It means the horse does not like oncoming traffic.
Sometimes you’ll see a horse with red in both the forelock and the tail. I guess that horse just wants to be in his own private ring. Lol.
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The other sign is when the alligators start to get braver. Then it’s time to call the shipper and go home.
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Thanks! Sometimes I wonder if people (not at this show, just in general) put those red ribbons in just to get people to back off whether the horse has an issue with it or not. 
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Definitely time to go home! I remember as a spectator back in the '90s watching the alligators on the side like this. There would be a horse and rider walking past, and the gator would just casually go back in the water (sometimes!). No thanks.
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Yeah, I put a red ribbon in my mare’s forelock because she won’t kick or anything but will freak out if a horse gets too close
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That’s legit!
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It’s almost worse when they go back in the water if they do it with a big splash, because sometimes that will spook the horse more than if the gator just sits there.
You can just see at the top of the picture the sandy part at the far end of the pond, which is where the gator would hang out all winter. But when he started to feel confident enough to come closer, it was time to pack up and head north. Lol.
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I’m with ya!! 
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This year, I was victimized by a heron hunting along the canal who thought that oncoming horse traffic was the perfect time to take flight. Let’s just say that was a long, humbling hand-walk back to the barn. 
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At least the heron was probably unlikely to try to eat you for lunch. Unlike the alligators.
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Mine is like that. If the other horse is doing anything other than walking, he just falls apart. But then he was run over in the warm up ring. . . …
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Probably stayed in the CEM quarantine in FEI and then flew back. Sometimes the stallions even fly over to US for the 2 day quarantine and fly back to Europe. If the only temporary stay in Europe for 60 days or less, they are still considered “American” or imported horses and don’t need to complete the CEM quarantine again. This is as long as they are not actively breeding and papers get signed at every show venue the horse travels to.
But it’s often away around the costly CEM quarantine and time consuming that leaves them unable to compete for the duration. Some of the stallions don’t even know how to live cover and almost have had to go back to Europe- I believe this was the case with Tripple XXX in the beginning of his travel days
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Right, and a lot of folks insist that theirs are never the same after CEM quarantine so it’s understandable to try to avoid it.
