In dressage warmup there was one girl who kept almost running into me, then saying “sorry…”, but didn’t change her riding to prevent it happening again! I wonder if it was the same person?? I kept moving to different parts of the warm up to avoid her, but felt like she was following me!
Mi think SJ warmup had chaos increased by being ahead of schedule, then behind. People were not sure when to go up there.
Wow, the fall is terrible - but actually it’s a little surprising it doesn’t happen more. Definitely chaotic. I always dread it and spend as little time in there as possible. I think the early arrivals issue is complicated many times by the jumping running behind schedule and riders coming up with every excuse in the book to try to jump out of order. I’m always amazed when after putting my number in or whatever that many times the volunteer in charge can’t tell me how many riders are ahead of me and who I follow, which makes it impossible to time my warm up and I end up spending way more time in the warm-up area than I’d like. I also am dumbfounded when a trainer comes in resets all the jumps and monopolizes for 15 minutes and then just walks away.
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Yeah I used to run warm up at Poplar when I lived in GA and I was a b*tch (not really I was kind and nice but stuck to my guns, no more than the 5 before the one in the ring), Actually before I started volunteering YOU were the one that mentioned how it should be done. So I did it.
but SO many people thanked me. I kept it SAFE and SANE. And a few tried the but but but, and I didn’t listen and kept it to the 5 before their round.
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WU volunteers, talking about better stewarding - does it help to have a white board to list who has checked in/ then on the other side of the board the numbers of the 5-6 riders next to go? Would this help riders be more responsible about checking in? And would this save all the people from continually asking ( many ground people from actually peering over your arm or I have had them grab the clipboard) to see where they are in the order? Would this help free up a ring steward to have more ability to be more observant in other matters, run a better ship?
I think restricting the number of riders allowed in the ring would only work if it was a smaller controlled access situation.
My daughter and her horse got badly Tboned at one event. It really made the horse get anxious, come unglued, in the warm ups for over a year. She’s avoided entering that event since then because their w-up ring is too small and so crowded.
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I think the SJ warmup is more chaotic when they start taking people out of order. Then you really have no idea what time to arrive for your warmup, because you might time it perfectly to arrive at 10 for your 10:20 ride time, but arrive to find enough people have gotten there before you to push your time back to 10:42 and you have to hang around an extra 20+ minutes.
While Waredaca’s system works once you know the plan, I think I might have been a victim of line-jumpers in the order there as well (unrecognized, if that makes a difference). I would recommend that Waredaca and anywhere else like that make it known that they only allow X number of people in the warmup at once in advance (in the packet?), so people are prepared and plan accordingly, and there’s not a mob of people standing around the gate waiting to be let in.
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Gaaaaah. That’s its own special annoyance even apart from what it does to warmup.
The whole point of ride times (well, one of them, and a big draw for me) is that it’s all predictable and I don’t need a coach or somebody else on the ground just to manage the interactions with event staff.
FWIW, I’m mostly used to unfenced warmups, usually with some kind of seating or marked-off area to one side with a “the people go here” implication. I think it does reduce the mayhem. A few weeks ago I was in a warmup with someone with poor directional control and the ability to just head for the hills saved us from an awkward moment or worse.
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Phoenix, very cool!
The problem with unfenced areas is you have NO control over who comes in or how many. Then you don’t have any idea where you are vis a vis the order of go or riders left in the division (a big deal if you are sticking to a time table and coming up on a course switchover).
I know we try and stick to the order of go as much as possible, but we do have riders with multiple rides in a division (in some cases, stacking them works better - if you let them go ride xc and come back for horse two you may be sunk time wise), and of course you always have someone with a flat tire or a missing shoe to accommodate…
i think the more info on a whiteboard the better.
our unrecognized horse trials are always more chaotic -lots more riders new to eventing or very anxious. I doubt anyone reads the packet but we could do a big sign at the entrance to warmup…
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Mr. A’s warmups are the best. It is organized and no-nonsense.
Seems like he is on to something that maybe other events could emulate.
Perhaps the idea of getting warm up times might be helpful to reduce the overcrowding issue. But implementing that results in more work for the organizers I suppose. I do like the idea of having a window that competitors are allowed to use the warm up ring in.
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My personal favorite is when a certain BNT starts jumping everything on a severe angle without calling the jump, thus not only can you not guess which jump, you can’t tell what’s going to happen on landing.
doing that in the Advanced XC warm up is one thing. Doing it in the Novice show jumping warm up is just ridiculous.
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I almost smacked into a girl last weekend because I was cantering on the rail (passing left to left) and she was walking - also on the rail and too busy staring at her hands to notice what other people were doing. Luckily, my mare has a lovely canter to halt transition and I ended up stopping about a foot in front of her. Then she noticed me. Crowded dressage warm ups are frustrating. I like to have my horses schooled where I only have to take two or three fences in SJ warm up and one fence in XC warm up before I go out so dealing with people there is minimal.
Also witnessed a rider who had absolutely no control over her horse in SJ warm up careen around and almost run into MULTIPLE people. At some point, you just have to go in the ring or call it quits for the day…
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All good, my ribs are still a little sore. The Beast is OK, he hightailed back to his buddy, running on the KHP asphalt without apparent injury there, or to his right hind when he kicked the rail. Surprised he didn’t throw his back out launching me into orbit. Amazing power. In any event, it was fortuitous in that as I lay there the paramedics found out I was a doc and asked me to go see another rider who had come off walking back to her trailer. She was actually not in great shape, so she went to the hospital pronto and got her injuries treated and was discharged later that night. It put a hold on the show and the warmup got even MORE crowded. Oy Vey! We hadn’t planned to go XC because the ground was a bit too hard for our boys, so all good. I don’t think the rider who squeezed me into the rail had a clue.
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I think she mentioned that to me in the past, very, very scary. We’re done with shows for the fall, maybe we’ll see you at a clinic or schooling sometime? I like the idea of a Mr Asterix and having a restricted number of riders and people just kind of hanging out in the warmup.
There are some truly outstanding stewards out there who make the horse trials a better day for everyone. But unfortunately there are far too many who … well, aren’t. But I don’t necessarily blame the stewards. It’s the organizers and volunteer coordinators who are accountable to make sure that the right people have the information and whatever else it is they need, and some aren’t doing that.
Warm-up stewards need to have a clear, written set of expectations. Warm-up stewards need to be trained to do the job - and that’s not hard and doesn’t take long. Too many are not and are either new at it, or have failed to learn through experience, or just don’t understand what their role should be. A few don’t care.
And, stewards need to be selected for their ability to do those things. It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
So much of what I read above is inexcusable, but it has to go back not to the steward, but to the organizer and volunteer coordinator who are not properly managing the job of warm-up steward. The steward doesn’t always have what they need, re information or coaching.
The steward’s job includes the ride order, whether that is number order or some other order. Because that is their job to order it. (I know some warm-up’s use a white board for this, but it has to be kept up and it has to be readable and those two things aren’t always the case.)
The steward should be communicating ongoing delays to the announcer. Not delays that are going to be made up in the next 30 minutes to an hour, but if the whole division will be running a standard 20-30 minutes behind then that should be shared. Then it is the announcer’s job to make sure the grounds are informed. That will reduce a great deal of riders idling around waiting to start their real warm-up, while those closer to go-time are careening around trying to gallop around them.
If someone is jumping the fence backwards or riding dangerously, not calling jumps, cutting off other riders, or just in the ring when they should not be, it’s the steward’s job to have a word with them. With the rider, not the snotty trainer who is not going to pass that on because the trainer is the one who told them to do it in the first place.
As a steward, I’ve never been in a situation when I could not tell each and every rider who the five to go in front of them were, in order. And what delay they might expect, and a pretty fair estimate of just when they will be called to the start box. If we’re going in number order and one rider is a scratch, I make sure the five to go behind that number know it.
All the same for dressage and show jumping. Too often when I’ve been the rider, the dressage warm-up steward is absolutely clueless and a hindrance to a good performance. Again I can’t really blame the steward because it is the organizer and volunteer coordinator who have done so little to prepare the steward and help them do a good job.
I wonder if organizers realize that warm-up stewards are the front line. It’s honestly not rocket science, but it does take common sense and diligence. Sometimes that’s missing, but not always the fault of a steward who has been handed a clipboard and a pencil and told the mark riders off as they go in. If that. Some don’t even know what the radio is for or when and how to use it.
God bless horse trials that run on time !!! 
Training for stewards: here it is, available to all …
This video shows resetting the jumps, among a lot of other things, covered in 4 1/2 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcm9…ature=youtu.be
Written instructions
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1…HIo01NkGs/edit
Pine Hill, Texas has a video for every volunteer job, including warm-up steward for all three disciplines. They could be used for any horse trial.
https://sites.google.com/view/pinehi…ideos-dressage
These videos are available to anyone. It’s already been done for the organizers and volunteer coordinators. All they have to do is implement it.
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I certainly appreciate collecting all the advice and tips. My daughter and I are very active in our local association with volunteer recruitment and are very concerned about volunteer education BECAUSE, riders!!, THEIR JOB IS YOUR SCORE! So you want educated help right, likewise, we the workers appreciate educated riders bc it makes our jobs run smoother and then we’re not left feeling frustrated volunteering our time for YOUR FUN all day.
It takes a certain kind of personality to do the warm-up positions. But as good as the person is it can be hampered by the event’s time crunches and physical facility constraints. If stadium immediately follows dressage in some divisons there will be some out of order goes. Also that BNT that has 6 rides that day, and the ‘special requests’ from the trainers on the ground in the w-ups so that ‘they’ can run their day… And on top of that to be able to police the fence heights and patrol the people hanging that area -and- the rail slobs that don’t mind their manners …
Maybe riders should have to sign a pledge to enter HTs??? Maybe they should have to pass a test that they’ve read the rules, learned the protocols.
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my son was once at a dressage show, doing his best to stay out of the other riders way. except one girl repeatedly managed to be in the exact same place as he was, and he had to pull up sharply several times, and was getting dirty looks from the rider’s trainer. ring steward finally says to me ‘I wonder where her arm band is?’ me: ‘arm band?’ steward: ‘oh yes, she’s legally blind and normally wears an arm band.’ ya think it might have been prudent to mention that before my son and 5 or 6 other junior riders joined her in the warm up ring??? grrr… 3 years later, and it still pisses me off…
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:lol: That’s a great idea! :winkgrin:
Trainers should sign one, too, with extra clauses for deportment in the warm-up ring. In my experience, some portion of the problems are due to the direction that trainers are giving to riders (or not giving). Some of the trainers are excellent examples of intelligent planning, consideration and cooperation. With the other trainers and riders, as well as the stewards. Others - aren’t.
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I frequently do SJ in-gate or warm-up at my local event. Or in one glorious case, both jobs at once due to volunteer shortage. Our organizers do a great job with ride times and we’re generally able to run basically in order and on-time. The white board is our best friend, and we use it to reinforce the expectation of running in order by writing the numbers on it before people even arrive in warm-up. We can quickly check them off as they arrive and give the number of rides out when someone asks. Managed well, I find it to be a labor-saver. Keeping it from blowing down is a whole different topic…
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I think a lot of the problem is that more and more these days we have trainers giving competitors full blown riding lessons in the warm up. Then, instead of just jumping a few fences and then heading in to jump their course, the lesson recipients are more focused on what the trainer is saying than paying attention to what others are doing … and some seem to think that because their trainer told them to jump a given fence that they automatically have the right of way over everyone else.
I also find it incredibly annoying when I’m just trying jump a few fences and every time I start to turn toward one of them someone’s trainer starts changing the height yet AGAIN.
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I very much agree with this. I suspect that the trainer knows that the rider has not had enough lessons and schooling for the questions on the day and is trying to make up for the gaps, just before the ride. Not the way eventing is supposed to be approached.
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So, in addition to good management by the steward, riders should know the rules. You cannot change the height more than a hole above the level or monkey too much with the ground line. A good steward will catch this but you should feel free to call out trainers who do this. If they lower it then you are stuck with appealing to common courtesy or the steward.
