A good warm up can make or break your performance. You should aim to have your horse ready to begin his best work just as he heads down the centreline or goes through the flags towards the first fence. But warm-up arenas can be an intimidating place, full of nervous horses and highly-strung riders. Here are some tips and road rules to follow that will help you emerge unscathed.
Your time to shine
After years in the show ring, Gaylene Lennard finds warming up for dressage relatively relaxed in comparison. “Showies don’t have too many rules – you have people coming at you in all directions!” And although her champion Grand Prix horse Jax Johnson used to be a handful, now he’s pretty easy in the warm-up, though he is both hot and horse-shy.
Gaylene says the key to warming up a hot horses is not the amount of work you give them, but the number of times you take them from the yard or stable to the warm-up ring. Several short bursts of work, interspersed with going back to the yard to relax, is more effective than one long ride.
Gaylene always likes to be on her horse early for a test, as she tends to panic if she’s running late. She will then go for a good walk around the showgrounds before she starts her warm-up.
“I like to be in the warm-up ring at least 20 minutes before my test, but I’ve already done a lot of walking beforehand. And then I go through all the movements in my test. If you do a movement well, you only do it once. Then I give Jax a little walk before I go in.”
While a good warm-up can make all the difference psychologically, you’ve got to learn to deal with those days when you feel like you need an extra five minutes. “It’s all in the brain. When I was competing in Melbourne, one of the stewards said to me as I went through the gate: ‘Get out there and show them how good you are.’ It’s something I’ve never forgotten. It’s your time.”
Dressage warm-up etiquette
- Look up! Don’t be so focused on your horse’s head that you forget to look where you are going.
- Pass left shoulder to shoulder when you ride towards someone else.
- Keep off the outside track when you are walking.
- Canter has right-of-way over trot. Lateral work has right-of-way over everything.
- Keep at least a horse length between you and another horse.
- Don’t stop suddenly on the track or cut people off. If you want to practise your halts, choose a spot on the inside track or centreline.
- If your coach is warming you up, make sure they are standing on the side of the arena, not in the middle.
- If your horse is behaving badly, move to the edge of the arena so you don’t upset others. And if you see a horse misbehaving, stay away and ride past quietly.
Going it alone
Travelling to jumping shows alone presents an additional challenge when you don’t have a helper on the ground. Pro Am show jumper (and NZH&P photographer) Christine Cornege, who is almost always on her own, has figured out how to cope at the practice fence.
“Usually I find someone who is one or two ahead of me with a helper, and I’ll ask if it’s okay if I warm up with them. If you’re new to the sport it’s not always easy to do, but generally people are happy to help.”
Christine usually starts trotting and cantering around 10 horses before it’s her turn to jump. If there’s a cross-rail, she’ll try and catch it while it is small. “Often somebody takes over the cross-rail and turns it into a vertical. As someone who warms up by themselves a lot, I feel the cross-rail should always be left as a cross.”
After that, Christine will usually jump a little vertical, followed by a medium-sized vertical and a bigger vertical. Then she’ll switch to the oxer and jump a small then a bigger version. The last thing she jumps before she goes in the ring is usually a vertical at the height of her class. She tries to be ready when there is a horse in the ring and one before her waiting at the gate, which gives her a bit of time to relax before the round.
“I don’t think you need to jump big, especially on a horse who already knows how to jump. You want your best jumps in the ring, not the warm up.”
For Christine, the biggest problems in the warm-up arena is helpers who are so focused on their own rider they forget about everybody else. “They don’t bother to look to see if somebody else is coming to a fence and they walk in front of it or start putting it up, sometimes even when you call it.
Riders not paying attention to other riders is also an issue: “Some people don’t pay attention to anyone other than themselves and just blindly canter across the line of a fence without looking!”
Top tip: Be confident in your warm-up and stick to a routine that suits your horse. Don’t attempt to jump a fence you’re not comfortable with just because you’re anxious or shy.
Practice fence etiquette
- Before you turn to a fence, call out which one you are riding to: oxer or vertical.
- Ride away from the fence and don’t circle or stop on landing.
- Follow the flags: red on the right and white on the left.
- Horses heading toward the jump have right-of-way.
- Don’t tailgate.
- Learn the rules about practice fences and don’t build anything illegal.
- If you have a helper, make sure they pay attention to other riders, and not just you.
Dealing with a sensitive horse
Auckland event rider Susan Le Mesurier has tried many different ways of warming up her thoroughbred Sparky Malarkey with varying degrees of success. Susan and Sparky have competed at three-star level eventing and 1.20m show jumping, but warming up is a challenge as Sparky dislikes noise, new environments and horses coming toward him.
“I’ve tried no warm-up, a long warm-up and even warming up in the carpark! I’ve tried only walking and I’ve tried not cantering,” says Susan.
“The one thing I have found that does work is pre-rides, and I’ve been known to do three at times. People think I’m trying to tire him out, but I’m not. I just find that even if I’m only on for 10 minutes, the next time he comes out he will be more relaxed.”
Susan has also found it is best to stay out of the warm-up area for as long as she can, and to find a quiet corner. She usually only works in for about 20-30 minutes for her dressage, running through movements from her test. Sparky loves long and low at the trot, so she will do that for the last few minutes before her test if she can.
“I have avoided specific shows where I know the warm-ups will be small, especially at the beginning of the season. I plan carefully, so Sparky gets the quietest environment possible for his first outing. There are things organising committees could do to make it easier for people riding more reactive horses, such as taking care not to have dressage warm-ups right next to where the show jumping rings are being built.
“The most frustrating thing in dressage warm-ups is people not watching where they are going. I have been like that too in the past, but with Sparky I’ve had to learn to watch where I am going in case I end up getting too close to someone else. It’s a matter of safety and it’s really difficult trying to decide whether to go to the left or right of someone when they’re looking down at their horse’s neck.”
The Covid effect
Rules at shows have changed along with the different alert levels for Covid-19. Many jumping shows now use a draw for classes instead of the traditional blackboard order. Angela Nobilo, the former venue manager for Woodhill Sands Equestrian Centre in Auckland, says the draw system helped declutter the warm-up area and certainly makes it easier for organisers.
“Blackboard order can be a real nightmare for a gate steward, with people not turning up. Having a draw makes the rings run more efficiently. The warm-up is more organised because people aren’t turning up and finding eight other people have put their name on the board in front of them.”
During her 13 years at Woodhill Sands, Angela has seen a lot of things in the warm-up areas.
“Riders are coping with nerves or adrenalin, so it can be quite a high-stress situation. A lot of riders get singularly focused, which can create some health and safety issues for the people on the ground.
“I’ve seen riders attempt to jump fences while other people were trying to put poles up and I’ve even had riders attempt to jump the warm-up fence as I’ve been harrowing the arena.
“The most frustrated I get is when I’m harrowing, and I have to take a tractor through the horses. Some people will stand and look at you, as opposed to just moving aside.
Also, I’ll often see someone’s Mum go out to do the warm-up fence and they get a bit of attitude from the rider. Saying thank-you wouldn’t go amiss – your Mum probably doesn’t want to be standing out there in the pouring rain just to make your oxer a little squarer!
“Some riders could remember to be a little more appreciative to everyone helping them on the ground.”
Dressage warm-ups are different, in that riders have set times to ride and the arena is usually less congested. “Most people are really polite. Although I do put bollards and pipes out so the arenas have a little buffer on, because I have had people riding their horses right next to an arena that’s in competition. When someone’s about to compete they often get tunnel vision.”
