Do I send my horse to a SJ or Dressage rider?

[Corona]

I'm thoroughly exasperated with this malarkey now! Have to decide between 2 places, both perfectly credible and fab results. One is a top Dressage rider, really lovely, tiny bit pricey but acceptable, has around 6 horses currently. Can pop them a fence but doesn't compete jumping obviously. May be rather busy with other advanced horses and lectures/demo's etc. I'm sure horse would be very well looked after and be going *hopefully* great on the flat, get him out to some comps etc. Horse is 4 and bred to event so I really want him to get going with his jumping too. I don't want him missing out on the jumping aspect of things, which i fear he may do here.

Showjumper is also a lovely rider and very succesfull at what she does. Has another 4 yr old aimed at scope age class and a more advanced horse. Would certainly get the boy out and about and seeing different things. She is very SJ minded though and I worry that his flatwork would suffer here (i know flatwork is vital in sj but I can often see a glaring difference between the way the two disciplines go on the flat).

Also have the details of a very highly recommended eventer, so maybe this is the route to go down. I just feel he needs a good allround grounding and experience, without one aspect of his training "suffering". This is to compete by the way, not just for some schooling.

Any thoughts, and apologies for any mistakes/erraticness, this is rather rushed, and I am frazzled!

 

[NELSON11]

My boy who was 4 last week is having his bag packed tonight to go to school tomorrow.

He is TBXKWPN bred to event. However he is going to Matt Cartmell who is a show jumper. One because he is a beautiful rider also on the flat, he has a lot of success.

But also the yard/staff/everything was so professional. Personally I would go for the jumping train of thought if you are looking to jump in the future.

 

[shark1]

If you want it to be an eventer i would send it to an eventer.

the dressage person sounds pretty busy.
if you're worried about the showjumpers flatwork how do hers go? would you be happy if yours went like that? she sounds like she'd have alot of time to spend on yours (but i would wonder why she only had 2 in if shes thats good).

intead of showjumpers per se, i would look for a good young horse producer whose into showjumping. they dont have their name in lights as much as they produce then sell them before they make a name for themselves. that would be my second choice anyway after an eventing home dressage last purely for the fact i would want it to 'live' outside of dressage & do some jumping comps (regardless of what kind) while young.

just some more ideas for you to mull over anyway!

 

[Corona]

Thanks for that, I know it's sad times isn't it :-(. He's a talented boy but babyish and spooky, so I just keep wondering whether the dressage rider will be up to the job, or I'll end up with a horse scoring fab in dressage but useless at jumping. ho hum! x

 

[canteron]

Look, I know nothing, but my advice would be whoever you send them to give really clear instruction as to what you want to achieve and don't let them overface a 4 year old in either of the disciplines.

for example ....
if you choose the Dressage person .... you want good basic work, but the horse needs experience/variety above learning piaffe, etc.

and if you choose the Showjumping person ... you want a horse who is confident and jumps small jumps well, rather than something that will blindly jump enormous things without understanding the basics.

So, choose the one you trust .... in my experience brief them well they may well look at you oddly and say they 'know their job' but ultimately its your money and your horse and be extremely clear why you are giving them both of these!!