While you may not use your voice during a dressage test, you can generally get away with it if you’re careful about where you do it, how loud you are, and which way you’re facing. Or if you have a reader whose voice carries and you time it appropriately.
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I use my voice in a test, but softly, and only when I’m going away from the judge.
Indeed, there’s a helicopter pad right near Flintridge, quite close to the dressage rings, and I’ve also had it land while I was doing a dressage test, in a competition. I guess this is something that’s cool to expect of a first level horse but not of a combination we might send to the Olympics. 
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I never personally experienced the helicopter, but did have an interesting deer encounter. On a three year old.
Was the woman who died in Argentina a signer on this petition? Just curious.
:lol: :lol: :lol: and some more :lol:
The 2 disciplines just cannot be compared on so many levels. I bet you’ve never seen both score sheets, have you? Even less been a scribe at any events?
Be my guess and try your hand on some Inter A (27mvts) level or a GP (33mvts) some day; we can talk after. Or do so in reining (8mvts).
The score sheets are differents.
The movements are differents.
The expectations are differents.
Why not just allow noise and judge it as any of the other aides? If you want to murmur “easy” when you go past the flower pot, that’s different than if you’re screaming “whooooa” on your way past X. And if your competitors want to sit in the stands and holler “can-TER de-PART” as you go past A…you have some incentive to make sure your horse isn’t blindly following voice cues.
Well, it can be way more subbtle than that… especially at upper levels - think about whistling.
The outside help that is forbidden in dressage is used in other disciplines. Dressage tries to promote relaxation, not over excitation like the saddlebred folks.
How are the judge will be able to decide if that extended trot is from the cheering or the rider?
Werth isn’t going down lightly. She has chosen this hill to die on I guess.
Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that someone would attempt it. I hope the appeal dies quickly.
Yes, usually works if your back is to the judge. Hard to accomplish sometimes when there are multiple judges.
“The 51-year-old rider and a mother stressed the issue of “choice” and expressed surprise at opposition from some riders such as America’s Laura Graves supporting the rule though from a country with centuries of democracy and freedom of choice.”
Wow, that was a classy dig at Graves. 
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Maybe I’ve watched Frozen too many times, but they seriously need to let it gooooooo.
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The FEI is nothing if not a Bureaucracy. If the petition was presented after the deadline for adding a topic for consideration, then it won’t be considered and all the begging in the world won’t change that.
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Perhaps Werth should give Laura Graves a choice as to what her own position is on the petition, and not lecture her as to what position she has to take because she is American. Graves chose not to sign the petition.
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As someone who suffered a fractured skull because my horse fell over during a walk on the road, and I WAS wearing a helmet, this scares me! Accidents happen and the head/brain is fragile
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Good point that injuries happen even with helmets. Hopefully your injury was less severe than it would have been without a helmet.
Hoo Ray!
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Millions of US riders out west never ride in a helmet. And over terrain vastly rougher than a show ring. And we are not dropping like flies. Understand helmets for jumping, but dressage? How about mandatory vests? Shoulder pads maybe? The “you cannot be too careful” crowd needs to understand everything has risk, and perfect safety around horses means no horses.
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So let’s just throw out safety measures entirely then because who cares if people die or are permanently injured.
And no offence, but the “west” riders you refer to aren’t riding hot blooded UL horses who are extremely sharp, fit and powerful.
Also, I guess you missed the link in the thread where someone recently died from falling off while hacking…an international dressage competitor.
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Let me guess, you don’t wear a seatbelt, don’t have GFCI outlets, no smoke alarms, and don’t believe that carbon monoxide detectors are worth the money you pay for them, amirite?
How is wearing a helmet so very much worse than wearing a top hat?
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