Don't you just hate that!

I was at an IHSA show a couple weeks ago. I had a really good ride the day before, so I was confident going into my class. When we were in the line up the judge walked up to me and said. "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" He proceeded to tell me that I would have won the class if I hadn't missed my lead the second way of the ring and never corrected it. WOOPS!
I couldn't even tell that horse was on the wrong lead. I'll definitely be double checking my leads from now on!

Have any of you guys blown a class on simple mistake? Share your stories!

hahaha i got to confident and i guess my horse felt it, because he NEVER does anything like this... he decided to just ignore me and leave the ring!!! haha i was like: ummmm thanks.... but we finished our test, but sadly were dicqualified.

haha at my very first horsshow...i was about 7 or 8 i was riding an old schoolhorse named dusty.....well, we were doing hunters and at the VERY LAST JUMP he decided he needed to pee, oh well thanks dusty, haha he stopped (ignoring my kicking to go on) and went pee,then he crashed through the whole fence, haha he took down EVERY SINGLE POLE in that fence. it was pretty embarassing!!

I accidentally ran the barrel pattern wrong! I didn't cross them. a ran left,right, thenthe right of the top barrel, instead of the left. :)

I got cut off by the person in front of me and had to break. No big deal. But then I noticed three or four people trotting, so I assumed I'd missed the "trot please, all trot". Nope, it was just one person trotting and everyone else following the leader. *oops* I'll never make that mistake again!

UGH! that stinks! A few shows ago I went into the ring with a project and jumped the best freakin 8 jumps we've ever jumped in our lives, finished with a beautiful closing circle... and then was told there were 9 jumps in the course. AAAURGGGHH!

I remember going over my showmanship pattern heaps about a year ago, and practicing and trying to remember.
So, I was about 4th to go and the first 3 didn't even halt at a certain cone. So smart little me went in, halted at the cone and jogged off.
But as soon as I jogged off, I heard the judge mutter, 'no inspection miss?'.
I was so embarrassed because I worked so hard.

Oooh you guys, that must have sucked. I havent had a thing like that, but my friend Jess Lee has. At an SPCA show last November, she was taking our schoolmaster Bishop in the 60cm class. She went in, and jumped BEAUTIFULLY... only to be disqualified for going before the buzzer! I felt so bad for her!!

I was doing an under saddle hunter class on a mare that won every under saddle class - very hunter type with good forward movement and she was super easy to ride. We were in about a 100x250 ring with jumps set up (minus the ones on the outside rail) and they crammed the entire class of 40 horses in there. We were cantering around and I was riding quite defensively to keep riders away (I wish I would have brought red ribbon!). Until the judge looks over and a girl swerves in front of us and my mare breaks to keep from running up this other horse's ass. I was soooo mad. This is the same girl who was going into the ring and then smacked her horse un-necessarily and it went flying backwards right into the mare I'm riding who was a good 20 feet away from the entrance and off to the side.
That cow lost me a championship because the judge then couldn't place the horse in the U/S, and we had been 1st or 2nd in all our over fences classes in the division.

Another time I was riding FEI Jr/Yr on a seasoned horse. It was my first time in front of an "O" judge (olympic level) and so I was a little nervous. The individual and team tests at that time had similar canter tours. So I'm going around in my team test, and instead of doing a simple change from left to right, I accidentally stay on the left lead, and consequently miss a flying change. *oops* That was also my first 0 on a test! Anyways we still ended up winning the class (I have no idea how that happened) and got a comment on the bottom saying "best test of my day, thank you". It was sweet haha.

I have lots of screw ups :P It happens when you show for a long time, and you just learn to take them in stride.

My worst was probably at the Spring Dressage Champs earlier in the year. I had placed quite highly the day before in both my YR tests, and the Sunday I was riding open. I got into the arena for my novice, and she felt just amazing, the warmup had been terrible but she just changed and really shone through this test, I was sure I had it in the bag against a large field. Almost to the end, beautifull lengthened trot aross the short diagonal, come around to A to go up the centre line, I asn't paying attention as I was so happy with how she'd gone and was just so excited, that she saw the oppertunity and took it... jumped out of the arena!! I ws devastated! The judges were still kind enough to give me my marked papers back, and work out my percentage... I would have been 4th in an open class full of stallions and some of the top riders in the state!! But it's ok... in my eyes I still placed there.... we just exited a little early :S

I was at a pretty big show this summer, and I was really nervous because my warm up had gone terribly. During the actual show, I was so proud of my pony because he was being perfect! But.. woops. Forgot to check my diagnol. Didn't even place. ;D