Dressage and other horsey questions!

[topbannana]

DS and I went to the Paralympics yesterday to see the dressage and returned suitably impressed and humbled. In general I know very little about horsey stuff and of all the disciplines, dressage has always interested me the least (though having friends who do that ghastly heelwork to music with their dogs, I have some inkling of the sheer devotion and effort it must take, as well as the strength of bond with your animal)
Yesterday we were asked not to applaud until the horse was in the control of a handler. Several times the horses seemed quite skittish, far more so than the Olympic horses and this has got us thinking (and I HOPE I word this correctly so as not to be offensive to the Paralympic riders)
Horses pick up on your temperament I know, but does the horse sense that the rider is unable to physically control it in the way that an able bodied rider would, hence the appearance of a handler?
Also the presence of the "friendly horse." Horses being herd animals, I understand that close proximity to each other would be a comfort, but in an arena? Or have I completely misunderstood the function of the "friendly horse"?
If anyone could explain this to me and DS then we would be very grateful, many thanks :)

[monsterchild]

Hi, topbannana. i haven't watched the Paraolympics, but I think you are sort of correct on your questions. Any horse can act up/out at any time. I've seen horses of the highest caliber training go completely bonkers sometimes. Not often, but it happens. I would think that the horse isn't reacting so much to the rider, as the handler is there to assist the rider in case this happens. non-paraolympic riders are out there on their own, but they still encounter problems, and I've sometimes wished for a handler!
I think because some of the riders aren't a able to do emergency stops, and dismounts it's a safety precaution that is sensible and safer for the horse as well as the riders. Having another horse in the area does calm horses down. Many of these riders and horses have less exposure to the level of crowds and noise than the non-Paraolympic riders, just because there are fewer venues of this size for the Paraolympic caliber riders and their horses to experience.

Also, competition is scary! Horses do pick up on their riders' moods, so if you're nervous, your horse will be too! This is also seen at the Olympics too!

i hope this helps. I'm sure someone more knowlegable will come along and give more info!

[monsterchild]

Sorry for the typos, dumb phone here...

[Pixel]

I wonder if the handler is there in case the rider is exhausted on leaving the arena as they might not have much stamina? I'm only guessing and am probably wrong . It's just that 3 or 4 years ago I saw a brilliant paradressage demo at Windsor and was surprised at how spirited the horses were, I'd expected them to be more docile but I they looked to be very strong and were well muscled up. Their disabled riders handled them well but were obviously working very hard to do so, I imagine it took a lot out of them.

[Pixel]

Oops sorry took too long to post as the first one I did then accidently deleted, but yes agree with what Monsterchild says too.

[topbannana]

pixel I also imagined (in my non-equine mind) that the horses would be more docile than those used by able bodied riders, apparently not! Not sure about the lack of stamina (though some of them did look exhausted) as we were specifically asked not to applaud until the horse was with the handler and the applause made a couple of them jump.
I think I was wondering more whether it was the fact that the rider was compromised in some way that ALLOWED the horse to act up, where an able bodied rider would be more likely to physically control the horse.
monsterchild your point about the size of the arena could be true as well, apparently one of the horses was spooked by the giant screen and one of the Italian riders had to retire because her horse was so skittish.
It just wasn't something I expected to see at that level of competition.

[Booboostoo]

There was a specific problem with the dressage section in the Paras, mentioned in the TV coverage: because of the strong winds the organisers had put down white sand bags to make sure the white boards marking the arena area would not get blown away. Now you might think that that is a very small thing to upset the horses, but horses are very observant of small details and they will never have seen anything like the bags. The bags will also not have been there during the arena walk (an opportunity to walk your horse around the arena along with all other competitors to get it used to the space - this is available in able-bodied competitions as well).

Having said that, horses are horses and they are prone, as a species, to silly behaviour! One of the horses in the Olympic dressage lost the plot and had to retire after nearly decking its rider so it's something that may happen at any level and to any rider.

You are right, the person's mental attitude makes a huge difference, and they probably picked up on the riders' nerves and stress. However, no one can really control a horse with sheer physical force (well unless you use really extreme methods which are banned anyway!). In fact too much force in the hand for example could well lead many horses to panic. You mainly control them through confidence!

The arena horse makes a huge difference to how calm other horses are. In some countries, e.g. Germany, young horse dressage classes have more than one horse competing at a time to make sure they all stay nice and relaxed.

Some of these horses will have had less exposure to massive crowds than the equivalent Olympic horses, so the presence of the groom after the test and the request for silence until then is a reasonable precaution. The horses will actually be more reliable during the test because they have a job to do and are getting on with it, and they are much more likely to spook after the test when walking away on a long rein.

[Booboostoo]

You probably didn't see him as he rode yesterday, but Lee Pearson is a great example of how to correctly control a horse, i.e. through the seat and without force. He also competes, very successfully, against able-bodied riders and is an incredible horseman.

[topbannana]

booboostoo I read about the problem with the sandbags and having worked dogs to a reasonably high level, I can see how that might cause a problem in an animal that did not expect a certain item to be there when they did their bit. I did not know that when we were there.
Also, I had not imagined that the handlers were there for the horses rather than the riders

[topbannana]

Damn me and my roving fingers :o
I suppose the general idea here is that it is a general lack of experience with large crowds that causes a problem for both horse and rider.
The arena was sadly empty on Thursday morning, despite there being a lack of tickets available, so perhaps that was a conscious decision to relieve the pressure?

[Wilding]

I'm sad that there were empty seats - I would have loved to watch the dressage!

Don't really have anything useful to say but I did just want to add that they ask for silence for all the equestrian events, not just for dressage or for the Paralympics.

[topbannana]

It was quite sad wilding as during the Olympic sessions the arena was packed
I understood about the silence while working but this was very specific that we waited until the handler was in control. We were also advised that one of the competitors we should not applaud at all. Not sure why this was as we left after 2 sessions as we had Olympic Village tickets as well so never actually saw that competitor.

[Booboostoo]

The tickets issue is a bit of a disappointment. Ticket sales were limited to 10,000 because there are two sessions (morning and afternoon) in order to re-arrange the arena and apparently the organisers could not cope with more people coming and going safely in the stadium (I got this information from the TV coverage). From other fora I get the impression that there are a lot of people who tried to get tickets and couldn't who are now very disappointed and it's such a shame for the riders as well.

Some horses are quite sensitive to clapping and have to be introduced to it very gradually so I suppose the Paras is not the time to do it!

[Pixel]

I haven't even managed to see any dressage on tv. Even if it's mentioned in the paper I switch on and there's nothing, what's going on? Can't find any of the paralympics on channel 4 catch-up either, I thought it was just nontechy me but cleverclogs dh can't find anything either.

[topbannana]

Unfortunately I think we have been spoilt by the most excellent BBC coverage. Anything Channel4 do now is bound to be mediocre in comparison :)
I did just see on the London2012 site, a link at the top for 7 different channels live. Perhaps you may have more luck there?

[Booboostoo]

Apparently the dressage was not included in the package C4 bought from the Olympic broadcaster. Anything they show is what they film themselves and it can't be live as they need to add the graphics.

On the whole I have found the coverage of the Paras to be very disappointing. I can understand the adverts (although there are a lot of them!), but they seem to be spending so much time talking and profiling the athletes instead of showing them compete which is weird. Surely the sport is worth it in itself, we don't need human interest stories to keep our interest!

[Eve]

I was there today and it was fantastic.

I can't compare with the Olympics and if they asked for no clapping as well, basically they asked not to clap at start of tests to allow the horse to come in and not be spooked/ frightened as rider will have worked it in to make sure it's listening to its rider and they want to keep that concentration.

The horses today were all very big warmbloods, same as normal Olympics , so big strong horses, but I noticed that every competitor exited with little hold of reins to much applause and then waving.

The only horse that spooked was one that was brought in by the groom for the medal presentation.... My pony club educated boys were commenting on the grooms leading the horses without hats or gloves... Big no-no in pony club.

What was sad was how so many riders were disabled as a result of riding accidents.

[CMOTDibbler]

An awful lot of it is to do with the para horses just not being used to big events - for instance the world paradressage championships is held at hartbury where the outside arenas have no banked seating, and the inside one holds 500 or so. And wheras the able bodied riders have a good chance of staying on when the horse mucks about the para riders, esp those with lower limb impairments are much more vunerable

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

Lots of horses don't like clapping and the usual response is to rear and spin. This can be interesting to sit on even for an able bodied rider let alone a disabled rider whose balance and strength may be compromised.

[Pixel]

Gotta love journalists. According to a newspaper article I saw today "most dressage riders use stirrups to control their horses".

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

My god is that where I've been going wrong all these years! The stirrups you say? I'll try that today, look out for me at the next olympics x

[Thistledew]

One interesting thing that anyone who is familiar with horses will tell you is that some horses and ponies will behave completely differently depending on the rider on top of them. I have known of several animals who, when they have had a small child or a disabled person on board will be the most steady and reliable of mounts and who can be trusted not to put a foot wrong. As soon as the same animal has an experienced or able bodied rider on board they become much more spirited and naughty. I have no idea if this applies to any of the Paralympic horses.

[Eve]

Both Natalie barker and Sophie Christiansen ride with no stirrups and 5 golds between them.