I spent an hour cry/riding today and now I'm just really embarassed

[ladyj79]

@Impractical Horsewoman

I hate to say it, but there was one barn with one particular rider who made things very, very difficult not just for me but for everyone and what irked me the most wasn’t her skills (because God knows, I’m not the greatest rider myself) but the fact that she just didn’t seem to care that she was making other riders come to a screeching halt when they were working, and she’d get defensive if asked to be more aware of her surroundings rather than try to change.

I was too, but it was an fei rider. Like not a real fei rider, but a US pro dressage fei level rider, who was fairly certain that everyone was in his way, and he neither had to say where he was going and what he was doing, but also he had to sigh dramatically and stop…thus creating yet another problem for everyone else. Also he was like 12. Ok, maybe 25?

It’s funny since I left that job to go work with actual fei show riders in europe, where I regularly schooled horses in busy warm up rings with top riders, and almost without exception everyone was very gracious and cooperative. The ones who weren’t were usually the spoiled late teens early 20 year olds, and nobody paid them any attention.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

@ladyj79

I was too, but it was an fei rider. Like not a real fei rider, but a US pro dressage fei level rider, who was fairly certain that everyone was in his way, and he neither had to say where he was going and what he was doing, but also he had to sigh dramatically and stop…thus creating yet another problem for everyone else. Also he was like 12. Ok, maybe 25?

It’s funny since I left that job to go work with actual fei show riders in europe, where I regularly schooled horses in busy warm up rings with top riders, and almost without exception everyone was very gracious and cooperative. The ones who weren’t were usually the spoiled late teens early 20 year olds, and nobody paid them any attention.

This 100%. I am fully willing to admit that I am NOT that skilled, but it’s truly amazing how much high quality work very skilled riders can get done in crowded, very small warm-up rings and still have a great ride. Unless you’re in a competition, especially for just one ride, sometimes you have to adapt to what’s going on. I mean, that’s usually why the warm-up ring at a show before the pony classes and beginner classes are so terrifying, because everyone is just “doing what their trainer told them to do” and not riding with any acknowledgement of how other people (and other people’s horses) are behaving.