Warm Up Ring Etiquette

[Aristides]

In reading the thread about “unprofessional professionals” I started contemplating ring etiquette. I am an adult re-rider and it has been 20 years since I’ve been in a show ring. I’m anticipating doing some local shows this year and hopefully moving into more serious things in due time…but the more I ride the more I realize how much I’ve forgotten. I remember what I learned about ring etiquette…but that was 20 years ago. Times may have changed. Can anyone point me to a comprehensive list of ring etiquette “rules” or can we create one here!? I don’t want to make a fool of myself my first time back out!

Thanks!

[Frivian]

1. Always know where others in the ring are, ESPECIALLY beginner riders and kids. Assume that no one is looking out for you.

2. Pass left shoulder to left shoulder

3. Call “Heads Up [insert jump]” when approaching a jump and someone is near the jump or may be crossing your path (eg: “Heads up Blue Flower Oxer!” or “Heads up Outside line!”)

4. If approaching someone head on and they don’t look like they are going to pass you left shoulder to left shoulder, call “Inside” or “Outside” (or some people say “Rail”) so they know which side you are going to.

5. If coming up behind someone who is going slower than you, let them know you are passing them (should pass on the inside).

6. Don’t hog the jumps! They are for everyone.

7. If someone else is jumping, ask before changing jump heights.

8. Don’t jump jumps backwards (ramped oxers). In eventing warmups, the jumps are marked which direction they are to be jumped. I don’t think this is usually the case for hunter/jumper shows though.

9. Don’t crowd any horses!

[tua37516]

[QUOTE=Frivian;7574671]

1. Always know where others in the ring are, ESPECIALLY beginner riders and kids. Assume that no one is looking out for you.

2. Pass left shoulder to left shoulder

3. Call “Heads Up [insert jump]” when approaching a jump and someone is near the jump or may be crossing your path (eg: “Heads up Blue Flower Oxer!” or “Heads up Outside line!”)

4. If approaching someone head on and they don’t look like they are going to pass you left shoulder to left shoulder, call “Inside” or “Outside” (or some people say “Rail”) so they know which side you are going to.

5. If coming up behind someone who is going slower than you, let them know you are passing them (should pass on the inside).

6. Don’t hog the jumps! They are for everyone.

7. If someone else is jumping, ask before changing jump heights.

8. Don’t jump jumps backwards (ramped oxers). In eventing warmups, the jumps are marked which direction they are to be jumped. I don’t think this is usually the case for hunter/jumper shows though.

9. Don’t crowd any horses![/QUOTE]

This is a great list. All of this is fairly universal for hunter/jumper shows.

However, remember there are plenty of people out there that may not have learned the rules or don’t abide by them, so if it seems like someone isn’t getting out of your way, don’t count on them to give you the right of way even if it is supposed to be yours!

[PaintedHunter]

Adding to the list:

If the ring is fairly busy, do not go around the ring endlessly at a walk waiting for your trainer to finish warming up/schooling your entire barn - if you’re done, leave the ring. Also, do not walk two-abreast to have long conversations. You are taking up room that should be for people working.

[Credosporthorses]

If people are trying to warm up over fences don’t do lead changes across the diagonal. Better yet don’t assume I know you are doing a lead change and canter strait towards me expecting me to yield when I moved over to pass you left to left. Had this happen at a local schooling show. Sending my greenie off in a bucking fit…

[findeight]

Plan your schooling when the ring is not busy even if it means getting in there early, early, early then putting horse up until right before your class. Otherwise just use it as a warm up ring to hack 10 min and jump 3 or 4 fences to loosen up. Do your training at HOME. Nobody, human or horse, benefits from trying to learn what they don’t know at home in a crowded and stress filled environment that always seems to have at least one person angrily screaming/yelling at a kid or adult that is zoned out while half the other horses are zoned in on that angry voice and getting upset.

There are those traditional rules already discussed but people follow them about as well as they follow well known and traditional traffic rules when driving. Teens and kids pay as much attention to them as they do posted rules to stay out of/ off of the exhibits at museums, shut up in theaters and and not behave like an ape colony in shopping malls.

I honestly got to the point of staying almost completely out of warm up rings at some non rateds running with no real, enforceable rules or anyone to enforce some semblance of order. I used them at dawn and just got on 10 min before my trip. Usually room to trot and canter a little somewhere else. No point getting myself worked up over somebody else’s actions and bad manners/horsemanship right before my class when I’m nervous anyway.

[supershorty628]

Please don’t listen to your iPod while you’re riding in a busy schooling ring. It’s not safe when you can’t hear what’s going on around you.

If you are riding with a dressage whip, kindly make sure it’s not sticking straight out when you pass too closely to another horse. I’d rather not get bucked off because you can’t hold your whip properly and you flick my horse with it.

[gottagrey]

Findeight - your first paragraph needs to be included everywhere - at every barn, at every show, in every trainer’s notebook…thanks for posting

[SnicklefritzG]

[QUOTE=Credosporthorses;7574760]
If people are trying to warm up over fences don’t do lead changes across the diagonal. Better yet don’t assume I know you are doing a lead change and canter strait towards me expecting me to yield when I moved over to pass you left to left. Had this happen at a local schooling show. Sending my greenie off in a bucking fit…[/QUOTE]

I read that last line as a different kind of fit. :lol:

[SnicklefritzG]

I treat warmup rings like a busy intersection. Obey the rules, but assume others might not.

[Darkwave]

My boyfriend has a great saying about safe driving - never act in a way that forces someone else to react to you or change their actions.

i think the same applies to schooling areas.

[Credosporthorses]

[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;7574877]
I read that last line as a different kind of fit. :lol:[/QUOTE]

Haha! I’m sure in his mind that is exactly what it was

[PonyPenny]

Think of schooling rings like driving. Always pass left shoulder/left shoulder and faster horses should pass on the left. Slower traffic should stay right.

[BeeHoney]

I just want to emphasize to be careful with direction changes or with circles that you don’t cut across the path of anyone who is jumping. Again, when schooling in the show ring (if a ring is open for schooling) be very careful about jumping diagonal lines and also when changing direction. Try to pay attention to what other people in the warm up ring are doing. If someone is having trouble with a horse, stay well out of their way, don’t assume that they have it under control. Give kids/ponies and obviously green horses extra room and consideration. You will never go wrong with a “heads up jump X,” “coming up on your left” or “rail please.” And, always be prepared to simply pull up, add an extra circle, etc. to make sure someone is out of your way.

Definitely do your training at home and have a focused warmup plan. It helps to have done a flatwork warmup earlier that am so you can be more focused on warming up rather than schooling prior to your class. However, if you are inexperienced riding in busy rings, don’t allow yourself to feel rushed. You might need to wait a sec for a gap in traffic to get to your jump or to change direction.

Don’t get hung up on the left shoulder to left shoulder passing rule. It often doesn’t work in the schooling ring. If you are turning to get to a jump or circling you may need to be on the inside track. Just call out what side you are going to if it isn’t obvious.

[goodlife]

Be very careful in circling through the middle if there are jumps in the ring. I always try to make a mental note of which horse/rider combination belongs to which trainer/groom on the ground, so I can tell when and which jump they’re going to be heading to.

Please don’t decide to practice your lateral dressage movements in peak warm-up hours. I don’t really like trying to swerve around you while attempting to canter for more than four strides at a time.

Shoulder-check before you stop and/or turn around. I’ve been cut off very severely by people who decide on a whim that they’d like to go left instead of right with no warning.

Keep any disciplinary action in your own bubble. If your horse is freaking out on the rail amongst a bunch of other horses, losing your mind, beating the crap out of it and/or spinning it in a tight circle is probably not the best choice.

[mooonie]

Findeight said it best. But to reiterate, wake up an hour earlier and have the ring to yourself.
Showing is nothing compared to the hazards in the warm up. It makes the class look easy.

[tbaghdoyan]

[QUOTE=BeeHoney;7575455]
.
Don’t get hung up on the left shoulder to left shoulder passing rule. It often doesn’t work in the schooling ring. If you are turning to get to a jump or circling you may need to be on the inside track. Just call out what side you are going to if it isn’t obvious.[/QUOTE]

This is an important subtlety that can be frustrating when missed! Don’t go out of your way/drastically change your path in order to pass left shoulder to left shoulder. Those sorts of rules apply when you are about to intersect paths with another rider.

Similarly, yelling “DIAGONAL LINE!!” when you’re miles away from the line doesn’t reserve it for your exclusive access. If you’re already five strides out from the in and it looks like someone is about to trot through, then call it to give them the heads up.

[french_fry]

The warm up ring is great because after 30 seconds you lose your show nerves entirely and can’t wait to get in the ring by yourself - your class is easy by comparison!

Try to ride in straight lines and telegraph where you’re going as much as possible. I can live with not passing left to left but if you are flitting around the ring like a deranged bumblebee I can’t possibly stay out of your path. As mentioned upthread, a busy warmup ring with numerous people trying to share a few jumps is not the place to be practicing your lateral work or small figures. It is, however, a great way to get run into or jumped over.

[Kestrel]

Stay off your cell phone. It seems like that would go without saying, but apparently it still needs to be said to some people.

[Addison]

FRENCHFRY…so true!!

Cell phones and iPods have no place in any schooling ring.