Breakdown of your eventing training for 1* upward

[paddi22]

Hi, Was hoping to get some advice from other eventers on their average weekly/two weekly training programme and alsohow the view their dressage riding/technique eventing as compared to pure dressage.

Horse in question really struggled with dressage in general, built like a carthorse, had never been schooled when i got him - he is a machine xc, loves sj but slightly green. We did a bootcamp dressage basically all last year and got him muscled up, balanced and getting good scores. Continued that over winter and at first event he was 30 dressage so was delighted. His xc and jumping did go down slightly, so realised i did need to focus on them more moving up a level.

So this year we spread the training a bit more evenly and his dressage has gone horrendous again, but xc and jumping fine. Its like he was in 'dressage brain' mode during his bootcamps, and now his training is more varied he has lost that, and is hurried and rushed in the dressage and very tense and resisting. I'm a very calm rider, i enjoy getting into the ring and dont care about scores/judges etc, and have no issues with tension riding other horses at shows, so my guess is its mostly him and I need to modify my riding to cope with that. In pure affiliated dressage shows on surfaces he is 100% and getting good scores at a higher level than the eventing dressage, its just the grass and xc fences around him make him down tools.

I guess my issue is what is the breakdown of training that you do, at the moment mine is

Sunday - event
Monday - day off
Tues - 3 plus hour hack up hills doing long and low
weds - dressage, run through test parts
Thurs - Polework
Fri - general random, if theres a training thing on anywhere i go to it, otherwise its a hack
Sat - dressage/polework

Would be really interested to hear how other people manage their weakest phase training so they keep everything balanced as much as possible in all phases!

I'd also like to hear any opinions on how people modify their dressage for eventing. I feel like when im doing pure dressage we are great and he understands and is on board mentally, but that that version of dressage doesn't seem to work at events. I'd'd be really interested in hearing others opinions on pure dressage/eventing dressage technique or mindset

 

[ihatework]

It's often quite horse dependant for most people and also dependant on what else is going on in background too.

Personally I wouldn't be working on a weekly cycle. I'd be looking at it more on a 2-3 week cycle.

There is no where in there for canter work? You need to factor that in.

I'd also be inclined to limit the 3 hour hacks, whilst I'm sure well intentioned I think the hacking time could be better utilised. If you are struggling on dressage then maybe consider every 3rd day riding twice. An hours walk hack in the morning but using the time to do lots of supplying exercises whilst hacking, then a shorter but hopefully more productive dressage/polework session later in the day.

I presume you don't do an event every week?
I quite like it when the horses run in cycles, particularly at the lower levels - 3 events in reasonably quick succession followed by a period of consolidation/training etc

 

[paddi22]

Yeah sorry the canter work would be on the tues. we do long and low up the mountains and then have a canter round the forest and amble home.

I like the idea the 2/3 week cycle. I hadn't thought of that. At the moment its an event every two weeks, so a two week cycle would make sense. I can see the logic in stepping back after three and analysing where we are at. I just got caught off guard this year as we flew around last year very consistently, and this year we are off kilter a bit. And i'd been very confident we have pre season prep done correctly. So I'm at a bit of a loss as I keep them at home with no eventing trainer anywhere near me.

I take to other eventers who all train with a well known female irish eventer. But to be honest, I think her programme treats horses like machines, drills them non stop and is not horse-welfare based in the slightest. I can see it gets results for her, but I see her students struggle and I want to find a more holistic happy programme for my guy. So any advice from happy eventers is appreciated!

 

[be positive]

It is a while since I had horses doing novice and above but agree with thinking in 2 or even 3 weekly cycles aiming to "peak" at each event, if the horse is fit enough to start the season then hacking is more of down time, keeping them toned and is often the warm up or cool down time, a 45 min walking hack followed by some schooling or the other way round depending on the horse.
I would look at 6 or 7 flatwork sessions within the 2 weeks, 1 or 2 can be short if the desired work is achieved with a hack/ canter to follow or a jump if required, there is no reason to set it in stone if the horse does some good work give it a reward so you don't feel you are drilling for the sake of it or to do the hour you planned.

 

[EventingMum]

I agree with the riding twice a day some days and incorporating some extra flat work on those days. I think it's hard to be too regimented in terms of a training programme. I would want to be taking feedback from the horse on what is needing worked on. It could be some days the horse produces the work you are asking for very easily and quickly so I'd cut that session short and go for a hack. Other weeks it might be more of a struggle so an extra flatwork session could be added in. The one thing I would obviously keep in is the fast work / interval training, although it would be adjusted once the horse was fit enough to a level to maintain fitness not increase it.

We have a horse who was always going to struggle slightly with the flatwork due to his conformation however he could produce reasonably good work at home or at dressage only competitions. At events if he could hear tannoys at all the quality of work suffered and he became tense as to him tannoys equalled cross country. The odd time we had early dressage times before the xc had started the better he went. He was also better at three day events as there wasn't any xc on dressage days. Dressage only shows can often be much calmer atmospheres than events and that could be affecting your horse OP.

 

[Goldenstar]

When I had horses doing more serious stuff they were ridden twice a day most days .
It's very difficult to deal with the 'the jumping to coming horses 'in the dressage areas .
It's a boring but it's is worth doing as many dressage tests at any type of show you get to in the run up to the event .
It's also worth spending time working on the warm up roultine to get it optimal if it's possible it might be a good investment to get your trainer to go to an event and help you work on a warm up plan and on what's the best way to deal with riding the tests

 

[Lyle]

2** CCI prep. We used the CIc/CNC events to get a bit of match fitness in. All events in Aus are over 2 days, so XC was always a Sunday. I factored this into my program with Sunday being a gallop day.

Sunday: Gallop interval training. Building up to 3x 10 minute reps at the required speed for your level, with a 4 minute breather in between.
Monday: Day off
Tuesday: Gentle Hack to the arena (15 minutes) Dressage School, Hack home again.
Wednesday: Jumping lesson (with a solid 30 minutes of flat work)
Thursday: Gallop Day
Friday: Gentle walking Hack
Saturday: Gentle Hack to the arena, Dressage school, Hack home.

All jumping done in my lesson. Gallop Sunday may have included a XC school. Long hacks were done preseason. Seasoned horses should have pretty good stamina in general. The gallop work is so important so both you and your horse learn to travel at that speed. This system worked for me and my horse would be so full of running at the end of a course. He wasn't a natural galloper, but was relentless in his rhythm (and finger tip control, meant I didn't have to pull up for the jumps) so would finish super comfortably within the optimum time. And was always a total knobber the next day in the trot up, and would SJ super, so I guess he must have felt pretty good!

 

[paddi22]

thanks so much for all the replies, really useful and I'l take it on board. The suggestion of a more fluid programme is definitely a better one that what i am doing. I think in my head i imagine some weekly perfect training recipe!

I think if i do more dressage work/test run throughs in a cross country field then i might get a closer version of the horse that i get at events!