Curious - Preparing for BE

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ss_welly

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Hi :)

Next year I'm hoping to compete at BE80 for the first time and I've got my sights set on Poplar Park in March. I've competed at several unaffiliated events over the last 5/6 years and am confident that my horse has the potential too well (just hoping my nerves hold up for xc!).

I'm currently having weekly lessons with a fantastic instructor and working on both flat work and jumping and my horse is fairly fit. I am just wondering what people do to get themselves and their horse ready for the spring. How often do you ride and for how long? What do you focus on? Does the work get more intense closer to the Spring? etc etc.

Thanks in advance :)
 
When Isla competed robin at 90 we didn’t really know him and how he would be apart from her had already done a 90. we did 2 schooling Xc sessions. Then a pick a fence where he did all but 2 of the 90 fences. He then went to 2 she schoomubg nights and did the 85 and then 95. I had taken him to dressage. So we just put it all together and took him out.

He was being ridden 5 or 6 days a week with a mix of both me and Isla riding. So Isla would jump him once or maybe twice and would do fast work with him. Then I would school maybe twice a week and a slower hack. We were worried about him being fit enough but he was plenty fit at that and got round without even puffing!
 
I'm aiming for BE in Spring for the first time too, so will watch this thread with interest.

For what it's worth, I think you need to look at the 3 phases and work out where your horse is in relation to all of them. In my case, Amber is very bold XC so I don't plan to jump her XC until Spring. She just does not need it. If I had a horse who lacked confidence I'd do some XC schooling over the winter. But I am focusing on dressage and showjumping, plus fitness. I am hacking her 1-2 times a week, schooling 2-3 times and jumping once. I doubt I will change the basic training structure much as Spring approaches but hacks will become faster so she is fit enough to jump round the XC safely and in the time allowed.
 
ETA in terms of what we are focusing on:

SJ - all you need to do is go clear! So work on accuracy & confidence at the height you will be jumping. I plan to do BE90 so I am targeting 90cm SJ classes over the winter to make sure she is fine at that height. We are not there yet as her canter is not good enough and she is too wild in front of fences (lock on and launch) but I know where I need to be by Spring.

Dressage - if you have a trainer then maker sure she knows you want to event so you focus on getting the basics as good as they can be. And school her a few times on grass if she is not used to that. You know the test will be straightforward so you have plenty of time to work on that. As far as I can work out from the unaff comps, if you want to do well as opposed to just get round, then you HAVE to have a very good dressage score. Or you are out of it before you even start jumping. So I plan to spend 90% of my time and effort on the dressage phase.

I'd love to hear thoughts from more experienced people though....
 
Thank you for your responses, I'm really excited to get her out next year. I definitely need to do more xc schooling as I think this is my weakest phase, my horse isn't particularly nervous but I am (due to a bad fall) and this feeds into her.

With riding over the winter and the time available, what's better: 20-30 minutes 5/6 days a week or 1hr+ 2/3 times a week or a mixture? And roughly how long do you spend schooling?
 
When I had my 'season' eventing - 3x80s and a 90 (unfortunately injury and now age - his! - has prevented us doing more) -I didn't really find I needed to do any more than I did for unaffiliated eventing. M is the sort of horse who is very laid back and has no adrenalin at all. He drops like a stone when he gets tired so I've always had to have him really fit even for local stuff. When we were doing BE, I was riding about 5-6 times a week - mostly hacking with lots of hills - with a mix of slower and faster work. I'd school maybe once a week as he gets very stale and switches off if he does too much flatwork but would work on certain things like engagement and transitions while out hacking. I wouldn't do any jumping in between events, mainly as he was an older horse and I wanted to keep the mileage down but also because he's an ex show jumper so really didn't need the practice for 80 and 90. I did have a few lessons and had been to camp a few weeks before our first one - more for me than him.

It really depends on the horse - if I were to be eventing my other one I'd be jumping a lot more as he was the sort to need to be doing it regularly to be confident but I'd do less fittening as he's naturally fitter and will run on adrenalin a bit. I'd also have to practice flatwork on grass for weeks beforehand so he didn't think it was the most exciting thing in the world when he got there!
 
ss_welly said:
Thank you for your responses, I'm really excited to get her out next year. I definitely need to do more xc schooling as I think this is my weakest phase, my horse isn't particularly nervous but I am (due to a bad fall) and this feeds into her.

With riding over the winter and the time available, what's better: 20-30 minutes 5/6 days a week or 1hr+ 2/3 times a week or a mixture? And roughly how long do you spend schooling?
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Neither is enough to have a horse fit to event.
However either should be fined to keep a baseline fitness ticking over if you can the do 4-6 weeks of fittening work before your first event.
 
It is obviously a good idea to have cross country instruction and learn how to tackle all the different fences - steps, ditches, water, brush, rails, etc. etc - and practice over show jumps that are a good 6" larger than any cross country fence you are likely to meet, and you can also practice things like coffin fences in the show jumping arena and take part in that 2 part arena competition.

But I think you need at least a couple of goes round a cross country course where you start at the beginning and just ride round the whole course as if it was a competition. This gives the horse some idea that he doesn't just jump one fence and then stop and have a rest! I think if you can do this successfully then you will be ready to tackle your first competition.
 
I always used to hunt my eventers up until Christmas - helps make them bold and they have a good level of fitness over the winter. Then do indoor dressage and show jump competitions from New Year until March, at a level at least as high as the BE level they would be competing at. So if I was aiming for a 90, then I'd be SJ at 100.

Then just before the 1st event of the season, say 2-3 weeks before, we'd have a tune up by going to a local team chase, and either doing the novice bogey class, or a pairs class, just to get the horses out of indoor jumping mode, and nice and forward to a fence. Helps to get the rider's eye in for XC after too much show jumping lol!

Horse should be doing 1 hr - 1 1/2 hr work a day, say an hour schooling, or 1.5 hr forward and purposeful hack (plenty of trotting, no ambling). The mixture of jump schooling/flatwork etc depends on the type of horse, what they need and how easy they are to keep the aerobic fitness levels. It's hard to plan a fitness programme without knowing anything about the horse!
 
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