Your "OH S--T" Dressage Show Moments

[YRDressage]

[QUOTE=Aaspen;7171335]
I was doing the dressage phase of a horse trial several years ago when somehow my horse got the chain for the dressage ring wrapped around his leg or tail?!?? Still to this day don’t know exactly what happened. We were cantering down the long side and proceeded to rip down the entire side of the arena without skipping a beat. At the end the judge just said. “That was impressive”. I was afraid I might have gotten eliminated because I stepped out of the arena , but scored very well, and if I remember correctly, we ended up placing 2nd. I don’t remember the score, but I’m pretty sure it was in the low 30’s. (high 60’s when translated to percentage)[/QUOTE]

This is hilarious! And impressive

My favourite moment was the time my horse and I went up centerline at a schooling show, halted at X and then the judges tent blew away in the wind. My poor horse grew about three hands with eyes the size of dinner plates and didn’t move a muscle. I started laughing and the judge called over,“why don’t we try that again?”

I didn’t think I would get him in the ring for a second try but he was a trooper. It was too funny and our second attempt went fine once I got him past the judge.

[TLKNG1]

[QUOTE=johnnysauntie;7171776]
Warm up ring, saw something he didn’t like -

I got back on and rode the test. I don’t recall the score or ribbon (though we weren’t dead last,) b/c for me, getting back on was a big win. :winkgrin:[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah…been there and done that a few different times. Gotta love the athletic spookers. Stop, drop (the shoulder), go sideways (possibly throw in a buck or two as they bolt) and then turn and snort at whatever it was they initially spooked at while you are dusting yourself off.

[lorilu]

Generally spooky horse at Regionals. Riding in the Open show classes after the CH class. I had a healthy respect for his power and spookiness. Arena is parallel to the facility fence, which was covered in black landscape fabric. Road on other side of fence. Large two story judges box at E with a tree next to it - Big of dark, shady area! I start around the outside of arena. Photog is SITTING IN A CHAIR, BIG LENS POINTED AT ME, UNDER THE TREE, AGAINST THE FENCE, IN THE SHADE!! Horse freezes. I had not seen her - had to look to see what the issue was!! I cannot turn him - we are against the rail of the arena. He will not turn towards the one-eyed lion. I say - “Hi, can you please say hello to us so he knows you are human?” Photog WHISPERS “Hi”. Downhill from there.

I dismounted after trainer came to hold him. He was a ticking bomb statue. I was genuinely scared. I had elected to ride early. Judge permitted me to enter at my regular time. I got a 42. Even tho the photog had left the area, he was sure she was still there.

Her excuse? She didn’t want to scare the horses. THEN DON’T MAE YOURSELF LOOK LIKE A STALKING LION IN THE BUSHES!!!

[Caps1]

Oh My Word! Sometimes I wonder if the big shows make things scary just to cull some members from the herd. A kind of horse show survival of the fittest. The bushes, ahhhhhhhhh, maresy hates the bushes…and minis…minis are still scary…17.1 and still scared of minis…

Mare has a ton of power and her downward transitions from the canter aren’t exactly graceful. I’m trying to visualize positive thoughts and not , downward doesn’t happen and I end up turning down the centerline from a corner.

[coloredhorse]

One of my very earliest dressage shows, Maresy and I trotted smartly up center line and I got for the first time ever a prompt, square, solid halt at X. As I begin to salute, Maresy stares in horror at the judge and scribe in their stand behind C, stands up on her hind legs, spins around and canters right back out at A. Humiliations galore!

[right_horse_at_the_right_time]

[QUOTE=Caps1;7174850]
Oh My Word! Sometimes I wonder if the big shows make things scary just to cull some members from the herd. A kind of horse show survival of the fittest. The bushes, ahhhhhhhhh, maresy hates the bushes…and minis…minis are still scary…17.1 and still scared of minis…[/QUOTE]

Those little creatures are SCARY. My biggest nightmare would be minis at a show. The one at our barn finally left, and horse never got used to it.

[QueenOfSpades]

I’ve got many “Oh poop!” moments. My most recent was just after my husband had been in the hospital nearly a month from pneumonia complications (he almost died), and my barn had a show the weekend after he was released. For some reason, another working student kept taking my personal, very obviously not a school-owned girth, and kept giving it to riders on school horses. She went out of her way to find my girth, as I made sure to get my things out of the communal schooling tack room and put my things near my horse’s stall at the opposite end of the barn. I almost flipped the heck out and missed my last class after the 3rd or 4th time. I still got a decent score for that last class. All I can figure is that she wanted to make sure her daughter showed her $$$ Hanoverian very well against my little baby horse in his first Intro classes.

[TLKNG1]

[QUOTE=QueenOfSpades;7177136]
For some reason, another working student kept taking my personal, very obviously not a school-owned girth, and kept giving it to riders on school horses. She went out of her way to find my girth, as I made sure to get my things out of the communal schooling tack room and put my things near my horse’s stall at the opposite end of the barn. All I can figure is that she wanted to make sure her daughter showed her $$$ Hanoverian very well against my little baby horse in his first Intro classes.[/QUOTE]

It still floors me that people do this type of thing. When did taking people’s equipment without permission, continuously it seems, and even searching it out, become the norm? I’ve gotten paranoid at our barn. While I trust just about all of my fellow boarders and the staff, there have been incidents of students that just arbitrarily “borrow” equipment. They aren’t necessarily seeking it out, just, if they can’t find something in the school tack room they just pick up the first one they see as they walk the barns. Can’t say how many items I have found two barns over and all my equipment has my name on it in some form or fashion.

My locker and tackbox are locked whenever I am out of the barn. Hate to do it but I am tired of replacing equipment.

[rprincess73]

Schooling show in March - Training 2 - fabulous - won the class with a 65% and change. Training 3 - enter at A - halt, salute at X, proceed through the loop, get in the corner to transition to canter - he bolts straight out from under me. My only thought at the time…“You need to either land on THIS side or THAT side of the dressage ring…if you land ON it - the show manager WILL bill you for the damage”…LOL. I lost my left stirrup and pushed myself off of the galloping clyde. Landed just right to make myself ‘skid’ in the footing, taking about 1lb of it in my left ear:) No bruises to the body…just to the ego…hahaha. Paddy galloped on - jumped the arena and proceeded to park himself in the far corner of the warm up ring. President of the association nabbed him, got on and took him BACK into the ring and made him do Training 3. Yeah - he was ONE TIRED PONY!

Thought he learned his lesson…WRONG!

May show. Second recognized show we had done - first one was in April – great results!. Warm up the night before – fine. Saturday morning – get on and I have a ticking time bomb under me. I could seriously FEEL his heartbeat under my legs. Go into warm up and every chance he can get – he tries to bolt. Take him out of the warm up arena, grab a lunge line and trainer lunges us. Every time I ask for a canter – he gets bigger and stronger. By this time – my nerves are frazzled and I scratch both rides (Training 2 and 3). Decide to ride later on and school early in the morning and try again Sunday.

Sunday morning arrives – I hack him out – LOVELY ride – walk, trot, and canter – light and nice. I feel confident and am ready for the afternoon class (Training 3). Get on to warm up – get into the warm up arena and he gets heavy again and the closer other horses get to him – the more agitated he becomes.

It’s time for my ride – we had not been in this arena before (riding). Day one I had walked him in there. Far back corner – tall, double decker judge outlook type of stand. No one is up there…but there is very tall grass and weeds surrounding the bottom of it. He gets about 20 ft from the rail of the arena, snorts loudly and jumps sideways. I walk him to it – he snorts more and side steps a little more. At least that was at the walk. Ask for a trot and he gets heavier and is in giraffe mode. For a moment, I think it’s time to scratch. I can feel his heartbeat again.

Bell rings and I tell him “Let’s do this, Goober!” Enter at A and the centerline looks like the streets of San Francisco…yes – we’re THAT talented! Halt at X and proceed to track left. Loop is decent – but very tense. Then the corner comes for the canter transition. He gives a huge jump into it and takes off down the long side. 20m at B happened – then we come out of it and he decides that going into the middle of the ring might be his best chance to get out of doing his job. Bring him back and we transition to trot before the diagonal. Free walk – we score! Then we pick up the trot again for the loop to the right. He takes a huge stride in the corner and BOLTS for the heavens. One rein stop, circle him twice, tell him he’s a twit and to DO YOUR JOB! Pick up the loop where we left off and continue. Ask for the canter in the corner – he gets heavy again and I have to circle right at E rather than a 20m at E. Travel up the long side to transition at C to trot – but the transition happens after E. Stretch circle? Yeah – NOT. I wasn’t going to dare give him the time of day to stretch. Down centerline – halt at X.

I was thrilled to have stayed ON. Received an error for the bolt with comments of “resistance and tense”…nahhh – REALLY?! Further remarks: “Sometimes very stressed and naughty. I hope you can get it worked out. Good Luck.” Got a 6.5 for rider position which thrilled me to no end (was getting 4s and 5s last year!). Came away with a 53.2%.

[Caps1]

Oh my gosh rprincess, you’re brave. I know that balled up feeling and bless you!

Right horse, she’s funny. She finally got ok with the resident mini, but the minute someone new pops up it’s back to “what the HELL is that?” One day we had a mini show up that had a sheet on, she turned into a statue and I was just waiting for the bolt. A huge horse show fear of mine is a having a buggy driven by a pack of minis showing up right when I’m going down the centerline.

[Caps1]

So, I’m back with my own moment. SIGH

The big one had the most amazing warm up I’ve ever had with her. Absolutely no issues and was the best ride I’ve ever had on her. Made sure to give her a bunch of walk breaks and wake her up a bit right before we went in. It was a small schooling show so the warm up ring and the show ring was right next to each other.

So, it’s our time and we are confident, we just need to tell the judge our number, wait for the bell and enter. The minute we get there, she stands stock still and I go, uh-oh. We start our trot around the she is grabbing the inside rein, but has managed to shift her head outside and has conveniently ignored everything. We are moving at what feels like light speed (but is actually a snail’s pace) and then it’s time for the big canter depart.

We are supposed to do a 20m circle at A and pick up the canter in the second half of the circle. We cross X and ask for it and I get…nothing. Ask again and nothing. Pass A, tap with whip and nothing again. Now, we are well past A and I give her a good smack with the whip. I hear it fly through the air and yet again, nothing. Some kind of way we manage to get the canter right before B.

Then, it’s a bit hazy in there, but we do our stretchy circle and are supposed to medium walk at A. We blow past that at a trot. It still gets better. She decided that on the next canter, that she was done (in case I didn’t get the message the first time) and we had to throw in an extra circle complete with bucking and kicking up.

Since we were the last ride, we went right back in the arena and did the test over. It was still a mess, but we have a new game plan. Back to ground work and it has made a HUGE improvement in everything.

All in all, we went off course twice, but the judge didn’t blow the whistle for obvious reasons. She was VERY generous because I counted three times where I should have had a 0 on the test and we ended up with 53%. Comments were “disobedience at canter” (putting it mildly) but great trot work. Nice to know that if all else fails, we can be Intro Level (A & B) champions for the rest of our lives.

[Kimchi]

At the first show of the year as I was going around the arena waiting for the bell, my mare spooked at the judge and jumped IN to the arena BACKWARD! I had no idea what to do… I had worried about horses jumping out of the arena but never in, we walked out no points docked as the bell had not been rung yet.

The test was not spectacular 3 wrong canter departs in a row large leap into the air once we got the correct lead, then a spook and flying change on to the wrong lead (the lead she wouldn’t pick up earlier in the test). It was not our best show ever.

So do worry too much as you can see every one messes up, it just makes for good stories later.

[ElementFarm]

OP: congrats on surviving your show, and now you have amusing anecdotes to share

I have a very green hanoverian who is primarily a hunter, but last year I thought I make his first show a dressage venue so we wouldn’t have to worry about jumps. I only rode 1st level, so I was comfortable with the actual test, but our Oh Sh1+ moment came in warmup. One of the other horses was a cute little leaopard appy. My giant hano thought that poka-dotted thing couldn’t possibly be a horse, and instead must be a carniverous alien ready to get him. Luckily the other rider was very sympathetic. She stood very still and my spooking/trying to bolt horse was able to s.l.o.w.l.y venture up and see that it was in fact just a horse, albeit a funny-colored one. When he was puffed up to 100hands and I could feel his heart beating, I was frankly a bit concerned for my survival. But once Horsie checked out the spotted one, he was able to relax and gave me two fabulous tests, pinning second in both.

At the same show, an eventer friend’s OTTB jumped out of the ring at the end instead of turning the corner…

Our beasties sure do keep our lives interesting (eye roll)

[Wayside]

Many years ago, back in my Pony Club days, I took my neurotic herdbound Arab to a schooling show. Since it was our first show ever, I entered an Intro class. He couldn’t see any of the other horses from the dressage ring, so he was a hysterical ball of energy. We cantered through almost the entire test. Somehow, I managed to halt at the end, but when we started moving again, he bolted (like full-on, belly to the ground, kicking up clods of dirt) back to the warm up arena. The spectators parted like the Red Sea leaping out of our way. Thankfully no one was injured, and I stayed on, but talk about humiliating! :lol:

[Pipkin]

I got eliminated. Four times in total, different days, at the same venue, because horse took a dislike to a window in the indoor arena. In DRESSAGE. He has been in millions of indoors, and seen millions of windows, I have no idea why this one warranted the reaction it did.

We could barely get inside the white boards. He was rearing and walking backwards on his hind legs, trying to spin, if I asked him forwards he would just go up, after ten minutes with pretty much no progress the judge had to eliminate us. Repeat that three more times. Made all the more annoying because he was lovely in the warmup. Mortifying!!

[oldernewbie]

On Oct 12 we return to the site of the deadly white thingees…yes, the ring dividers they use to make the large ring the small ring. They were stacked up outside the ring when it was time for us to attempt 1st level for the first time this year. Apparently they send out “will kill you” vibes to the great gray Arab as he turned himself into a counterbent noodle every time he went by. This, and the cross country jumps out in the distance unhinged him. Also did not help that he was (erroneously) being fed a corn based feed, which is like giving him meth. Quite the two tests those were!

So now we have fixed the feed, practiced practiced practiced, and had one trip to the show grounds to school there. He’s much calmer altho the cross country jumps are still bothering him. We did a little tour to visit them and it eased his mind. We’re going back to school some more tomorrow and will also school again on Wednesday.

I am bound and determined to have a ride at this show that demonstrates how good this horse can be. He’s great at home…just have to get his brain cells lined up and calm my nerves down too so that we can do a decent job. That is all! :yes:

[fire_911medic]

Haha. We all have those moments. Brings me back about 15 years when my PSG mare decided to have a moment which she almost never did especially in shows and proceeded to prepare to enter the ring nice and round then go bucking and bolting down centerline (amazingly in a straight line) to halt perfectly square at x allow me to salute and resumed the test on her normal workmanlike fashion with no problems. Halt scored an 8 and rest of test was 63 something so not horrible considering. Was riding under Hilda Gurney as a judge and she so kindly wrote on my score sheet “movement not called for at this level” and a :). To this day when I see her she still laughs about it.

[spirithorse22]

Does running a judge out of the judges’ box, nearly trampling a few beach chairs…

When I was 11, and fairly new to showing, I had a naughty mare who decided bucking and running away with me back to the barn would be MUCH more fun than the scheduled program. :winkgrin:

In warm-up, she took off with me and scattered the couple sitting in beach chairs by H at the ring. I got her back together and entered the arena to do my test. She did 1/4 of it, then decided a bucking fit at E or B (can’t remember) would be the next movement sequence-consequently jumping out of the arena and running (with me hauling her head around to my knee) sideways towards the judges’ box. Judge and scribe clear out of the box and stand aghast as I managed to pull her back to the arena. It is a schooling show, for some reason I’ve decided I have to finish this test, so…back into the ring we go. I finish my test. Salute. Judge exits the judges’ box and it is no other than the BREEDER of the mare I am riding. He proceeds to tell me, in his thick German accent, that the mare is only doing what her rider allows. I swallow the lecture he gives me on show manners and preparedness and nod. Wipe the sweat off my face and my trainer, seeing me wipe my face, YELLS from the sidelines, “Spirithorse, DON’T CRY.” :eek::mad:

End scene. :winkgrin: One of my WORST show experiences ever! :lol:

I’ve had a lot of “Oh shit” moments!! :lol::no:

[Heinz_57]

Congrats on surviving, OP! We feel your pain. I have a horse that has scored both in the mid/upper 70’s and the mid-50’s. Consistently. Sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it’s not!

[PiaffePlease]

Ive shown lots of horses at their first show, so Ive had lots of “oh s–t moments”. Think of it as each movement being separate and if you mess up one or two, you’ve got a lot of other chances to do well.

The last horse I showed started getting tense towards the end and cantered the lengthening. Then he cantered around the corner, then halted, then cantered from the halt, then finally back to the trot down center line. All of that was supposed to be trotting. This was all in front of the toughest judge in our area, so my score was not pretty. BUT it was one of the most fun times Ive shown. I was upset about the score, but not the ride. The horse was a lot of fun to show and I enjoyed myself.

At my first USDF show, my horse almost left the arena at A. It was my fault, but thankfully I felt her start to turn and put my leg on her to stay in. The judge couldnt tell, but the video from A is funny. You can see her leg start to swing out. I remember saying to myself “oh, s–t”.

There will probably be mistakes in your test, just roll with it, and focus on the rest of the test. Have fun!