Sorry but a bit of a rant today. After a generally lovely day at HOYS yesterday, a little incident left rather a bad taste in my mouth. Ellen Whitaker, such an inspiration to young riders, fantastic rider on the crest of a wave, but setting a thoroughly bad example at the same time. Yesterday on entering the ring she, as many competitors before her had, she showed her horse a difficult fence, almost a stile in width and on a tricky angle to boot. Fair enough, I have not worked out where the line between showing a horse a fence and 'not' is drawn but that is not the issue. Why on showing the fellow the fence did she feel the need, for no reason what so ever I can think off and only visible to my area of the arena, to give him a good smack behind her leg too???? What purpose did this serve???? I was both amazed and angry at the shocking example she is setting to youngsters aspiring to be like her. I'm glad to report, although she cleared the fence in question, she did not jump a clear. Although it left me wondering what may happen to the poor 'os' once outside the ring. It certainly didn't receive a pat/thank you for trying on the way out. What harm would a little acknowledgement of his efforts have done to her????
Good job I'm not a horse she would have been flat on her face with a hoof (or two) in her back!!!
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