Ring Etiquette
posted by citizen.K on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 / 
Print & Hang in the Barn
Whatever it is that brings someone into a horseback riding arena, Ring Etiquette is THE most important lesson to learn in horseback riding. Yet, so many people fail to learn the basics of riding with other people or let alone actually use COMMON SENSE!
At most big horse shows, smaller 50’ x 100’ schooling rings thrive with up to 30 other horses and riders. But at home barn, I can be in the 100’ x 200’ arena with ONE other rider and not be able to continue in a forward movement more than 20 feet without getting cut off, almost run over, or having the other horse right on my ass! How does that happen? Stupidity? Arrogance? Attachment? I’m not all that sure!
I for one have had it with sharing the ring with people that don’t know how to ride nicely with others. I even had big jumping plans today but scratched because a certain Ms. McFattty Dressagiepants showed up just as I pulled my horse from his paddock. This lady is a RING HOG. She looks down at her horse the entire time she rides. She cuts off my canter on the rail just to go into a walk. And she rides DRESSAGE. In the JUMPER RING. While the barn’s DRESSAGE RING sits empty.
There is no excuse for it.
If you own, lease, or ride a horse at a facility with other riders, it is up to YOU to know what the ring etiquette is. If you are unsure, ask the trainer, owner, OR whomever you end up in the arena with.
It is surprising to me that more barns don’t have ring rules posted SOMEWHERE. Sure, one assumes that someone moving into your facility knows how to #1 Ride, and #2 Ride With Others. But, that assumption is WRONG. Far too many riders are clueless to the obvious courtesies of the ring.
DE FACTO HORSE RIDING RING RULES
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1. PASS LEFT TO LEFT – when going different directions, passing left shoulder to left shoulder is required. Of course, if there is a reason to pass differently: Call it out!!!!
2. DO NOT STOP ON THE RAIL – this is annoying especially when there is no apparent reason to be halted on the rail. If you must stop for whatever reason, do it on a circle line, when no one else is coming up behind you, or preferably in the center OUT OF THE WAY!
3. DON’T CROWD - why this even needs to be stated is beyond me, but it never fails, when I’m riding my gelding who loves to take a shot at another horse when given the opportunity, another rider canters up as close as they can possibly get and he kicks out. Then I get the look as though MY horse is out of control! Stay at LEAST one horse distance away from the horse in front of you and when passing give enough room so that each horse isn’t able to bite or kick each other. Grrrrr.
4. THE RIGHT OF WAY – this one gets a little confusing. I’m okay if someone wants to walk on the rail as long as the obstacles/jumps are far enough off the rail that you can pass the person walking without having to maneuver an obstacle course. But, preferably if you are walking stay on the inside and BE AWARE of other riders and where they are going! Basically, just stay out of the way! I’m sick of the nonchalant people walking their horses on a loose rein oblivious that there is another rider in the ring. THE WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU!!!
5. LONGEING – don’t assume that it’s okay to throw your wild, crazy, out of control, bucking bronco on a lunge line when other people are riding. Ask first. Simple, common, courtesy; even if you have a calm horse!
6. LESSONS – lessons generally get the right of way. Ask the trainer if you aren’t sure what the lesson is going to entail (perhaps just a circle for the flat, or jumping a course). Listen! You can hear what the trainer is instructing the student to do, keep your eyes open, and always give the student the right of way. This may include waiting in a corner for a little while.
7. USE YOUR VOICE – if you aren’t sure, call out where you are going. If there are a large number of riders in the ring and everyone is going the same direction and you want to change, call it out “changing direction”, or “inside”, “outside” whenever you can. Doing this too much is not annoying; not doing it is VERY annoying. Other riders cannot always predict where you are going!
8. HOT HORSE – if you are on a hot horse, easily excitable, a kicker, a biter, a speed demon. Let everyone else riding know, it’s appreciated.
9. ANNOUNCE YOURSELF – this is especially important in an indoor. They often have blind doors. Just call out “coming in” or “door”, whatever. Just give the people riding a heads up that you are about to enter and sometimes exit.
10. JUMPING – jumping with others in the ring is absolutely acceptable. CALL OUT YOUR JUMP!!!! Don’t detail a whole course, each jump you are heading to call out PRIOR to jumping it. A good rule of thumb is each jump you jump, call out the next one after you land. If you are jumping one jump, call it before you even start cantering!
Now, there are probably a million other rules that can be outlined for riding with others, but the above 10 are the most important AND the ones NO ONE seems to know about. I’ve had altercations before when confronting someone on their poor ring etiquette. I’ve actually had someone tell me “You can get out of my way”; what? I’m pretty sure everyone is paying the same amount for board, which means the ring is equally for everyone who boards there.
If you expect others to get out of YOUR way, plan your riding for when no one else is in the ring. This is especially important if you have a young, green horse that isn’t ready to deal with a big crowd. That horse is going to have to get used to it. But if that horse isn’t under control, it isn’t ready for the group. Make sure you ask others who are riding if they mind a greeny in the arena. Most won’t but will appreciate you giving them a heads up of your horse’s potential “bad” behavior.
Ring rules SHOULD be posted, but it is your responsibility as a rider to understand the fundamental, common sense, etiquette that goes along with riding in an arena with others.
12 Responses to “Ring Etiquette”
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August 10th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
OMG!!! FINALLY SOMEONE SPEAKS UP ABOUT THIS!! At the last barn I was at, the trainer instructed people to pass RIGHT TO RIGHT–which I thought was really weird. If the trainer wasn’t there, NOBODY
August 10th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
continiued from above (I pushed some magic button on the keyboard and got prematurely posted)…..
As I was saying, the last barn I was at, nobody knew how to ride with others. It was a pain in the ass. One time I set up a jumping chute along a WHOLE SIDE OF THE ARENA at 10pm so I could put my greeny through it and this woman shows up and rides for 2 HOURS while I have to sit and wait for her to be done so I can free jump my colt. UGH!! THE NERVE!!
I spent too much time on the show circuit to not learn ring etiquette. I ALWAYS pass left to left, never stop on the rail, and ALWAYS holler “rail!!” if I need it. I try not to jump with anybody else in the ring, but if I have to I always call out my fences. If I ride with someone who I think is unschooled on ring etiquette, I become EXTREMELY VOCAL. I just assume they need to be yelled at a few times or they’re never gonna learn. Honestly, almost every riding book out there has a section on ring etiquette and if you don’t have the sense to read about riding before you start, you deserve to be yelled at.
I love the barn I’m at because it’s full of show horses and riders who show all the time so they know how to work together. On saturday mornings, I’ve ridden with 15 other horses in the arena (mostly western pleasure horses) and it’s a total breeze because everybody knows what they’re doing. it’s great for my colt because it challenges his brain but the horses never go fast enough to spook him. Plus, everyone knows my colt and knows the give him kick space in a canter transition.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Ring ediquite is huge! My daughter was having her dressage lesson when the “other trainer” decided she needed to ride her green horse in the arena. The dressage lesson was using a 20 meter circle in one end of the arena, well apparently that was the end of the arena that the green horse needed to be ridden in. I guess she couldn’t be expected to ride her horse in the other 90 feet of realestate. We now leave the arena when she needs to use it, it is sad but that is the way it is.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
THANK YOU!!!! There is no doubt, more people need to learn how to ride with others.
My barn has rules posted, but still there are only a few riders that adhear to them.
Most people just don’t know any better and some just aren’t in control of their horse. It would be better if everyone communicated better, but I just assume no-one knows what they are doing and try to stay out of everyones way.
I jump, even if there are lots of people in the ring. I find it clears the place out!
August 16th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Finally someone posted something about how horrible ring etiquette is!!!!!!
Im that person at a show who you can hear all the way at the trailers when im calling my jumps in schooling. I hate schooling with tons of people so much. I swear now a days people dont teach their kids how to ride in a ring with other people. I have had people ride up my horses butt with a red ribbon in his tail! He doesnt generally kick other horses, but the first few shows I wasnt sure how he would be so i put one in just to be safe. Didn’t help much since girls were up his butt anyway. I don’t understand why people arent teaching their students at home and at shows how to ride without running into other horses.
The barn I have my horse at has only a few horses so it isnt an issue at home, everyone is very courteous at home, but shows is such a different story
August 21st, 2008 at 12:10 am
Thank you!
This needs to be posted in every barn across the U.S. whether or not it is a schooling barn or a barn of trail riders. I have been to so many barns and many kids (even adults) have no idea how to ride with others. But now that I event and many of the competitors are adults, they know how to pass and execute proper ring etiquette. But even at my last show I got cut off by some adult rider with an insane horse. She could have absolutely used this guideline.
September 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
THANK YOU!SO MUCH! i have had my horse kicked in the mouth,sholder,etc,! because they did not care about a 17 hand horse that had a red ribbon in its tail!
February 10th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Good lord…please say ‘door,’ when coming into the indoor. And for the love of God…please don’t stand at the entrance to the indoor with half of your horse’s body in the way of traffic while you wait to walk in.
Please print this out and show it to kids too. I don’t want to collide with you and your pony while jumping a line.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Kate, you are awesome. I love reading your posts! I have a whacko thoroughbred and the other day I was riding around and called “rail” while cantering and almost collided with a child who was so busy staring at her hands that she didn’t see me coming. At the last second, I tried to circle and she also tried to circle and then her horse spooked and my horse was like “good enough excuse for me!” and bronco bucked me off and then proceeded to tear around the arena with his tail in the air like “I WON! I WON! HAHA!”. Grrrr….
February 24th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
How do people feel about longeing or riding an excitable horse NEAR an riding area. I’m thinking of those facilities lucky enough to have a round pen for longeing separate by close by a riding arena. Even those people who are polite enough to refrain from longeing in the riding area often have horses who need to blow off steam. What do people think of the responsibility of someone exercising a horse, say 50-100 yards from the riding arena and the horse is bucking or acting crazy? Should you stop? Is it enough that you are not directly endangering the riders because there are 2 fences between your bucking bronco and the kid on the pony? (I mean by this that there is no chance of a kick or your horse getting loose and rampaging around the arena.)
Just curious what people think — I think it depends on the ability of the people in the arena and you should use your judgement. I agree that boarders all paying the same amount should have equal access to the facilities, but that’s not a license to be irresponsible!
February 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I think putting a round pen that close to another arena is a bad idea. What genius thought of that idea?! “Hey vern! I think we should put that thar round pen right next to the arena so all the riders in the arena can learn how to hand on! yee haw!”
If the purpose of the round pen is to allow horses a place to release the ants in their pants BEFORE they are ridden, then put it in a place where other horses and riders won’t be distracted by the wild bucking creature in the round pen. How hard is that?
Also, as an aside, the safety police in me says that a bucking horse is a round pen is a recipe for a broken leg. If a horse bucks while it’s running next to the metal rails of a round pen, there’s a chance then may get their legs stuck in the rails and seriously tangle up their legs. If the round pen has smooth, solid wooden walls then that’s different but I’ve only seen two of these in my life. I prefer a sanded lunging area with no fence around it. There is a small chance of a horse getting away from you, but if you lunge with a bit or a chain and some side reins, the risk greatly decreases.
November 16th, 2009 at 1:43 am
what i wana know is this:
what happened to tail ribbons??! i was taught that in any shared riding area you are suppost to place a colored ribbon in the tail of your horse if it has a vice or is just green…
red= potential kicker
green= green(duh)
i believe this was covered in the book “Horsemanship” by Waldemar Seunig (the equine equivalent to the “Bible” if you ask me). And yet, i rarely see anyone putting this into practice. And when i put a green ribbon on my young warmblood i always have ppl ask me “Why the ribbon?” to which i just laugh and reply “it brings out his eyes.” (im sarcastic by nature) of course i get this wierd look like “this girl is crazy” so then i explain what its really for and people are always saying how clever it is. its not clever, its just ring etiquette!! so everyone, please, spread the word and read “Horsemanship” so we can all feel a little safer when riding with eachother