Post by racaille on Apr 10, 2012 12:52:03 GMT
Yesterday I took the teenager and Jana down to the coast to take part in the départmental SJ championships.
What a snooty lot the SJ crowd here is! Firstly the parking was chaotic and when I finally found a little place for the truck and trailer, I was shooed away by a woman who was 'saving' it for her lorry which had not yet arrived. I was not really surprised to see, when they unloaded, that several of their horses were hysterical. One was quite badly hurt on its back legs; there were several open, bleeding wounds and one of its hocks was the size of a tennis ball.
Then I asked a woman if competitors were obliged to wear jackets (it was very hot and sunny) and she replied: Of course! This IS the championships!
I saw some very unattractive behaviour from some over-competitive people - and not all teenagers - who had a disappointing tour, one was walloping her horse around the ears because it had refused. But, of course, most of the refusals were the riders' faults.
There were some spectacular falls too and I rather ashamed to say that in some cases I was quite gleeful. One rider was pulled up by a judge because her horse had thumped through a wall and quite obviously hurt itself but she had to be told twice to get off despite the poor animals being hopping lame. But I was terrified when one horse went down completely and did not seem able to get up. But luckily it was just tangled up in its reins and was trying to figure out how best to get up. Bless it. The rider, though, who was winded but not hurt, made a terrible fuss.
The teenager and I just kept ourselves to ourselves and tried not to listen to some snidey remarks. It's true that Jana is an ordinary looking pony, nothing showy, and the teenager does not go in for bling (and we counted the number of SamShield helmets at €500 a pop )
But once in the ring Jana showed her class. In Poney 2 they were jumping a little under 1m and it was a pretty technical course. Jana flew over it beautifully (I have a really rubbish video that I will upload) and brought the teenager in at sixth out of 45. Very thrilled!
In Poney 1, they were jumping 1m - 1m10 and were going brilliantly until the teenager made just a tiny mistake - she went just a fraction in front of Jana - and a tiny tap dislodged a bar. Never mind. There was an optional water jump at the end and Jana did not even blink.
Interesting day but I'm so glad we're not in the SJ circuit. Is it that bad in the UK?
What a snooty lot the SJ crowd here is! Firstly the parking was chaotic and when I finally found a little place for the truck and trailer, I was shooed away by a woman who was 'saving' it for her lorry which had not yet arrived. I was not really surprised to see, when they unloaded, that several of their horses were hysterical. One was quite badly hurt on its back legs; there were several open, bleeding wounds and one of its hocks was the size of a tennis ball.
Then I asked a woman if competitors were obliged to wear jackets (it was very hot and sunny) and she replied: Of course! This IS the championships!
I saw some very unattractive behaviour from some over-competitive people - and not all teenagers - who had a disappointing tour, one was walloping her horse around the ears because it had refused. But, of course, most of the refusals were the riders' faults.
There were some spectacular falls too and I rather ashamed to say that in some cases I was quite gleeful. One rider was pulled up by a judge because her horse had thumped through a wall and quite obviously hurt itself but she had to be told twice to get off despite the poor animals being hopping lame. But I was terrified when one horse went down completely and did not seem able to get up. But luckily it was just tangled up in its reins and was trying to figure out how best to get up. Bless it. The rider, though, who was winded but not hurt, made a terrible fuss.
The teenager and I just kept ourselves to ourselves and tried not to listen to some snidey remarks. It's true that Jana is an ordinary looking pony, nothing showy, and the teenager does not go in for bling (and we counted the number of SamShield helmets at €500 a pop )
But once in the ring Jana showed her class. In Poney 2 they were jumping a little under 1m and it was a pretty technical course. Jana flew over it beautifully (I have a really rubbish video that I will upload) and brought the teenager in at sixth out of 45. Very thrilled!
In Poney 1, they were jumping 1m - 1m10 and were going brilliantly until the teenager made just a tiny mistake - she went just a fraction in front of Jana - and a tiny tap dislodged a bar. Never mind. There was an optional water jump at the end and Jana did not even blink.
Interesting day but I'm so glad we're not in the SJ circuit. Is it that bad in the UK?