A. Enter at working Trot. X. Halt, salute. Proceed at working trot....that's if you make it THAT far!
Here's some hilarious dressage bloopers that really happened.
Many years ago during a PC test, I trotted in, halted at X and did the most enormous sneeze which gave me a blood nose! As the test continued so did the blood trickling down my face but I wasn't going to stop and lose marks. I could see the judge trying not to laugh and at the final halt she sent the penciller out with some tissues!! Anon.
We had a horse that was involved in a bad accident with an electric fence. After all that was sorted and he was doing nice work, we took him to a dressage competition. We never really thought about it until he (who is normally quiet) did a CAPRIOLE in through the gate at A and proceeded up the centre line in levade with his tail clamped down. We were puzzled until we noticed the arena fences were held up with electric fence stakes. By golly he didn't miss it though, poor baby. FC
I had my old pony in a dressage test and he was being his usual lovely self up the long side and refusing to turn properly at the short side. As we turned, two of his legs somehow went over the chain and he proceeded to A with the chain between the centre of his legs! He then stopped and looked down, I kicked him over the chain and on we went. I thought I might have been eliminated but when I got my score sheet, there was the comment... "All 4 legs must remain in the arena at ALL times." AA
Well this one wasn't really funny–but it was effective. I was judging Pony Club grade 5 for a friend and this poor kid came in on the biggest BEAST of a pony that gave her the worst possible ride. It was agony to watch. The kid was in tears, my penciller likewise in sympathy and I had a bit of a wobbly lip myself. So I wrote in the comments, "Child rides beautifully and deserves a better pony." And in the pony's comments I wrote, "A nasty little BEAST." My friend who was the DC later told me that the parents had come up to her and asked if the pony was really that bad? To which my friend yelled 'YES!' So they bought her a better pony. I call it one of my good deeds in life. SQ
A girlfriend of mine used to train at home with her mobile phone in her joddies and whenever the phone rang she'd drop the reins and answer it. Well at an official comp once she was riding a lovely test when all of a sudden someone's phone rang. You guessed it....the lovely horse dropped his head immediately to eat and nearly yanked her out of the saddle!!! Needless to say she never again carried her mobile phone when training. EW
My daughter was almost late for her dressage test at an ODE as our car had a flat battery. We arrived, unloaded the pony and saddled him up. Daughter got ready, jumped on top and away they went into the test. This was with a pony that normally needs a great deal of work to settle. They halted at X so quickly they both nearly sat down, did some very sharp transitions and overall we were just pleased that he stayed in the arena! The crack-up was the comment on the test "lovely pony but seemed a little tense". DW
I was judging dressage one day many years ago and a rider came down the C line, halted, turned the pony around to salute towards A and proceeded to ride a mirror image of the test. HOW he learnt it like that, we will never know, but it took some judging I can tell you! Actually, as soon as we knew something was wrong we had the test called, but he was adamant he was riding it the right way round. CH
I judged a grade 5 Pony Club event one day...it was a sand arena on a hot day. The rider was on a loose rein proceeding nicely down the long side when the pony got down got down and rolled. It WAS HILARIOUS....all the kid could do was yell, "Mum did you get that on video?" RO
Thanks to posters on the Eques forum for 'fessing up!
© 2003 Horsewyse Magazine
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