advice please

L

lydia

Active Member
Joined
21 October 2011
Messages
45
Location
bucks
Visit site
i will try to make this as brief as possible!

i have owned a 16.2 irish cob for 2 and a half years now. i bought him just after having my daughter therefore wanted something safe but not boring! he is brilliant and i love him to bits! he is spooky and spins out hacking but i am an experienced rider so this i don't mind! my problem is his ability! he has taught me so much about bringing on young horses (i bought him as a uneducated 4 yr old). but my dream has always been to event and now i'm getting slightly bored of doing the same thing! he is spooky showjumping and will duck out at fences and is not happy jumping over 1metre, i would like to be able to have the choice of jumping bigger fences.
i went to groom at a event yesterday with a friend of mine for the first time in ages and found myself terrified at the thought of attempting anything like that on my boy, but would love to have a partnership with a horse capable!
so my question is do i stick at my hunting throughout the winter and maybe a few unaffiliated shows in the summer on a horse i know and love that is so cheap and easy to keep (hes a real leg at each corner type that lives on fresh air)! or do i follow my dream and get something capable of what i would love to do!
any feed back would be really appreciated, its has become an impossible decision!
 
honestly? get your instructor or a really competent rider to ride him a few times, and maybe show you what he can do. he shouldn't duck out or be unhappy at 1m fences... and if he's 16.2 and irish, even if he is a bit chunky (a cob?), he will probably be able to do a lot more...
 
lydia said:
my dream has always been to event and now i'm getting slightly bored of doing the same thing! he is spooky showjumping and will duck out at fences and is not happy jumping over 1metre, i would like to be able to have the choice of jumping bigger fences.
i went to groom at a event yesterday with a friend of mine for the first time in ages and found myself terrified at the thought of attempting anything like that on my boy, but would love to have a partnership with a horse capable!
so my question is do i stick at my hunting throughout the winter and maybe a few unaffiliated shows in the summer on a horse i know and love that is so cheap and easy to keep (hes a real leg at each corner type that lives on fresh air)! or do i follow my dream and get something capable of what i would love to do!
Click to expand...

Won't your lad do unaffiliated ODEs and hunter trials? These, IMO, offer all the enjoyment of eventing without the need for an athlete of a horse and all the problems that could come with one.

Do you really want to jump larger fences, or do you just want to prove to other people that you can jump larger fences? The day out and the experience isn't all that different because the fences are only 2'6 not 3'6 and if your horse is willing and able to be competitive up to a metre personally I think you are better off sticking with him than trying to replace him with an ambition machine. IME they often turn out disappointing and as a rider you wish you could have your old horse back who was perhaps less talented, but if it was sound with a nice attitude you realize just how important these attributes are if your new horse turns out not to have them.

ETA A lot of cobs do compete at BE now there are 80 and 90cm classes. Get your horse out eventing. :)
 
Last edited:
he is a cob! and we jump bigger than 1m out hunting so he does have the jump in him, i have regular training from a event rider and he will not do a course of over 1m. he does not duck out always (this is mainly spooky fillers or daunting jumps ) but he knows that the fences are not fixed and will happily plough through them!
 
this is what i wanted to hear, there is a local hunter trials coming up soon that im going to take him too and see how we get on there. i think having always worked for event riders the thrill and rush they get can become a bit contagious! but as you said i could always try him at be 80/90 and see how we fair!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top