Then when I was younger and riding in playdays, there was a man who had two daughters who were contestants. While they were in the arena competing, he was screaming and cussing at them and their horses, yelling things like "get that SOB around that gd barrel" I mean, this man was LOUD, and acted like a deranged lunatic. i felt so badly for his daughters, and his horses. Both girls turned out very badly, with sad, unhappy lives.
I don't compete much but love going to watch the shows. A few interesting things I've seen were
1. Friend of a friend on her luckily very calm and cruisy gelding riding at a canter leaning forward as far as she could holding the reins almost below where they meet the bit. Someone had told her this was how you taught a horse to collect!
2. Lovely young warmbloods first time in an indoor arena. He spooked at something and did an almost perfect capriole. His rider didn't budge and received a round of applause.
3. A friend and I were watching a local cross country event and had stopped to watch the water jump. A lady was standing next to us filming bits and pieces. After about 15mins a girl who would have been around 12 came up to the jump on a nice looking TB who put in a very dirty refusal. Girl went flying over his head, landed heavily and didn't get up. The woman next to us asked if that meant she was DQ'd. When we said yes she snapped the video camera shut and said "Well, we can't use this to sell him then!" and stormed off. The girl was her daughter!!! Lucky she was OK just slightly concussed but I couldn't get over her mothers lack of concern.
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