For The Love Of God... Parents Educate Your Children!!

So as you may ahve noticed I haven't written a blog in about a week, it's because I have been at the TSSCA (TN State Saddle Club Assoc. ) State Championship Show. Now I've been to this show pretty consistently since 1998 ( granted I had a 4 year hiatus when I had kids.) This year was my first year back to state for the entire weekend since children came along and boy I never knew how ignorant some of the parents and kids who show in this are. Now don't get me wrong there are some damn good lil 12 and under riders out there who know how to properly handle a pony and wear protective gear and do right by there ponies. This year (I suppose since it was my first year in attendance as a parent) I noticed a disturbing amount of kids who had no clue as to the danger they put themselves in. I'm standing up by the arena on Nick nack when I glance to my right and see this little boy on a pony just whipping the shit out the pony and jerking it's reins. This was freaking the pony out hyping him up. Now I can understand maybe getting the pony a lil hyper and ready to run but you don't do that by whipping him till he's ready to jump out of his skin and then jerking the reins until his mouth is foaming and raw. Take him out to the warm up area and trot him in circles short lope him a bit, do something to loosen him up and get his adrenaline flowing but don't basically beat the pony! Needless to say this pony when it came time for him to run was so wired he reared up going in the gate, snatched and jerked around and when the boy finally got him in and headed for the pattern the pony was so rank he veered off course dumped the boy and ran out the gate. The boy didn't have on a helmet but fortunately was fine. the more I watched the more horrified I became . Parents were blatantly ignoring the pony abuse, cussing the kids if they messed a run up or they were beating the ponies themselves. Now this wasn't the case with ALL the ponies and 12 - under riders BUT I did see it alot. Most all the ponies who were jerked on and whipped before their run did horribly. The ones who were properly warmed up and LOVED by their tiny riders did AWESOME and placed.





Now what I'm wondering is 1) how come I never noticed this as I was an active competitor and 2) HOW can a parent allow their child to do that to something clearly bigger than they are? I mean I had a horse that if you so much as jerked her reins in repremand she would fight back. All it takes is one rank pony and one of those kids could be killed. Parents PLEASE PLEASE eductae your children on the proper way to handle a pony, eductae yourselves if your not sure before turning a kid loose on a barrel pony. Some of those lil snots are hard to handle depsite their size. This furthers my belief that riding lessons should be mandatory for ALL who want to ride. I mean honestly in ALL the years I took lessons I NEVER saw an instructor tell us to jerk that pony's mouth or whip him to make him hyper before going into the ring. When I was in 13-17 I had a horse that LOVED to run barrels and he would get himself hyper and ready to run. All I had to do was short lope in small circles about 10 riders before our turn and man he'd go in there like a bullet. Same with the mare I rode after Deal died, short lope some circles before our ride and man she was ready. They both also got loads of love and praise when we ran a clean pattern and even if we DQ'd I'd praise them b/c it wasn't their fault that a barrel went down, it was rider error, meaning it was MY fault. This past weekend a girl pulled her pony into the barrel causing him to shoulder it and knock it down. It was obvious this pony really didn't need the guidance, he would have been fine and run beautiful pattern has the girl not gotten into his mouth. As soon as the pony cleared the ring, her daddy took her off the pony and began whipping him and jerking his head around pulling him in tight circles.... yeah that's a GREAT way to correct the problem idiot. All that is going to do is cause the pony to shoulder the barrel any time pressure is put on his lil mouth.... moron. If you want the pony to run right teach your daughter to ride correctly, better yet instead of your tutoring on the subject , which is all she's obviously had, get her some lessons given by a PROFESSIONAL. I've got some great video of it too. I just have to figure out how to get the video off the camera and onto the computer.... my stupid comp isn't compatible with the camera... go figure. Anyway that's all for my rant about state show... at the moment. I'm sure I'll think something else up.