Competing too much in one weekend?

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MrsMurs

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How much is too much?

Asking for a good friend as i dont know how best to advise?
Horse in question is competition fit and entered into a n unaffiliated ode on sunday. She's been asked to enter a sj competitiin on the saturday (on same horse) to stand in for someione who is ill. The competitions are all 80cm, so low level. She would love to help out but is competing in 2 jumping competitions on consecutive days on the same horse a bit much? Her priority is her lovely boy, but obviously would like to help her friend out. If it was the ode on the saturday i would be of the mind to not consider it, as it will obviously be more strenuous.

Thoughts would be very welcome
 
I definitely don't think it would be too much if the horse is competition fit and it's only 80cm. But wouldn't do it if it's a long journey for the horse. Def wouldn't do the ODE followed by SJ but I think a small SJ class followed by a ODE should be fine. Also the temperature has now dropped so it's not like it's 30 degrees!
 
If the horse is fit enough, then should not be an issue at all. Treat it as dress rehearsal for the ode?

Our horses trail hunt on a saturday, can be anywhere between 2 - 6 hrs, and unless we have a very fast/jumping day, quite often do something on the sunday. The horses are fit and show no reluctance.

People forget what a fit horse is capable of - I remember my Dad hacking 1-2 hrs to hunt meets, hunting all day, then hacking home in the dark. And that was the norm in his day.....though I doubt any of us have our horses that fit anymore.
 
It depends on the horse. For a 16hh event fit TB 80cm is not too much. For a 138 or even 148 pony it could be. For a heavyweight cob it is. Personally - I would hesitate to endorse that without more information. Why is a fully competition fit eventer doing an unaffiliated ODE and at this point in the year? How old is the horse? Is doing this going to over strain a youngster or over stress and oldie? Is the SJ on day 1 a surface or grass? Where is the ODE and what is the ground like? The weather isn't overly hopeful so if this is clinging ground is OP risking injury on the second day having fatigued her horse on day 1? Is day one phase two or jump off? does the horse need a long warm up, or a warm up class?

A fully fit younger hunter not expected to have a long performance life - L&M is right. But no horse is fully hunting fit at this stage in the year and if you routinely hunt 2 consecutive days (which you would have to do with 2 packs as no huntsman will put his hounds out on 2 consecutive days - for good reason) your horse will have a shorter ridden life.

I'm not against - or even inexperienced at - multi day competition. But you prep your horses accordingly. If day 1 is on a surface, two phase and in easy travel - yes for a fully fit horse in heavy work. Otherwise...you risk injury, or a fatigued horse on day 2 which XC can lead to mistakes which can be fatal. Either way - as a one off you do little damage with adequate rest afterward. But as a regular occurrence you limit the horse's performance life.

Anyone old enough now to remember hacking 2 hours plus to a meet and back - and I did as a child - How old were the horses when they were PTS? 18? 20? I know they often had other jobs and other strains, and we didn't know as much then as we do now to keep an oldie comfortable. But we also didn't regularly see late teens horses still in active work.

We need more info to offer a balanced view.
 
Shay said:
It depends on the horse. For a 16hh event fit TB 80cm is not too much. For a 138 or even 148 pony it could be. For a heavyweight cob it is. Personally - I would hesitate to endorse that without more information. Why is a fully competition fit eventer doing an unaffiliated ODE and at this point in the year? How old is the horse? Is doing this going to over strain a youngster or over stress and oldie? Is the SJ on day 1 a surface or grass? Where is the ODE and what is the ground like? The weather isn't overly hopeful so if this is clinging ground is OP risking injury on the second day having fatigued her horse on day 1? Is day one phase two or jump off? does the horse need a long warm up, or a warm up class?

A fully fit younger hunter not expected to have a long performance life - L&M is right. But no horse is fully hunting fit at this stage in the year and if you routinely hunt 2 consecutive days (which you would have to do with 2 packs as no huntsman will put his hounds out on 2 consecutive days - for good reason) your horse will have a shorter ridden life.

I'm not against - or even inexperienced at - multi day competition. But you prep your horses accordingly. If day 1 is on a surface, two phase and in easy travel - yes for a fully fit horse in heavy work. Otherwise...you risk injury, or a fatigued horse on day 2 which XC can lead to mistakes which can be fatal. Either way - as a one off you do little damage with adequate rest afterward. But as a regular occurrence you limit the horse's performance life.

Anyone old enough now to remember hacking 2 hours plus to a meet and back - and I did as a child - How old were the horses when they were PTS? 18? 20? I know they often had other jobs and other strains, and we didn't know as much then as we do now to keep an oldie comfortable. But we also didn't regularly see late teens horses still in active work.

We need more info to offer a balanced view.
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Definitely, there are so many factors involved in making any decison like this, and ultimately i know she will air on the side of caution. Sj would be on a surface and 1 round with a jump off. I dont know about the dressage or sj at the ode or indeed the going.

Really appreaciate your perspective.
 
It would probably depend as well how important the result is of the ODE. If the ODE is the priority then I probably wouldn't risk jeopardising the ODE by jumping the day before if I didn't know how the horse would cope with it.
 
I would expect any halfway fit horse to be able to do a whole weekend of competition especially that way round. Horses 40 years ago were often working for hours every day with one day off. Only proviso would be if the horse was very unfit and fat to be honest. People tend to molly coddle horses and think they are in hard work if they do an 80 ODE once in a blue moon
 
I can't see a problem with it at all. 1 round of show jumping at 80 is not hard! Horse will barely register that level of effort unless it is very unfit already or unless it gets stressed and so finds it mentally demanding.

The ODE may feel hard mainly because most horses are not used to 5-6 minutes of sustained forward canter over fences. So horse will be tired at the end of that whether she jumps on Saturday or not.

Incidentally if you join the Eland Lodge Adult camps the programme is:
Day 1: 90 minutes SJ, 1 hour hack
Day 2: 90m minutes XC, 30minutes private dressage
Day 3: Full ODE!

Pony club junior camp was 3 days too:
3 hours riding per day on days 1 & 2
Day 3 - Full ODE!

A few horses and ponies found that too much and in fact we pulled Dolly out of some of the sessions as she is not fit. But most horses were fine and that is several orders of magnitude harder than what your friend is considering.
 
windand rain said:
I would expect any halfway fit horse to be able to do a whole weekend of competition especially that way round. Horses 40 years ago were often working for hours every day with one day off. Only proviso would be if the horse was very unfit and fat to be honest. People tend to molly coddle horses and think they are in hard work if they do an 80 ODE once in a blue moon
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😂😂😂
 
windand rain said:
I would expect any halfway fit horse to be able to do a whole weekend of competition especially that way round. Horses 40 years ago were often working for hours every day with one day off. Only proviso would be if the horse was very unfit and fat to be honest. People tend to molly coddle horses and think they are in hard work if they do an 80 ODE once in a blue moon
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Completely agree. Unless for some reason the SJ is going to a very long day, it should be absolutely fine.
 
I used to have to take one of my horses jumping the day before a ODE to get his head in the game, never thought twice about it as horse was well fit for the level it was competing and if I was doubting his fitness he wouldn’t of been doing an ODE in the first place. Only inconvenience was all the horse/tack/lorry cleaning had to be done the evening before!

At a higher level I’d be more cautious but if it’s a horse in full work surely they are out training/at lessons/comps several times a week anyway?!
 
I would do this with my horse if the horse is fit shouldn't be a problem it sounds like it's a one off not a regular thing the horse can have a day off on Monday.
 
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