Saturday, December 5, 2009

"This is not going to be nice..."

I agree with the woman speaking in the background. The rider has guts but is clearly overfaced, and this ride was uncomfortable to watch. I'm glad it ended safely, but you have to wonder who is training this person and why haven't they set realistic goals for the show season? It's obviously a nice horse, but with fences that high how long before s/he starts calling it quits?


14 comments:

  1. Wow, that was painful to watch! There's someone who needs about a hundred hours in the saddle over lower fences and combinations. They can steer but they have no sense of timing or how to follow the horse's movements: I would really ding the trainer if this horse and rider showed up in a ring again at the same level anytime soon.

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  2. One should not hover over the saddle at any point in the jumping arc -- and she has serious air time coming down.

    I wondering about the mechanics of that air time. It the cause just a general looseness on the part of the rider? I've certainly jumped badly but usually my weight is still supported by the horse throughout the arc. Maybe as the fences get bigger, getting jumped out of the tack is a bigger danger.

    The answer is probably work w/o stirrups.

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  3. That horse deserves a medal, a vacation, and a new rider. The rider needs lots of work on the basics. the trainer needs a good boot to the ass.

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  4. I'm curious exactly how much saddle time this rider actually has and how long they have been jumping. Either they've put in the time with a lousy trainer, ride with a competant trainer but have not been at it very long and insist on showing since they bought the expensive horse or have "show nerves" so badly that their legs just turned to jelly. Wow, just - scary.

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  5. I've seen this before and everytime I do it makes me cringe...that poor horse...shame on her trainer for letting her go into the ring like that!

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  6. Perhaps the problem is that she doesn't have a trainer. I can imagine a problem rider like that happening without any instruction at all.
    The horse seems to have so much potential that it's depressing.

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  7. Good heavens that was painful to watch. I too, wonder what's going on there. Who taught her and does that horse have a mouth left?
    Yikes!

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  8. Shame on that trainer (if she even has one)! Like the others said, that horse deserves a vacation. What, do you think, is going through her mind, during this class? ("WTF am I doing out here?") I've seen some bad jumper rounds in the FL winter shows, but never THAT bad!

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  9. I have to say I was totally impressed with the horse's ability to actually get over all of the fences, as hampered as he was by his rider. She appeared to be seriously out of her depth, and not only was her seat (or lack thereof) all over the place but she looked to be doing an awful lot of riding off his mouth. Sad thing is she'll probably ruin him, if she hasn't already, and then sell him so she can go off and ruin another horse...*sigh* Very, very sad.

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  10. Woof! My dad used to ride. It is just some people (especially the one that is so competitive) just does not think ... n care. I agree that they need some regulations. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

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  11. That poor horse!!!! His mouth is going to be so sore.

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  12. Bounce, bounce, bounce! Ugh. Years ago, my husband and I watched part of an international armed forces decathlon, part of which was jumping. It was really sad to watch, obvious that none of the soldiers spent much time in the saddle. The string used for them to ride was from a rather notorious barn, and the horses were rather hot looking. So many of the riders ended up on the ground. the jumps were big too.

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  13. Good grief! :( That poor horse! And one day, that rider will be seriously hurt. I think I held my breath that entire round.

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  14. Maybe there is no trainer here - or at least not anymore. Lovely brave horse - I hope he finds a better rider before he is ruined.

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