Spinoff - Crazy Things That Have Happened To You In The Show Ring

[MysticOakRanch]

[QUOTE=carolprudm;8639054]

A few years later, same mare, minding our one business in the warmup at Foxcroft we were mounted by a warmblood stallion with professional rider.[/QUOTE]

I think this is the worst. It just scares me thinking about! I’ve SEEN stallions mount mares - there is nothing gentle or safe about it!

And perhaps the Appy with the geranium pot hanging out of his mouth wins the prize for the funniest! Although the flock of sheep is a close second:D

BTW - for anyone who hasn’t done a lot of showing - don’t let this freak you out - most of the time, the shows are uneventful and fun:lol:

[Rnichols]

Not sure if this is really “crazy”, or just super naughty. But at my first three day event, my horse and I were trotting down the center line. Went to make the right turn and he thought it would be a lovely idea to just pop his left shoulder and trot right on out of the arena!

FYI - if your horse does this … do NOT, I repeat DO NOT, jump back into the arena. The judge WILL yell at you. (Ask me how I know )

[Manni01]

Not sure whether it was a big moment, but 2 years ago I showed my then 5 year old mare in a 1st level test at a little schooling show in Germany. This schooling show is kind of famous, because the main attraction is a hog grilled on a spear over an open fire. And this takes place at the short side of the arena. Well once in a while they turn the spear and pour liquid (dont know whether its water or beer or some other secret receipe) over the whole thing and you can imagine then there is a lot of steam…

Well I proceeded from the warm up ring to to the arena and although my horse was a little bit looking around nothing to worry about. I rode around the ring and went down the centerline. We started our test and everything went according to plan. Nothing amazing but we kind of went through it smoothly. I started to relax and then the walk through the diagonal came. We walked and suddenly my horse stopped dead and started to back up very fast… I was only focussed on my horse, which was probably a mistake and was really taken by suprise. But she was nice and reacted to my aids to go forward. We finished the test and when I left the ring my hubby told me that when I did the diagonal walking they poured the liquid over the hog and there was a huge steam cloud
I think after all my horse handled the situation great, I mean do you expect to see huge steam clouds while you walk??? In Germany you get things like this all the time, There was another show which was famous because there was a stall full of hogs besides the ring. So you and your horse had to deal with smell and interesting noises… Some horses dont like it at all… And many years ago there was a nice show where the ring was right besides a privat back yard. And that family set up a huge party every year for the show. They had a heck of a time watching and I think also a heck of a time when the horses went crazy about their party… It kind of trained you for about everything…

[atr]

Ha, Manni! Yes, the steam would be startling. (Says she whose horse was trotting nicely down the long side of the arena last night and suddenly started to go backwards at the sight of a steaming pile of fresh horse poop!)

In front of Jeff Moore, doing something like training 3 I think a good few years ago, we turned across the diagonal for the free walk and my horse must have thought he was finished, as he stopped, groaned, sighed dramatically and pooped, at length. Once finished he was persuaded to restart the free walk. It was an after lunch test on a hot July afternoon. We got a 7 for that free walk and no comment about the impromptu break… I can only assume the judge just blanked it.

[atr]

Oh, and not an in the ring one, but a notable “Appy at a show” experience…

I have a big, colorful leopard app. He tends to stand out in a crowd. He has a fairly classic appy personality. If he had opposable thumbs he’d rule the world.

He was tied to the trailer with a haynet as I was inside the trailer changing into my show clothes. A friend of mine was supposed to be keeping an eye on him, because of the opposable thumbs thing.

I’m standing their in the trailer having taken my jeans off when he trots past the window. He’d managed to untie himself and was off in pursuit of entertainment ringside. My friend is blissfully slumbering in the sunshine in the front seat of the truck.

I have no option but to sprint across the showgrounds, trouserless, to retrieve him before he creates his own special brand of havoc.

So yes, they all know me rather well at that particular venue.

[Unfforgettable]

Big goofy Arabian mare, showing training level. The arena is down below a huge steep bank. So happens police training exercises were being conducted at the fairgrounds that weekend also. We trot in, halt at X…and a police helicopter comes swooping down over the bank. Mare giraffes her head and neck straight up and does a lovely walk pirouette, watching it fly overhead, and returns to the halt.

[oldernewbie]

Not a dressage show but my first AcTHA trail challenge. Multi use facility with scheduling clearly by non horse people as they scheduled a paint ball tournament near the trail challenge. My horse, who can be, uh, kinda looky, as Arabs tend to be… Was completely OK with the screaming, machine gun like firing, and sirens after about 5 minutes. Although during that first 5 minutes he put on a show on the longe that was National Champion Park Horse worthy :lol:

At dressage shows, well his worst moments related to a pony being ridden by my vets daughter in an Eskimo costume (Halloween show) and the water truck watering a neighboring ring that started gushing out the top in a huge fountain just as we came around a corner. Definite above the bit moment as he tried to figure out WTH that was!

[yaya]

Somebody thought it would be a good idea to pair a dressage show with a Celtic Festival.

Drums and bagpipes.

I’m just saying.

[ewells]

Last year I was fortunate enough to take my 4yr old to Championships at training level excellent experience he was awsome. Our NW Championship class I am the first rider out of like 30+ gotta love beeing first any way its pouring down rain typical PNW weather. The warm up is super sloppy I am totally soaking wet like all the way to my underwear wet but the footing is ok. Because the warm up is in constant use the footing and water are more mixed so not much standing water. My guy is doing great no problem with the wet, is relaxed its all good. Well now its time to go in its still pouring rain and as im the first the actual test arena hasn’t been in use and there is just more rain/water than the normally amazing footing and drainage can handle. Its practically a waiding pool over the entire surface, since its already wet its not actually a deal breaker but there are a LOT of Killdeer (waiding birds) in the arena id say 50 to 100 birds. As I come down centerline they do their running ahead of us with that special little noise they make parting like a wave. My 4yr old seemed to handle the water but the birds were just too much! We actually made it through the whole test and staid on course I definutley wasnt using any of the corners and the canter was BIG to say the least he got pretty amped but didn’t loose it the birds were moving away from us and screeching the whole test but didnt actually vacate the arena. We were not relaxed by any streatch of the imagination. Judge was sympathetic and mentioned the birds in her comments and verbally said to me at the end well you could see he has a lot of potential better luck next time :).

[KathinPA]

I love these stories! I can see them all – from the birds to the trouserless rider in pursuit of the Appy! Thanks for the smiles!

[atlatl]

[QUOTE=yaya;8643062]
Somebody thought it would be a good idea to pair a dressage show with a Celtic Festival.

Drums and bagpipes.

I’m just saying.[/QUOTE]

I hear you. Someone out here thought pairing a mud run on the cross country course with a dressage show was a good idea. That probably would have been OK if not for the placing of the giant inflatable bounce house next to the dressage warm up!

[rideastar]

didn’t happen in the dressage ring but in the warm-up, right before my test. I was the last person to ride before the break, I saw the arena maintenance people pulling out a fire hose, to water the warm-up area, but I figured they would wait until I left the warm-up. NO… my horse and I both nearly had heart attacks when they turned on the firehose…not a fun day.

[Pipkin]

Hah we’ve never had anything too exciting - once riding in a gale and the roof of the judge’s shed flew off…

Also had a loon of a judge stop the test because a spectator’s legs were distracting her??? It was unaffiliated or I would have formally complained!!

[Donkaloosa]

How about a night show in a beautiful ring, with carnival rides adjacent to the ring? My horse was sure he was about to be attacked my the Scrambler/Merry Mixer with those flashing light covered arms, screaming people, and loud motor noises! He exited stage left. I didn’t.

[atlatl]

Just thought of an “oldie but goodie.” I was showing a quarter horse at training level. This guy was steady Eddy and essentially bomb-proof. He also traveled pretty flat so we never scored much above 60%. Our absolute best score was when the tractor came in to drag DURING OUR TEST. That wasn’t such a big deal to him, however, the lady running after the tractor screaming and waving her arms definitely got him to puff up a little.

[HorsesinHaiti]

[QUOTE=Beentheredonethat;8638634]
Mystic–You remember this. You saw it. Championships, 1st level futurity class. I was riding my young horse at the time. As we enter, it is not raining. As we circle, it starts sprinkling. We enter the ring. It starts raining harder. We keep going. It starts gusting winds. We keep going. Starts POURING. We keep going. Wind starts whipping trailer door open next to the ring, slamming it over and over. We keep going. Starts thundering and lightening. Going. Announcement over test that everyone needs to get inside NOW as there is lightening. Everyone is running inside. Going. Crackling thunder and lightening. Heavy gusts of wind blow over letters, garbrage cans rolling towards arena. Mare spooks, but we keep going. It starts HAILING. We keep going. We came down the centerline with both of our heads tilted sideways because it was raining so hard we were trying to keep the rain our of our ears.

The judges (yes, two) never rung us to stop, so we didn’t. Both of them and the few spectators left gave us a standing ovation, including Mystic. We left the arena at a walk.

It was a huge mess. They cancelled the class and that score didn’t count, and I wasn’t even allowed to see the test or the score.[/QUOTE]

Didn’t a video of this get posted on COTH a few years back?

[Beentheredonethat]

[QUOTE=HorsesinHaiti;8670688]
Didn’t a video of this get posted on COTH a few years back?[/QUOTE]

I think I posted it. It’s pretty crappy as my friend was filming it sideways and basically shouting “oh my god” the whole time over the thunder and pouring rain.

[Rackonteur]

Mine can’t compare with these, it’s more cute than funny.

I was grooming for a friend’s 9-year-old riding a been-there-done-that Quarter Horse who knew a lot more about dressage than the three of us did! This was their second show together, doing Intro A.

Right before their test, an even younger child, say 6 or 7, did a hilarious test on her small pony. The only “rail” enclosing the arena were ground poles, and all the way trotting down the long side the pony was stepping out of the arena, back in the arena, back out of the arena, back into the arena, all the way from M to F.

Then it was the 9-year-old and the QH’s turn. They trotted in, did a nice halt and salute, and proceeded down centerline … and the pony, now being grazed maybe 50 feet away started to neigh.

QH started to answer. So all the way from C to B it was neeiiiggghhhh! from the pony and NEEEIIIIGGGHHHH! from the horse in the arena. You wouldn’t think from C to B was that far, but it was LONG. So they start their trot circle at B, and pony and horse are still neighing at each other, and as he’s heading back towards B, QH breaks into a canter. It’s a lovely, medium canter, and he proceeded to canter right out of the circle, back down the rail to F, turn, and exit the arena at A.

I never did find out if it was the old horse getting fed up with the whole thing, or if the 9-year-old on his back just gave up and wanted to get out of there!

She was down for the B test later on but I don’t remember if she rode it or scratched! But at least nobody was hurt, and she got a round of applause.

[Lord_Helpus]

[QUOTE=rideastar;8648956]
didn’t happen in the dressage ring but in the warm-up, right before my test. I was the last person to ride before the break, I saw the arena maintenance people pulling out a fire hose, to water the warm-up area, but I figured they would wait until I left the warm-up. NO… my horse and I both nearly had heart attacks when they turned on the firehose…not a fun day.[/QUOTE]

Similar thing happened at my young horse’s first show. He was in Ring C and Ring B finished its morning a little early, so the grounds people decided to get a head start watering.

Just as Goober is trotting up the side, the water truck appears and turns on the water and starts to move up the side of Ring B, about 12’ away…

Several people start running towards the truck, waving their arms, trying to make the driver stop. The driver was oblivious, but people running/waving added a whole ‘nother level of fear to the Goobs’ brainwaves.

He finished the test (patpatpat) but I do not think that any hoof touched the ground. He was sort of floating about 6" above it.

The show management was very nice and gave us a ‘do over’ which I appreciated – especially since it was his first show.

Q: for the rest of you — weren’t you given the chance to do your test again, if the problem was something that the show had control over (as in our case because the water truck drivers were specifically told to water only when all rings were on lunch break)?

We went back that night to hand walk Goober around the rings, to show him that all was not terrifying (we had 2 more days of showing). Everything was going well when, lo and behold, at 6pm, a water truck came driving straight at us.

[Sweetums_Mom]

Many years ago, I was showing my friend’s horse in the jumpers (Child/Adult jumper 3’6"). This was an A rated show at the KY horse park. The mare I rode had a very unconventional jumping style and she basically over jumped everything by a foot while having a loose front end.

We went into a class the first day in a secondary ring that just so happened to border the area where they were sheep being herded by dogs (either demonstration or competition, I don’t remember). Well, the first jump was facing the area where the sheep were and she slammed on the brakes. I was “excused” because of “excessive punishment”…2-3 smacks with a bat. I never realized there was a rule like this.

My trainer who was new to me thought that I would have a problem with the rest of the show. The next morning, she had me meet her just after dawn in the big show ring that was already set up for the first class. She stayed outside the ring and just told me to start jumping and to not fall off or knock anything down. I finished the various jumps she wanted me to do but I was almost getting jumped off every time and I got very worried.

An official came by and told me that I wasn’t allowed in the ring and when I looked for my trainer, she was driving away in the golf cart…:lol: Well, at breakfast, I couldn’t eat a thing because I kept thinking I would never survive the classes until I found out that the course was set at 4ft for some USEF thing. :eek: The mare must have been jumping 5 ft!

My first class went smoothly but I lost my stirrup in the jump off. I kept going and as I was heading to the last jump (an oxer) and I remember thinking “Oh sh*t…she’s going to jump it big” and I managed to stay on but barely. I made it through the timers but the reins had slipped through my fingers and then I looked up and there was another fence. The mare happily jumped it and I managed to stop afterwards. I was eliminated…When I left the ring, my friend had to untangle the stirrup from my foot! I have everything on video tape (I’m dating myself…:lol:).

Edit…Oh dear! I just realized I posted in the Dressage section…:o