At 18:40:29 on 20.11.10, ToriSilverson wrote:
ok, im curious to know how many people know the rules for warming up safely? and have you ever had a bad experience with someone who didnt the rules? i had the most horrific time warming up for a show today...very tiny arena with 7 or 8 horses warming up. i begin going through my usual routine of quietly warming up, trying to circle where possible, getting charlie calm and listening, i begin cantering and go onto the left rein, i canter down the long side nice and tight to the rails...another wee girl is trotting towards me...left hand to left hand rule? are you guys familiar with it in a warm up arena? because she clearly wasnt, we get closer and im expecting her to move in, but she doesnt, charlie balks, my leg gets caught on her leg, her stupid foot hits charlies flank, charlie freaks and shoots sideways, setting another horse off and everyone gives me the evils...wot the frig? of course her horse is mr chilled out and doesnt care...result? i couldnt get charlie to settle so although we went in and got double clear, it was not pretty and we stood no chance on the speed round. :(

At 14:45:13 on 22.11.10, Flicka wrote:
Ugh-I hate the warm up ring sometimes:( Maybe she was european lol-I think it was Dazzle saying in Dressage Wannabes that she went abroad and got caught out as they pass right to right! I also make sure I don't get too close to people as my mares can be a bit protective of their back ends. And if I am just walking then I move onto the inside track. Was it an unaffiliated event, I always find they are worse for riders being all over the place.

At 16:36:11 on 22.11.10, ToriSilverson wrote:
yes it was unaffiliated, but it was school's showjumping...i have never had problems like that before :( there was another girl with a pony that constantly swished its tail she kept passing really close so that her pony kept hitting charlie in the face with its tail, which didnt help the scenario. it was just a bad day, i was really annoyed tho cos me and charlie wer soo ready for the competition and i had all my tight turns worked out, but couldnt do them in the end because it would have been dangerous in charlies state. thats odd about being abroad because we pass right hand to right hand in cars on the road, but left hand to left hand on horses warming up, and they pass left hand to left hand in cars on the road but right hand to right hand on horses warming up haha interesting :D

At 17:56:36 on 22.11.10, horses are my live wrote:
I do volenter work at a show ground an you are right it is ment to be left to left. I have been in a warm up arena one before on my friends horse and she can't go near other horses that she does not know because she freaks out. I was doing a circle and this person dicided they where going to do a circle to. They where coming straight at me and I only just got this horse out the way without her kicking the other horse.

At 22:39:44 on 22.11.10, kibby wrote:
Yea warm up rings are disgusting until you get away from the ponies.. Sam is very horse shy when it comes to horses coming head on towards him.. it makes warming up hard as i have to bring him back to a walk while horses pass if the are going to pass really close.. But thats nowhere near as bad as at one comp i went to a girl fell off in the warm up arena cracked the shits and started sort of lunging her horse. meaning we all had to wait.. She had no consideration for any of us and almost made me fall off sam because she was making him run round in circles just as i approached the oxer.. sam saw this horse going crazy and though, well i'm not going over there sucked back infront of the jump.. I was fuming at her.. for stuffing the rest of us around and for treating her horse like shit..

At 20:38:15 on 23.11.10, ToriSilverson wrote:
showgrounds really annoy me sometimes. and wait till you hear this for a laugh! i was telling my teacher what happened... she is the teacher in charge of the team, she sends the entries away and thats it, doesnt even show up at any our events. she texted 3 days after the show asking how it went, i told her...she had the cheek to advise me to work more on speed! me with my wee speedy tb horse that can turn incredibly tight like. i had to bite my tongue.

At 11:19:25 on 26.11.10, sophieandcallum wrote:
I HATE warm up arenas more so for showing, I do highlands classes and when they said on the tannoy "Ridden highlands to warm up please" it's suicidal to go in there! Not to mention if you have a youngster there's no point even trying! My lad took a good few outings before he was used to it. His first show jumping was a disaster due to the warm up, where little kids proceeded to bomb about at full pelt circling around us and cutting us up, causing my lad to start to rear and get very wound up. I ended up unable to go in and do the class because he had been wound up too much! and when there are xc flags on the jumps..nobody seems to know what way to jump them!! It really, really annoys me.

At 15:45:29 on 26.11.10, ToriSilverson wrote:
thats awful, i remember one time i was warming up and i had start to do a few warm up jumps, there were other trainers in fixing jumps, i was about 2-3 strides away from a jump when and idiot trainer walked across the back of the jump, pressumeably to raise or lower it, i was on pepsi at the time and i was lucky she was goin well, because she jumped it anyway but i was soooo close to hitting him we had to jump at an angle to avoid landing on him. horrific.

At 19:51:02 on 26.11.10, lazybones wrote:
I've been yelled at before for warming up the way I wanted to. The trainer literally made me stop just before a jump and go around to the other side. I was TRYING to make a line, unfortunately, the red flag was on my left and this trainer yells at me. "You can't jump that way! Stop your horse!" So, I pull Deacon up and look at her, deciding to just act dumb instead of getting into it with this lady. "What? Why not?" I asked. And she replies. "Red has to be on your right. Go around and take it that way." I'd like to point out that her girls were using the ring for their entire warm up (not just the jump portion which is what that ring is for) when there was a field, an ENTIRE very large field for them to do their flat work in directly in front of that ring. NO ONE was coming towards the jump. I KNOW the red on right rule, and she ruined my carefully planned and timed jump. So, when I got into the stadium field with Deacon, he thinks it's OK to stop in front of the second jump in a line and we refuse the one jump he's NEVER refused before. I lost my third place ribbon and got bumped down to fifth because that lady made me quit one stride out from that jump. Then again, that was Deacon's first Eventing show, so i was pleased with his performance. However! To get a third on an inexperienced eventer that I trained to jump myself the first time out would've been awesome! Dang lady.

At 20:11:17 on 26.11.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
When i am at a show warming up i feel pretty relaxed but only because at our yard we have a 20m x 40m school and in the winter we get 10 people schooling in there (and jumping) at the same time doing different things. I don't mind because i am used to it and it is good practice. We just go by the left to left rule and the give way to people riding at a faster pace. Oh and don't take a jump if someone else is about to approach it.