EC Question of the Week – Our Most Embarrassing Show Moments Relived

If you’re ready to laugh until you cry, keep reading! Our readers recently shared some of their most embarrassing show moments, and you’re going to love them:

Jennifer D’Onofrio:

Most recently at the NSBA World Show they placed each judges card. We were supposed to only take a few steps forward but I loped right off the wall to be in front of the judge and had to be sent back.  I was just so darn excited!!! And my poor daughter was mortified.

 

Alli Dahlgren:

Last year at the EMO celebration show in Las Vegas, I made a rookie mistake and got too close running with my horse in the showmanship. Well, you guessed it, I fell hard on my trot up to the judge. My horse was a good sport and we finished the pattern, all while trying to shake off that dumb move. The worst part was having my pants and hat full of dirt and I had to show the next day again…. We live and learn!

 

 

Beth Clemons:

At the world show in the L1 Open HUS stakes when my horse thought he turned out to buck and play instead of show and the whole crowd gasped whenever he bronc’d.

Kacie Fleeman:

I was about 11 showing in the walk jog trail in Bakersfield, we were done so we were all lined up in the arena. I had a shirt that was somewhat see through on the sleeves so I look down and there was a pincher bug in my shirt crawling up my arm. I freaked out, started full on screaming for my mom… well she didn’t come fast enough so I took my shirt off in the arena. Thank god there was a sports bra underneath or I never would’ve lived it down.

 

Chelsea Moser:

This little sh*t – we show gymkhana and he used to fart through the entire pattern (I lovingly call it his turbo mode) and whinny on the run home as if he was so proud of himself even though we were the slowest ones in the class. It’s not his fault though, he’s halter bred and knows he’s pretty, but he’s much happier now as a pasture puff since I bought my QH mare.

 

 

Lisa Pavlak Vignerot:

I was jumping at a rated USEF show in HITS Culpeper VA and went over a jump and my breeches split all the way down revealing my hot pink thong. I didn’t have time to change and had to go back in for my second round. Judges scorecard said, “nice thong, would rethink color for a more conservative hunt color.”

 

 

Alyssa King:

I  showed at the Ohio state fair last year for 4h with the horse I had at the time. right before my showmanship class my horses fake tail was put in, we go into our class and have a pretty decent pattern, as I’m walking out of the ring his fake tail falls out of his tail…needless to say I was super embarrassed as I was walking out of the ring with his tail in my hand. Here’s a picture of the gelding I showed.

 

 

 

Whitney Romanoff:

No photos unfortunately. When I was maybe 11, my parents bought this mare for me. 3 years old. Unshown, and basically had lived in a box her whole life. They thought this was going to be a great growing opportunity for me (they weren’t wrong). We started taking her to a local schooling show once a month. She’d been doing well and I decided I was going to attempt showing her one handed. As I was doing one of my circles in horsemanship, a dust devil started behind us, circled, and we ended up head on with it. She reared, tried attacking it, and took off straight for the judge. I went to two hands to pull her under control. The judge came up to me before placing the class and said, “I’m sorry, I have to disqualify you for going to two hands,” I said, “Oh, I thought it was going to be for almost running you over.”

I have never forgotten that day and still have a fear of running over judges.

Britney Kitchel Brandt:

As an almost 40 year old, I got to the first cone of my equitation pattern at my very first AQHA show, my nerves took over and my brain went completely blank…. like 100% forgot the entire pattern. The smart thing to do would have been to excuse myself, but nooooo I went for it. And by went for it, I mean we did the most beautiful, on the fly, 100% wrong, completely rouge equitation pattern I’ve ever done. As I approached what I decided to be our final cone, I see my trainer flinging her arms in the air with the “where in God’s name are you going” look on her face. I stopped my mare, backed and exited the arena, mistakenly thinking my embarrassment was over….. As I got to the gate, the ring master (a long time horse show friend, said “Did yah get lost out there Britney?” I could only answer with a “YUP!” I did however go back in the next class and manage to place 3rd out of 10…. just had to get those nerves out of the way.

Dana E. Thompson:

My faux bun fell out in showmanship and was hanging down my back in the net as we trotted away from judges.

Kristie Wagner:

I was showing at the All American Youth Show in Columbus, OH back in 2014 I had practiced the horsemanship pattern probably at least 20 times. Well we went into the pen got through the first couple steps of the pattern there was a back then you had to go into a 360 spin well my mare decided she wasn’t going to quit backing. We backed the whole way out of the show pen I was kicking her so hard to go forward but she was done and would not go forward and then she took herself back the stall. Needless to say I was embarrassed and she was over the horsemanship. Unfortunately we lost her a few years ago but I will never forget that!

Amelia Warren:

This is my moment lol! When I first started showing AQHA in 2007, I had a horse my parents had bought for $1250. I taught her everything I knew and worked my butt off with her. She specifically got pretty good at the showmanship and was learning the eq but there was a reason she was priced the way she was… she had a bit of a screw loose. We were showing at an IQHA show at C Bar C in Cloverdale, IN. I had done the showmanship but my parents wanted me to try the equitation. This was our first time at Cloverdale in the big indoor arena and while some horses do fine there, some horses do not like that arena for whatever reason. Well my girl was one of those horses. It was the lunch break and my dad basically made me get on thinking that I didn’t want to ride/show equitation because I was being a moody/dramatic teenage, not because I had a bad feeling about it. The way C Bar C is set up is that the arena is in the middle of the building with a sidewalk around it and then stalls on the outside. I had just got on and saw my mom on the sidewalk around the arena. I told my mom “I am going to get dumped.” Again she thought I was being a dramatic teenager, rolled her eyes and walked away. While this is going on, they are dragging the other arena but the ground was really hard so it made this awful sound from trying to break up the ground. I don’t even make it half way around the arena before the horse next to me spooked because of the noise and my girl lost it! I don’t remember much else after that other than staying on a lot longer than I expected in an English saddle. My next memory is laying on the ground watching my horse doing a Black Beauty style rear and watching her hooves as she came down directly on my chest and sternum. There was a lot of pain and screaming after that. It took my parents a few minutes to realize the loose horse in the arena was their horse but in the meantime, I saw surround by some awesome people who took care of me. Miraculously, I ended up with a particular collapsed lung and then just lots of soreness and bruising. I went on to ride and show that horse horse for another year. For several years after that, they made everyone get off their horse while they were dragging the arena because of me to this day, I hear people talk about that incident and have no idea that it was me.

PS- my parents feel horrible to this day and believed me any time after that when I said I didn’t feel safe.

 

Ginger Marshall:

My hat blew off my head during a trail class at Sun N Surf Del Mar and the photographer caught the photo! I still had a decent placing in the class as well!

 

 

 

 

Brittney Elsas:

I forgot to zip up my English boots going into an open show showmanship class

Beautiful pattern and the judge said we would have won.. but

Katti Jo Leitner:

Ripping the butt out of my pants when dismounting in trail to do a ground tie, and then walking around with my butt hanging out not even aware that it happened.

Chelsea Henning Beil:

My husband was showing my HUS horse in Heritage class (ApHC historical costume class)- the horse was already somewhat terrified of his costume, particularly the white gloves (he still snorts and tries to run away if you just hold them up while he’s in his stall )- the other rider in the class was Native American regalia and the horse had bells on its legs. They ask for the trot and my horse got scared of those bells. My husband couldn’t haul up the reins fast enough and he’s coming up on the other horse, who has no idea he’s about to be run over, so he yells out “Larry I’m coming!!” We all still die laughing when we talk about it- and it’s been years now.  Picture of my husband with my western horse who is completely unphased about said costume.

Diane Scott Hammond:

Seems like a lifetime ago… Was at a show at Lexington Horse Center showing in an amateur AQHA Reining class. First couple circles my bra strap broke so I nestled my wayward girl up in the crook of my elbow and went after it til my hat blew off…i couldn’t reach up to smash it down on my head because my arm was occupied hold up my bouncing boob. Everyone knows when your hat blows off your brain goes with it and just as I was getting myself back together my chaps belt broke. A very memorable ride, I did get a score…not a zero… but for the life of me I’m not sure I ever heard what it was.

Karen Froegel:

My daughter was showing in Showmanship with her new gelding, did a great pattern, walked to judge and stopped great and Joey stretched his neck and stuck his tongue out in Judge’s face. The place just roared and Linda was just mortified!

Laura Owen:

By nature, I’m pretty hard to embarrass, usually cause I’m in on the joke (I too have a photo in a tutu) But probably the most embarrassing was an open show I had taken my 3 year old to for some experience. Now we had w/j/l poles on a longe line and w/j them under saddle. When the class asked for a single pole lope over, I figured at worst, we’d miss the stride and break gait. I’m grateful my friend had her camera ready, because he didn’t hesitate….instead, he took his own initiative.

We went on to win that class and he went on to be reserve at the Congress in trail….so also a reminder to never give up!

Kaylee K. Bandy:

Youth Hunter Under Saddle at the Findlay Firecracker many moons ago. Trotting around and had my mouth open just as a ginormous bug flies in. I proceed to cough and choke and try to spit this bug out while posting around like a professional. I get by my mom, who is equally concerned and annoyed, and I rasp out, to the entire grandstand, “I. Swallowed. A. Bug.” I was mortified, disgusted, and completely helpless.

Abby Mae Carpenter:

I was 17 years old and it was my first time showing at the Ardmore AQHA show, I was showing in the hunter under saddle class during a really hot day.

I started to feel a little dizzy during the class but I still rode and completed the class, went and lined up in the middle at the end with everybody else and the dizziness got worse and I knew I was gonna throw up (my main thought was I didn’t want to mess up my horse’s beautiful braids) so I hoped off right after they announced my placing which I ended up I think 4th or 5th in a pretty big class. I was standing on the ground holding him and started to throw up someone came over and took my horse from me and I preceded to walk out of the arena and back to our stalls that were at the far end from the arena throwing up the whole time!! I will never eat a hot dog from the Ardmore concession stand ever again! That plus heat exhaustion didn’t help!

Helenn Voss:

Totally don’t have pictures but would be great if I did. My horse took off bucking in my horsemanship pattern at the madness and I so gracefully stuck his bronco bucks and stayed on! Walked out of the pen and the other girls said way to stick it cowgirl, I would have bailed.. I laugh now but it was not humorous at moment! I call that one “nailed it.”

Dianna Moser:

So many causes for embarrassment and LOTS of messed up patterns I could name but I’ll use this story – Olaf, my usually very agreeable little mini, decided the 2019 Pinto World Championship Show was his opportunity to fully go rogue. He was disqualified from every jumping class because he was soooooo upset about his tail being braided. So we went out and did the parade of shame each round.  Photo for tax, I think my face really says it all.

 

Courtney Anne:

When showing 4-H there wasn’t much you could use to keep your cowboy hat on while in the arena so my mom and I got creative and “stuck” Kotex pads inside the hat to secure it in place.

Of course, western show day had to be windy and my hat blew off while at the lope. To this day, I cannot imagine the thoughts that went thru the ringmasters mind while picking up hats off the ground & approaching mine to only question what in the world is inside this hat? Perhaps a sweat band.

Jordan Melegari:

The Pinto World Show 2022… I brought my young gelding who I DIY train. A few young horse bobbles in the showmanship, a 3rd place discipline rail ride, an okay horsemanship pattern getting in on a card or two… then came the pleasure. The pleasure was (and I think still is) his favorite class. His little brain can just relax and he doesn’t have to try as hard- ding ding ding. He did SO good in the green western pleasure, but was a little “out horsed,” which I expected. He got funny towards the end, so I dismounted at the exit gate knowing chaos was about to ensue. However he kept it together! We knew something wasn’t right so we took him back to the stall and unsaddled- ta da! He flooded the stall he had to pee so bad. Surely I thought, okay, the open junior pleasure would be our class! He liked this arena way more anyways. We re-saddle and head to the pen. He started out warming up great! Then boom! Chaos. All of the sudden the decides he doesn’t want to go forward. About to trot down the center, I coax him into going forward and we made it to the gate. Then he spooked at the same gate he’d seen for two weeks. We make it down the center, miraculously. Walk, jog, lope the first way he does okay, not great, not bad- just okay. But I could tell something was about to happen. We reverse and so does he. As in, after we dirk around he said “no ma’am. I’m done today.” I could not get this animal to go forward. I look up and the steward is encouraging me to the center, and out of the pen. Still backing up and trying to go forward, I nod my head. Didn’t work, still in reverse… sometime later, we eventually exit the arena… Blessed to say that I had made it 18+ years in the horse world and that was the second time I had been excused from a class, and a 1st for disobedience. And of COURSE it had to be the biggest show of our year….. Two weeks of Oklahoma heat on a 4 year old that had less than 6 shows under his belt is tough for a little guy like him- as seen in the pic! Still love my little buddy and he has since learned to not take part in those shenanigans.

Misty Rhinehart:

I was getting ready to do my youth showmanship pattern at The Dixie Nationals something startled my mare in the bleachers and her halter broke and well along came the chaos!

 

Cindy Myers:

My daughter is trying to run fast for best jumping time but claims her boots were too slippery.

 

 

 

Trish Knechtel Crump:

Omg. In a trail class after we crossed a bridge and walk through a fan, my gelding picked up a ficus tree and proceeded to back through the fan with a tree in his mouth. Same gelding/different show, decided he did not like the cows outside the trail pen, proceeded to haul bum backwards while the ring crew tried to close the gate to stop him… he knocked the fence down. But it was a kind short fence so, that’s OK, right?

Kim Blockus:

My gelding has always been good in trail but was special about being alone in the arena. So when I was a youth I was riding in a trail class when suddenly he decided he didn’t like to be alone. So I worked the gate (it was a solid gate, not a rope Gate) when he freaked out and crashed the whole thing!

So when I was done they had to rebuild the gate before the class could go on.

Another trail story was with the same horse, different rider, but many many years later when he was really a bombproof show horse , it was her first show, first trail, she worked the gate as it just fell apart and she was carrying the middle part of it. I felt so bad for her!

Heather Field Benedict:

Showmanship at an AQHA show….gelding decides to pee in the middle of the class and it tripped me up so bad that when I was presenting my horse I almost ran into the judge. I knew I was done for.

Jennifer Grassman Hilaman:

4H builds character!  While showing my DIY 2yr old in his first ever county fair(I was 17), my friend’s gelding was unimpressed with the lights, sounds and mechanics of the rides surrounding the arena. Her horse was dancing and misbehaving in the showmanship lineup as we waited for the nth exhibitor to get through their pattern. My little guy was being a gem and I was trying to remain focused when her gelding wheeled and kicked me in the thigh from behind, tossing me into the dirt in front of my 2yr old-who stood like a statue. It knocked my glasses off my face, I scooped them up and popped back into position next to Lucky Darin. I was so quick-the judge never saw it and he placed her horse one above me. Check out the hat! Now that’s embarrassing!

 

Natalie Fisher:

Mine seem to always happen during SMS. Kentucky State fair QH show. The zipper on my pants broke when I was in the warmup pen. Side zip so there was no hiding it. Proceed to show with like 10 safety pins down my thigh. Very noticeable. Still got reserve though. That was when I learned that my underwear needs to match my SMS pants.

Fast forward few years later at an open show. I’m in the warmup pen just trotting around warming up the horse and all of a sudden I drop to my knees. I look up hoping no one saw me crash and burn & a group of people are staring at me & we all just start cracking up.

Emily Marie Smith:

I’ve been waiting 11 years for this day.

My first time making the world show finals in the equitation over fences, my first time getting a globe. Went up to get my photo and my awards, they handed me a bag with a few things in it. Had that bag hanging on one arm, my hand on the reins and the globe in the other hand.

The bag started brushing against my horses side, he was not a fan of this. He starts spinning to get away from the bag, I had my hand on the buckle of the rein and had absolutely no control. Rookie mistake. At this point, I accepted my fate and started mentally planning my crash landing in a way that would not break the globe.

I not-so-gracefully made my exit from my saddle, and luckily there was a photo taken right as I hit the ground. While my ego was bruised, my trophy was in one piece. Great (and mildly traumatizing) 2011 world show memories.