I didn’t take it that you are blaming me. I found it odd he fully warmed up his student 30+ minutes before he needed to, didn’t ask the experienced warm-up person before hand, didn’t check with organizers. He just assumed that he could bully me into letting his student go early. “But he will need to warm up again”. He has been doing this long enough that he could have done it correctly through the channels and not tried to bully a volunteer.
Trust me, I get conflicts. He is the pro, look and see your conflicts, deal with management. Don’t assume you can bully a volunteer. I think his motto that day was “It is easier to beg forgiveness, rather than ask permission.” He really was not happy I said NO
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I have shared the warm up ring with Boyd on a couple of occasions, all while competing at . . . the low levels. We interacted once a couple of years ago. I was in a quite crowded dressage warm up ring, in the pouring rain, struggling with my dear lease horse (who did not love dressage). My trainer was at the fence and I was trying to stay on a circle near her to avoid the crowd. One other rider (Boyd) came over and started sharing our space, but in a very considerate way (like, we’re all going to try to get ready over here outside the fray, not at all like, get out of the way). The announcer called out that someone had left a purple rainsheet somewhere that needed to be claimed. My trainer started joking with me that I should go grab it (I love purple), and Boyd joined in, joking about getting a freebie.
Everyone has bad days (and good days), but I came away from the experience thinking that he had behaved in a courteous and gracious way.
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