palo1
Well-Known Member
I could do with some advice or views please!!
My young horse is now able to do more and I have set myself a goal or two. My primary one is, hopefully, low enough hanging fruit: I would like my mare (full Welsh D) and I to qualify (not necessarily compete at!) the Native Championship (dressage) at Novice (Bronze) . That is enough of a target at the moment to be honest as we have only competed at intro this year. I have previously trained and competed (years ago) at higher. It may take a while but it is at least a very specific, concrete goal. The qualifying scores are 3 x 60% (last time I checked).
I don't especially want to 'shine' (ie qualify) at prelim but will probably sign up for that too as you never know and I understand I can register for qualification at more than 1 level. Does that sound reasonable or would it be more tactical to just aim straight for a novice qualification? That might save money on comp entries as well as focus my mind...
We need to put more work in for sure but at least I know the basics are in place. I am very happy to do the work needed BUT I don't have an arena and am planning to trail hunt the mare probably once fortnightly this season from October (well now actually) till March. Because of work and other horse/stock commitments I will be riding the mare 3x a week with possibly squeezing in 1 more session. The qualifying period for the Championship is March - October (usually).
I would rather invest in training than spend on competition outings so every comp entry has to be very tactical! I want to get the qualification as efficiently as possible. Alw is quite happy to load, travel, deal with new stuff etc and I will be trying to expose her to a couple of local competition venues over winter if I can.
I am not sure which BD membership to go for: Full (with horse registration) which will cost me about £180 or Club (ie Quest) which would be £45 but IF I qualify and wanted to compete at the Championship, I would then have to upgrade (not sure if I can just pay the difference of about £140 or pay the whole Full membership thing). I am short on funds (always) and certainly not sure in any way that I would want the additional expense and hassle of travel to and competing at the Championship if we qualified. But I might want to!! It would feel like a huge achievement for me tbh, if only in financial management terms lol. But I am likely to have to go solo and I think the championship event is a fair distance from home on the Welsh border and probably an overnight stay. Not sure how I feel about that...
Can anyone tell me what the Native Championship would be like in terms of experience?
I need help with a realistic training plan: I don't want to join the Riding Club; it is brilliant value for money, lovely and friendly and accessible BUT consistency in training is my preference and I simply haven't got time or energy to do the very necessary volunteering that the RC needs from it's members. I don't want to be that person that NEVER turns up to help with a show, fun ride etc. I have found in the past that the RC is not especially consistent training wise; lots of good clinics and plenty of variety but I think I need 1 person on side. Quite a few of the RC clinics etc are on days that I am either working or busy in some other way. I can't afford, nor have much time for additional stuff in all honesty and I am at peace with that.
Please help me work out which will be the best plan!
Plan A:-
Trail hunting 2 days per month
1 really decent training session once a month over the winter with a dressage trainer: cost £50 - can be done during a week day/ flexible times (This might mean I get to the Spring slightly more comp ready?)
Homework out hacking and possibly in an arena in between times?
1 other gneral training session a month or could that muddle us up? My local trainer is an all round good egg and for not much money could help with both flat and jumps which would be great and could give me more arena time under a watchful eye! Cost: £20
Total cost for training over winter £70 per month/ £420 for 6 months.
Plan B
Trail hunting 2 days per month
2 general training sessions in an arena with local trainer working on the basics and a bit of jumping too. Must be done on a Sunday due to trainers/ my other commitments. Trainer is on side for comp goals.
Total cost for training over winter: £40 per month/ £240 for 6 months.
I may or may not be as comp ready as with plan A but would have more money!!
What would a decent and manageable plan for the Spring/Summer qualifying period be? I really just want to compete to get the qualifying scores though happy to go as often as needed for that. Training is more important to me. Local trainer is £20 so could be weekly, dressage rider is about £50 so less often! Competitions/classes are about £20-25 and I would probably have to enter 2 classes (prelim and novice) so that would knock my training budget somewhat. Total budget monthly for training and comps (but not travel, BD registration or extra 'stuff) is about £120 per month. I could possibly find a bit more but I don' t really want to; if I can't get where I want for that I can happily stick to world class hacking at home lol! As I said earlier, I could just go for a novice qualification so wouldn't have to pay for prelim classes at a comp though I know it is generally good practice to go for 2 tests (with 1 as a warm up).
Would Spring/Summer money be best spent on dressage rider training twice monthly + 1 competition entry (2 classes) ? Approx training and competition cost £150 per month: 2 training @ £50 = £100 + comp entries @ £50 per month. Could I risk 1 class per comp (if not registering for Prelim qualifier thus reducing comp costs by about £20 per month)?
If winter plan B was taken into account that would work out at £95 per month, or more scarily £1140 total
Winter Plan A + Summer training & comps = £110 per month or slightly even scarier £1320 Cor Blimey!! Unless my maths is utterly rotten of course...
Alternative suggestions very welcome!! I mean I could just go solo all winter on the training (Novice isn't that bad after all...) then hit the Spring with more training. Tempting but risky?!
Thanks for anyone who has read this ramble - it actually helped me just to get it down on 'paper' as such!!
My young horse is now able to do more and I have set myself a goal or two. My primary one is, hopefully, low enough hanging fruit: I would like my mare (full Welsh D) and I to qualify (not necessarily compete at!) the Native Championship (dressage) at Novice (Bronze) . That is enough of a target at the moment to be honest as we have only competed at intro this year. I have previously trained and competed (years ago) at higher. It may take a while but it is at least a very specific, concrete goal. The qualifying scores are 3 x 60% (last time I checked).
I don't especially want to 'shine' (ie qualify) at prelim but will probably sign up for that too as you never know and I understand I can register for qualification at more than 1 level. Does that sound reasonable or would it be more tactical to just aim straight for a novice qualification? That might save money on comp entries as well as focus my mind...
We need to put more work in for sure but at least I know the basics are in place. I am very happy to do the work needed BUT I don't have an arena and am planning to trail hunt the mare probably once fortnightly this season from October (well now actually) till March. Because of work and other horse/stock commitments I will be riding the mare 3x a week with possibly squeezing in 1 more session. The qualifying period for the Championship is March - October (usually).
I would rather invest in training than spend on competition outings so every comp entry has to be very tactical! I want to get the qualification as efficiently as possible. Alw is quite happy to load, travel, deal with new stuff etc and I will be trying to expose her to a couple of local competition venues over winter if I can.
I am not sure which BD membership to go for: Full (with horse registration) which will cost me about £180 or Club (ie Quest) which would be £45 but IF I qualify and wanted to compete at the Championship, I would then have to upgrade (not sure if I can just pay the difference of about £140 or pay the whole Full membership thing). I am short on funds (always) and certainly not sure in any way that I would want the additional expense and hassle of travel to and competing at the Championship if we qualified. But I might want to!! It would feel like a huge achievement for me tbh, if only in financial management terms lol. But I am likely to have to go solo and I think the championship event is a fair distance from home on the Welsh border and probably an overnight stay. Not sure how I feel about that...
Can anyone tell me what the Native Championship would be like in terms of experience?
I need help with a realistic training plan: I don't want to join the Riding Club; it is brilliant value for money, lovely and friendly and accessible BUT consistency in training is my preference and I simply haven't got time or energy to do the very necessary volunteering that the RC needs from it's members. I don't want to be that person that NEVER turns up to help with a show, fun ride etc. I have found in the past that the RC is not especially consistent training wise; lots of good clinics and plenty of variety but I think I need 1 person on side. Quite a few of the RC clinics etc are on days that I am either working or busy in some other way. I can't afford, nor have much time for additional stuff in all honesty and I am at peace with that.
Please help me work out which will be the best plan!
Plan A:-
Trail hunting 2 days per month
1 really decent training session once a month over the winter with a dressage trainer: cost £50 - can be done during a week day/ flexible times (This might mean I get to the Spring slightly more comp ready?)
Homework out hacking and possibly in an arena in between times?
1 other gneral training session a month or could that muddle us up? My local trainer is an all round good egg and for not much money could help with both flat and jumps which would be great and could give me more arena time under a watchful eye! Cost: £20
Total cost for training over winter £70 per month/ £420 for 6 months.
Plan B
Trail hunting 2 days per month
2 general training sessions in an arena with local trainer working on the basics and a bit of jumping too. Must be done on a Sunday due to trainers/ my other commitments. Trainer is on side for comp goals.
Total cost for training over winter: £40 per month/ £240 for 6 months.
I may or may not be as comp ready as with plan A but would have more money!!
What would a decent and manageable plan for the Spring/Summer qualifying period be? I really just want to compete to get the qualifying scores though happy to go as often as needed for that. Training is more important to me. Local trainer is £20 so could be weekly, dressage rider is about £50 so less often! Competitions/classes are about £20-25 and I would probably have to enter 2 classes (prelim and novice) so that would knock my training budget somewhat. Total budget monthly for training and comps (but not travel, BD registration or extra 'stuff) is about £120 per month. I could possibly find a bit more but I don' t really want to; if I can't get where I want for that I can happily stick to world class hacking at home lol! As I said earlier, I could just go for a novice qualification so wouldn't have to pay for prelim classes at a comp though I know it is generally good practice to go for 2 tests (with 1 as a warm up).
Would Spring/Summer money be best spent on dressage rider training twice monthly + 1 competition entry (2 classes) ? Approx training and competition cost £150 per month: 2 training @ £50 = £100 + comp entries @ £50 per month. Could I risk 1 class per comp (if not registering for Prelim qualifier thus reducing comp costs by about £20 per month)?
If winter plan B was taken into account that would work out at £95 per month, or more scarily £1140 total
Winter Plan A + Summer training & comps = £110 per month or slightly even scarier £1320 Cor Blimey!! Unless my maths is utterly rotten of course...
Alternative suggestions very welcome!! I mean I could just go solo all winter on the training (Novice isn't that bad after all...) then hit the Spring with more training. Tempting but risky?!
Thanks for anyone who has read this ramble - it actually helped me just to get it down on 'paper' as such!!