Smelly socks and sneaky salutes: superstitions at the BD championships
Charlotte Dujardin, Emile Faurie, Richard Davison and many more reveal their strangest superstitions at the LeMieux British Dressage National Championships 2014.
Emile Faurie: “I can’t have any superstitions because I always tell my pupils they aren’t allowed to have them!”
H&H dressage editor Alice Collins: “None — but you have to have my left sock on my right foot and my right foot on my left foot”
Charlotte Dujardin: “My lucky breeches, which currently hold every world record, every title, every thing I’ve done for the past three years. I do wash them though you’ll be pleased to hear!”
David Pincus: “I have a pair of socks with holes in them and I always wear them when I have to ride well. I haven’t changed them for years.”
Kevin Sparrow: “Magpies, not walking underneath ladders, not coming in and out of different doors at home. Basically, most of them!”
Jess Gibbons: “I always have to have the buckle of the reins on the right hand side. And I’ve got into the habit of putting my horse’s banadages on anti-clockwise, starting with the near fore.”
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Winnie Murphy: “Never ever ever cross on the stairs.”
Louise Bell: “If I have changed a piece of equipment, I need to make sure I’ve used it first.”
Jess Thompson: “I’ve got a new bridle for this horse sat in the tackroom for the past three months, but I knew I had championships coming up so I refused to change it so she’s wearing a second-hand bridle made up from spare tack.”
Spencer Wilton: “I started wearing these gloves at the beginning of the week and as you can see they are looking pretty mucky. I nearly changed them today and I thought no, I’m going to keep them.”
Richard Davison: “Someone really irritatingly told me that if I dropped a glove I mustn’t pick it up as it’s bad luck. So whenever I drop a glove now, I have to find someone else to pick it up for me.”
Becky Moody: “The only thing I do is salute magpies. Just a really subtle little *gestures*.”
Do you have a superstition that you always act on? Let us know in the comments section below…
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