Ours has exactly that rule, because the indoor is mostly used for group entry and novice lessons. Riders can’t steer or sit a spook yet. The rest of us are just trying not to get t-boned.
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Years ago, we had a boarder with 2 OTTB that was an odd bird/absolute nervous Nelly. Her horses escaped one day while a bunch of us were standing outside having just finished supervising the afternoon pick up of summer campers. I did what I normally do in the event of a loose horse – aka, walk calmly the opposite direction of everyone else & surreptiously loop towards the gate out onto the road to block it off. “DOOOOON’T TRY TO CATCH THEM!!!” boarder wailed. Uh, lady, I wasn’t. Next, one of the horses strolled right up to daughter & stopped with his nose basically in her hands. “DOOOOONNNN’T TRY TO CATCH THEM!!!” Daughter put her hands up like the horse had pulled a gun on her and took a big step back. Horse trotted away.
I honestly don’t remember how it ended. She must’ve caught the horses, because they’re alive and well and the three of them resurfaced at another mutual boarding barn. She’s nice. Just…odd.
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Very nice amateur horse owner today, facing her horse, doing jazz hands to coax her horse to her. No verbal cue. No lead rope help. Just jazz hands.
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Have you considered that she has had bad experiences in the past, has a bit of PTSD from it, and is working to get over it? I know it took me quite a while to get over a bad wreck, even though I had a very safe and kind horse to ride. Years, in fact.
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It’s entirely possible, and would make the situation make more sense.
To my relatively inexperienced eye, she is a beautiful rider, and I know she used to show successfully, but she barely does more than ride at the walk now, usually after a long lunging and ground driving session… where it’s clear she’s very experienced at these things.
There was a trainer at the barn who helped defuse the tension, and found her current saintly beast for her. But there was barn politics, the trainer left, and it’s just been weird since then.
It would not be politic of me to ask why, unfortunately.
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Um…what?
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FOSSE!!!
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Rode at a barn that had one like this, a German DQ in a barn full of hunters/jumpers. Usually her reserved time was in the middle of the day so as to not inconvenience everyone, but on the odd weekend she’d take over for a couple of hours. Anyone who interrupted or tried to use the arena when she was in there got an earful. And her horse wasn’t spooky, though he was an asshole.
The strange thing about all of it was that she was a really nice, funny person (yes really - a German with a sense of humor!) at all other times. But when she had control of the arena…look out.
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Darn that was supposed to be a GIF lol
I taught my homebred to come and touch my open palm with his muzzle (used clicker training). I can’t imagine it would be very successful to just spring it in the horse though.
I haven’t done this behavior with my horse for so long now that he may have forgotten. He comes up as soon as he lays eyes on me so need to call him lol
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You can teach a horse to do anything. Mine come when I call, clap, throw my hands up or something at them, anything to get their attention, yes jazz hands would work but I usually just call and clap. That is because I cannot whistle,
For the lady it might be a bit left over from dog training. We were taught to say come by moving both arms over our head. That is because when the dog is older and loses its hearing it can still see that movement from a long way away
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I have seen people use hand gestures to come to them, leg yield along the wall, back up while both person and horse are facing forward, line up at the mounting block, change directions on the lunge, do a 1/4 turn on the forehand, back up when the owner faces them. Different, but kind of cool.
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Oh, definitely! They’re smart. They can learn to respond to visual aids. Sounds like endlessclimb’s barn mate skipped that part, though. 
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Oh dear lord. Sounds like the boarder at my last barn doing dog commands at her horse - without a single word or clue to horse as to what she wanted.
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Oh I know. My Old Man horse knows more tricks than most dogs, all taught by me. But if I stand in front of him doing jazz hands, giving no other clue as to what that’s supposed to mean… he’s going to dead pan stare at me and wait for a hint. Lol
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After teaching them to come, Andy was ignoring me and ringbarking a tree. I yelled angrily at him to come now and leave the tree alone. He came.
For a week after that he only came if I yelled angrily.
Horses!
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I have seen the jazz hands thing to back one off, but to bid one? Weird.
Ha Ha! That reminds me of a time I was ponying my young horse on a trail ride. She had tack on including a crupper so while we were proceeding down a hill, she kept bucking and kicking and I’d tell her to quit and she’d be okay for a few strides and then start again. I look back and there’s a long blackberry vine stuck in her tail so it was whacking her in the hind legs. I dismount and both horses were squirreling around and I was having trouble getting a hand on the vine. I finally barked out STOP IT! They just stopped and stared at me and let me get the vine out of her tail. Likely thinking “oh crap, Mom’s got her mad voice on!” Still makes me chuckle. 
I think all animals are born knowing what “eh eh eh” means.
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The exception to The Rule:
Hackney Ponies 
My 21-going-on-5 asshat makes nastyface & kicks the wall between his 12h Self & his 16h neighbor & Acknowledged Boss (when they’re turned out) wh n they’re fed in their stalls. Grille between stall walls.
Horse tolerates the Sillyness 99% of the time, but I have seen him give pony “You want a piece of THIS?” look & then evict him from the stall.
(Dutch doors at back are open 24/7)
No violence from horse to pony, just a reminder who’s in charge.
My loud & repeated “QUIT!” directed at pony has zero effect.
If I’m standing right in front of him, he’ll feint at the wall, then kick it as soon as I move away.
He defines Asshat.
And has permanent RBF.
Or, as 3rd Generation Hackney-breeding neighbor observed when he saw the act:
“Hackneys hate everyone”
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