Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Time and Again


Well I suppose I'll just have to settle for being here time and again. My health is not exactly as it should be and strokes, heart attacks, etc, have sidelined me several times in these past years. So instead of apologizing for not writing in quite sometime, I'll just write as if there was no break in continuity and I hope it all works out.

I'd love to hear from other exhibitors, parents, judges and the like, about that one person that when you see them coming to the secretarys' table, you run and hide (especially if you are the secretary). I remember a few  that really mellowed out towards their elder years but there was one that was horrid. He considered himself Adonis and gift to all pony hunter queens. His use of foul language to demean his students at the out gate was enough to make you want to crawl away or punch him square in the mouth!

I don't understand people who pay for that kind of 'training'. It's not training. I have always viewed this type of behavior as a safety issue. They shake the confidence and focus of their riders to the point the riders' usually turn in a much less than perfect performance which just brings on more berating and bad trainer behavior. These types of trainers can also leave an exhibitor thinking they did very well but the judge didn't like the color of their pony or some other such nonsense the trainer will convey to them in their infinite 'trainer' wisdom. It's hard to even explain your pinnings (placings) to a trainer such as this as they will not listen to anything you have to say. They ask the question but argue the judges' every answer.

These are also the ones that will come right to the judges' or hunt you down and ask really lame questions like 'why didn't my student win'? Well that's usually a whole 'nother Oprah show but I usually can pick that one person out that no matter what, you cannot please them and no matter what, you will not be able to avoid them that day either!

PS I have no idea about the horse in the picture or what the circumstances were but I thought it was cute and was hoping that the kids were just meeting on the roof of a barn so please do not chastise me. I don't know where the picture was taken; who the people were nor their circumstances.

2 comments:

  1. There's not enough room here to post about all the drama queens (and kings) that I've encountered at shows. Just seems to be common enough to keep you on your toes. We (the show committee) had to toss a husband & wife team off the grounds because of their behavior and language - and they are both card-carrying judges.

    ReplyDelete

I am just one judge with one judge's opinion. Almost all of the classes I judge are based on the rules of USEF & AQHA. Judging a horse show is very subjective to the interpretation of the rules. Please keep this in mind when commenting.