Plastic bags are cleared by ring crew if and whenever possible. So that’s a moot point. Does it happen? Yes, but it’s something where they will hold up a round to clear the ring if something blows in or near the ring.
Shakey tails and harness/carriage horses are always a cause for pause.
Lastly, I had a trainer that would have us march out to our home arena with umbrellas in the sunshine and stand at the ringside bc undoubtably someone would do it at Devon every year when it rained. We’d be instructed to sometimes even open and shut them.
That being said, the sport has become increasingly more expensive and I’ll be honest… if I’m dropping $500+ on entries to a derby, I want the best possible shot at ribbons. If that means that an announcer kindly asks for silence or quiet, then so be it.
We were at a dressage show that had a backyard chicken coop next to the main arena. Many horses freaked when the chickens started running around or flapping wings and cackling. I think it’s why I won my class 
my horse didn’t care about them.
I’m getting up there in years, having done my hunter/jumper showing back in the 70’s on the West Coast. Most of the shows back then were multi-division shows, including driving, gated, and stock horses. One show in particular had classes for WORKING stock horses, complete with cows invading the show grounds. Some horses weren’t too keen, but mine didn’t mind. Then, there was Monterey, where the airport flight pattern flew directly over the showgrounds. This is also true at Royal WIndsor, where Heathrow traffic flys all day, at rather low levels, over the grounds. I fly to the UK for this show every year, and I’ve yet to see horses or riders disturbed.
I’m of so many minds about this. I love the big cheers and whoops. I do know it’s part and parcel of horse showing, and also part of the test in terms of manners and suitability.
However, I also think there’s nothing wrong with broadly reminding spectators, some of whom won’t be educated horse-wise at all, to consider the unpredictable nature of the animals around them. You could say it’s not just a matter of not affecting an in-ring performance but safety overall.
I remember as a kid seeing a Grand Prix in New England, most likely in the late 80s (Attitash?), and there being announcements asking spectators to be mindful when horses were on course. For some reason, it sticks in my mind that we were also asked to remain seated when a horse was on course and/or instructed regarding cheering.
I could be misremembering this, however.
A door was opened with Pony Finals and I hope that continues the discussion – I know it’s delicate needle to thread, editorially speaking, considering a junior is involved.
Someone suggests upthread that AS and Lafitte’s high score in the mix was the judge exercising discretion. I’m on board with that.
I like to think that discretion includes giving a little leeway in the score for something happening that is farther out of the ordinary.
We’re watching the Saddlebreds at WCHS this week in Louisville (pro-tip friends - each day’s livestream is free the day after, though I usually pony up for PPV on stake night).
You want to talk about a whole other environment where the roar of the crowd is actively encouraged!
I hope all of you commenting have ridden a hunter who knows when it has finished a good round. I repeat… they know when they’re done, they know when they are good. I have been fortunate to ride and have many great ones during my lifetime of riding. This is how the great ones are. They know.
There is no doubt in my mind that LaFitte felt his riders joy and relief after that last fence. He felt it too. He is a horse. The crowd noise got to him.
As I said earlier, hats off to the judge panel who let him have the high score he deserved. That sort of thing should be within the judge’s discretion.
These are hunters at a big derby final. This is not their usual job plus add in the rain delay.
I think it could have gone either way regarding the scores. The judges on that panel might have looked down immediately to mark their cards and missed it, or they might have seen it and decided not to penalize the horse after such a great trip.
I can also see both sides of them deliberately giving a high score in spite of the horse’s reaction. One observer might think they were correct in overlooking the spook/scoot under the circumstances, and another person might think that choice by the judges was “all political” or what have you.
If the horse had still won the class even after that bobble, I’m sure there would be plenty of people criticizing that result.
I really don’t think so. If the judges had let him have the win he deserved, I think the others would have been sportsman enough to think, “there but for the grace…”. Who wants to win by default when the winner is that clear.
Dont recall anybody saying the announcers should not remind the crowds to hold applause until after the round….of course they should. But turning big events into enforced quiet zones and granting rerides and/or ignoring disobedience is not going to help the image of the boring, political Hunter ring.
My money is on that horse being over the whole thing with all the get ready, stand around, go back to stall and hang around all braided up for 3-4 hours through a violent storm with damaging winds then go back out to do a demanding course. No wonder he had enough and blew. I would. Horses…
A side issue I noticed was the six judge panel was all old men. (I’m old and they are all older than me.) Three of whom just judged Devon. I’m not saying they are bad judges, I’m saying in a sport dominated by women, with a plethora of fine women judges to choose from, why are there so few women judges at these high profile events?
You can have that opinion.
However, he swapped leads and spooked while still being judged, not as he left the gate. According to rule HU124, "The following faults are scored according to the judge’s opinion and depending on the severity or division, may be considered minor or major faults" . Spooking is d (following rubbing a jump, swapping leads in a line, late lead change).
So to me, kudos to the 2 judges who felt otherwise. We complain that judges care about who is on top, who is at the gate and who the trainer is. If it was a lovely trip done by a Susie Q, and a judge ignored it and gave her a 95 and Susie beat Well Know Rider, everyone would be up in arms.
This is the kind of thing we need to talk about more in relation to “let the hunters show some life”. The long and short is, manners play a large part of hunter scoring. And while some light porpoising might be acceptable, a scoot/buck/fart with a faultable swap is arguably ill-mannered, even if done in exuberance. So while the whole circumstance pains me, I do agree with Pennywell here.
Point being, we can’t just arm the pitchforks and demand that judges allow hunters to show a bit more brightness (as social media has a tendency to do) without actually defining what is acceptable exuberance and what is ill-mannered/threatening a rider’s security… and technically, that rider is also, theoretically, negotiating the dangers of uneven terrain. Hence the desire that your horse not suddenly kick up his hind end right after catching a toe on his front end.
But so much of hunter scoring is undefined and all about the feels, and that just leaves tons of gray area. Which leads to misunderstandings, confused parents, and the whole bevy of unsubstantiated accusations, from “politics” to “breed bias”.
