Along the lines of hindsight being 20-20...Handling the crowds (Upstage and Antigua)?

[yellowbritches]

It wasn’t just American horses that came un-done in the electric atmosphere. In fact, Upstage and Antigua were far from the worst, and there were plenty of horses of various warmblood breeding that faired much worse, meaning that it isn’t “another strike against the good, ol’ fashioned, hot-headed TB.”

The fact of the matter is that no matter how many times you travel to Europe, you absolutely CAN NOT reproduce the atmosphere of a World Championship or an Olympic game. You might think your horse is broke, broke, broke but it can be a heart stopping, overwhelming experience going into an arena like that, and all your “brokeness” might just go out the window (a example on our level would be taking your well behaved youngster to its first show and having it lose its marbles. It’s hard to really know what it is going to do until it gets there and it may take a couple of times in that atmosphere to get the hang of it). It is ALOT of atmosphere. Yeah, some horses will step in the ring and be old pros from the beginning. Some will even relish energy. But no matter how many of the BIG events you go to, you won’t know what you’ll have until at a really, really BIG event until you go in that ring.

Just my thoughts. I’m sorry our team didn’t have a better outing, but I am thrilled for Amy and Poggio.

[pwynnnorman]

Just like humans, huh, yellowbritches? You never know how you’ll react to some rare situations.

We need to take some lessons from the reining crowd maybe…

Maybe yes, maybe no. While not all reiners are Quarter Horses, I’ve been amazed by how quiet and accepting some AQHA’s are, even from birth. ’

Still, we could sort of “americanize” dressage by stomping and hooting a bit, like during the extended trots or canters.

[InVA]

[QUOTE=bounce;1843292]
Not to cause trouble or anything… but isn’t that what the Parelli Stuff is suppose to do? Haven’t Karen and David been advocating that method for years now? If so, then shouldn’t Upstage be “de-sensitized” already?[/QUOTE]

Excellent point, Bounce. But it seems that both Brad and Woody just had a ‘bad day’

Lots of people had trouble - very surprising.

[bridlewise]

Actually the atmosphere at Aachen for eventing dressage was less electric than at Kentucky. There is just something about the arena at Lexington that sends the horses into a mental headspin. Also, at Aachen, the next horse to enter was able to wait for the applause for the previous horse to die down a bit before they entered the fray. It did make a difference. Woody’s dressage has improved and he was much better than a lot of the horses there, just not good enough to do the level expected. And Karen did a masterful job of getting him around the course. Will, unfortunately, had a lapse of thought process in the counter canter, to be able to correct and save the next movement. But he did a great job on cross country and we are one of the few countries that finished all of it’s riders.