Cost of competing /worth affiliating?

[JadeyyBabeyy]

I've got a 6 year old who I'm producing slowly and eventually would like to affiliate when I get round to it. Not sure if jumping or dressage yet.
Roughly what do you spend weekly on competing or lessons?
Is it worth affiliating if I couldn't justify the costs of the away shows . To me spending 300 plus on an away show is a lot of money for one show.
Any other opinions or advice

 

[kc100]

Cant comment on jumping - but for dressage you rarely have to go to an 'away' show unless you are in a major champs. Regardless of affiliated or not, major champs are all pretty expensive.

Using my venue (in the West Mids) as an example, our classes cost £19 for a BD affiliated class and £10 for unaffiliated dressage that will qualify you for Cricklands. £11 for the unaffiliated classes that qualify you for Trailblazers. Most people do 2 tests if they come out to compete, so you are talking £20-£22 unaffiliated and £38 affiliated but affiliated does at least have the chance of winning your money back, as affiliated classes have prize money whereas typically unaff dont.

If you affiliate with BD you work towards Area Festivals or Regionals/Nationals, there are a number of venues running area festivals and regionals around the country so unless you are very remote, I'd say its likely there's a venue not too far away from you. Its only if you qualified for Nationals when it could become more an issue, as these are held at Stoneleigh (Warwickshire) in September and the winter nationals are at Hartpury in Gloucestershire.

Unaffiliated dressage there are not so many championships to work towards, Trailblazers is the big one and thats Stoneleigh again. Cricklands is held in Chepstow, South Wales. Badminton do an unaff championships I think as well.

In terms of lessons that will be up to you - very much dependant on who you choose as a trainer, whether you have the facilities at home for them to come to you or if you have to travel, and how many lessons you want. I have a youngster so not competing/training at the moment (he's only 2) but in the past I used to have a fortnightly lesson that cost £20, and would compete maybe once or twice a month unaffiliated. My trainer is very cheap I appreciate that; he's a BYRDS rider (just turned 19) and is at PSG, but is a fantastic rider and very talented trainer. He's cheap because of his age; but I dont care about that, I'm only interested in his abilities as a trainer and his understanding of dressage horses, which he has in abundance. Dressage trainers can be anything from £15/£20 per session right the way up into £100+ for a 'big name' Grand Prix rider. If you have to travel to them then that of course adds to the cost - I'm lucky in that I have the facilities so my trainer can come to me.

I'd say as a minimum you should be having 1 lesson per month if you can afford that, and generally prioritise lessons over competing.

 

[milliepops]

Does depend where you are. Lots of unaffiliated venues seem to run their own championship series these days so there is probably more to aim for in some areas.

I affiliated my younger horse (BD, I don't jump any more) immediately rather than start unaffiliated, mainly because I had a BD membership going to waste and I know what to expect at BD shows- good surfaces, good judges, sane warm ups (usually!) and a good experience all round.

Round me, entries are about £17 - £22 a class depending on the venue and level.

I pay about £70 for a lesson. While my more advanced horse has been off work I haven't had them very regularly as my other horse is at Novice/Elem and we can do a lot of that without supervision In order to get some experience in the ring she is going out to a show about every fortnight.
When Millie is back to proper work then I usually aim to have a lesson monthly, and might go to a show every 2-3 weeks or so.

 

[applecart14]

I've got a 6 year old who I'm producing slowly and eventually would like to affiliate when I get round to it. Not sure if jumping or dressage yet.
Roughly what do you spend weekly on competing or lessons?
Is it worth affiliating if I couldn't justify the costs of the away shows . To me spending 300 plus on an away show is a lot of money for one show.
Any other opinions or advice

If you choose to affiliate and you have an import you have to bear the cost of getting it assessed with BD. My horse came over from Holland as a seven year old and automatically had 260BD points due to his age. You have to get the horse assessed with BD with an accredited trainer who will assess you ride the horse and they will then tell you how many points they will slap on its record. It cost of £75 (or it was back then).

With BS I had to get the fax numbers from Germany, Holland and Belgium and fax them to ask if the horse's passported name had any winnings in their country otherwise they would have put me in at Grade B. There was no cost associated with this.

If i were you before you even think about affiliating I would go to an affiliated show on a 'ticket' and see how you get on. THere is a world of difference between an unaffilated track and a affilated track and with dressage there is a world of difference between unaffilated and affilated listed judges and the experience they have.

 

[smja]

As others have said, it depends on the discipline. Unless you have a particular aim in mind, why not do a bit of everything unaffiliated to get some comp experience for you both, then have a think about what route you both enjoy best?

For example, I have previously done a bit of unaff SJ, but am now contemplating joining BS since I've found my long-lost pair of brave pants and can't find unaff classes to suit.

 

[blood_magik]

with BS your membership costs vary depending on how much your horse has won and/or if they were imported.

Class costs are usually £12 for the smaller heights to I think £26 at 'normal' shows. For the bigger ones, I suspect entries will be more expensive and you'll have your stabling costs on top.

Right now, I'm spending £20 a week on lessons (but will go back to one a month shortly) and I usually spend about £30 on entries (two horses, one class each plus medical for me) when I go to a show.

 

[JadeyyBabeyy]

Thanks for all the replies. ..luckily he is English bred so no need to worry about any import costs/potential points.
We've been doing the unaffiliated shows in dressage and jumping, this is why I was considering if affliating was worth it.
And I have also done BS on a ticket and technically won the class... think I just needon't the kick up the bum and just do it