Eventers...give me a first event training plan

[Twiglet]

I've got a 6 yr old who I hope (gulp) to start BE with next year. I've never done any eventing, he's not even come close (has seen XC jumps twice in his life) so we're pretty much starting from scratch. He's currently competing at unaff Nov dressage and jumping weekly around 90cm at home. He's a big boy, and has grown from 16.1hh to 17.1hh in a year, so has taken quite a long time to get him to the point of being balanced, or knowing where his legs end. We have pretty good facilities for fittening, lots of gallops and hills.

So....ideas for a training plan to get us to a BE80 in March? How much fast work should he be doing? Any tips for good trainers in Surrey/SE?

Thanks all

 

[TiaPony]

For BE80 you shouldn't really need to do any fitness work, especially on such a big horse who should have a natural ground covering stride. Providing you are riding frequently (5 or so times a week) and including hacking and hills, you should have a fit enough horse.

 

[muffinmunsh]

Oh, I envy you! Nothing like taking a youngster out on their first one
My advice would be to do a bit of fittening work for both of you beforehand ... When you hack out, make sure you stand in your stirrups in trot for a few minutes each time, ride up hill at walk and trot, canter him in intervals... that sort of thing. Keep it simple and good fun and keep him enjoying it. If you can, ride him over logs and ditches and if you have put some red and white flags up on your jumps so he gets used to them.
Establish a rapport on how to bring him back if he gets a bit onward bound ... it is all about balancing them before the jump in the BE 80, that's about as technical as it gets... Get that right and you have nailed it!
And definitely do the guided course walk!

 

[miss_wilson]

I'm hoping do do my first BE80 in April so very interesting!!!

 

[Nicnac]

and another one working towards it (if I can ensure my daughter doesn't nick my horse )

Since he arrived in July as a 4 year old, we've been working on his flatwork to balance and strengthen and are now doing quite a bit of grid work over the winter with monthly clinics. I took him XC twice in the autumn but tiny and not for long. Have simulated XC clinic booked for early February, then will take him out XC schooling once or twice before the first event. I hope to do a couple of unaffiliated HT beforehand too.

Hacking wise, I can only get out once a week due to full-on job and weekly lesson one day at weekend, but try to trot/canter up hills ground permitting and have a great field at home for this, but it's a bog currently

Doing a BE event is on my bucket list and wanted to do one before I hit 50 - that didn't quite happen as not ideal on a Friesian, but now have the horse for it (even though he's capable of going a lot bigger than 80). Most of my years to date have been spent grooming for daughter and others and fence judging so have pretty good idea of what's required, just need brave pants!

 

[Twiglet]

Well the issue I have is that there's literally no BE80's near me (within two hours drive), at least not early in the season. The first I've found are BE90's at Tweseldown and Munstead, which are meant to be quite nice I think, so may have to start him there.

Muffinmush, great tips there....in typical baby fashion, he can get a bit onward bound - often a result of being unbalanced when he's tired rather than running away, so need to work on that a lot.

Unfortunately a massive lack of decent jumpable natural stuff near us, so going to be a question of hiring courses a couple of times and seeing how he gets on.

And yes, I need to work on my fitness too!

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

I agree with the above, hills and gallop work and lots of hacking around vaired terrain in different gaits

I hopefully taking S BE80 next year (whose also 6 ) so will be watching all the other peeps with youngster reports as to how they go

 

[muffinmunsh]

Aston Le Walls and Swalcliffe Park are lovely ones fairly early in the season. A bit of a drive from you but may be worth looking into.

Aston has the sj in an arena with a good surface and the x-c is lovely, not too twisty, good ground, not too hilly and very inviting. Try youtubing some of the courses you may want to visist, may just give you a good idea of the going.

Pulborough down your way is lovely, too. I think they may run an unfaffiliated early in the season ... their affiliated is towards the end.

Personally I really like Chilham Park as well. The ground can be tricky there and the sj warmup is on a hill side but to be honest, if you want to event you will probably have to get used to less than ideal conditions anyway ;-)

Not sure how long it would take you to get to Elmwood in Oxfordshire. There is a group called horse-events who run lovely combined trainings and events up there (unaffiliated). The atmosphere is really good and supportive.

 

[Twiglet]

Just taken another look and Swalcliffe and Elmwood aren't too far (probably just under two hours) so they could well be options for a BE80 and a training event respectively.

 

[Kelpie]

Tweseldown is nice but particularly up to height so I'm not sure I'd choose it for my first one. Munstead on the otherhand is quite a "soft" course, so a good first one.

For some XC practice beforehand, you'd probably be quite close to LMEQ in Reigate, wouldn't you? I often go there for clinics with Lucy Thompson, who is great and who I'd highly recommend for some XC lessons before venturing out.

 

[Twiglet]

Yes, not far from LMEQ and it's been recommended to me a couple of times - so will put that on the list.

Good info on Tweseldown vs Munstead!!

 

[Kelpie]

cool .... and good luck!

 

[fabscd]

If you're not far from LMEQ, you wouldn't be too far from Borde Hill (Haywards Heath, just down the M/A23) which runs a nice BE80 at the end of May, alternatively i think Mattingley run an unaffilliated event earlier in the year which has a BE80 class which is also a nice course. Good luck

 

[Twiglet]

Thanks for that fabscd, had forgotten about Borde Hill, that's not a million miles and indeed has a BE80 at the end of May Is Mattingley still running? I can't find any fixtures for there.....

 

[TiaPony]

Thanks for that fabscd, had forgotten about Borde Hill, that's not a million miles and indeed has a BE80 at the end of May Is Mattingley still running? I can't find any fixtures for there.....

Mattingley is unaff, they normally release details in the new year. Tweseldown runs an unaffiliated with an 80 - 14/15 April.

 

[Javabb94]

Good luck! I'm taking my 4 year old for her first BE80 at Eden valley in April - well she will have turned 5 five days before!

I'm really very exciting and I haven't really done any xc schooling yet either! She has seen water etc but the grounds just been too hard to attempt it!

Luckily she is kept at EV so she shouldn't find it too daunting!

 

[rotters13]

As a heads up - dont go to Tweseldown as it is very easy to get lost, the courses tend to be fairly full up but is a lovely course!

Munstead is much nicer course, lots of black flags if you need them.

Aston Le walls is lovely and has lots of unaffiliateds. Swalcliffe has a lovely 80 but it is fairly hilly! I live in the area so if you want some pointers on events just let me know!

Good luck and hope it goes well!

 

[star]

Definitely recommend Lucy Thompson at LMEQ. Ernest Dillon also teaching there a fair bit and have also enjoyed lessons with him. Richard Waygood fab if you can find clinics with him.

I would also steer clear of T/down as a first 90 - up to height and twisty course. They do an unaff 80 but it's not till later in the year. Munstead great first 90 - Ascott under Wychwood also nice. Borde Hill 90 quite stiff but the 80 is lovely. Larkhill is good. Aston le Walls nice and flat. Swalcliffe lovely course but quite hilly - currently debating whether to do our first one back after injury there or wait till Munstead the week after. We managed to go 42secs under the time at Swalcliffe last yr as the ****** just ran away with me with all the hills!

 

[TarrSteps]

Parwood and Chelwood are also facilities reasonably close to you, to look at for training/clinics, although neither are competitions sites. Make a few friends with people in your area on here and see if you can combine forces to get out and do some schooling.

As far as fitness, if you are riding regularly for a decent amount of time, and doing some "fast hacking" you should be fine. You don't want an insanely fit horse starting out anyway, just one that has a proper base of slow work and enough practice over varied ground to know what you're getting into. It's worth getting out to practice some galloping, though, not to work on speed per se but on finding a rhythm and stabilising your own position. And I would make sure you are doing enough cantering when you school - I find many people just do their "bit" of cantering for a few minutes and don't necessarily work in the canter, doing lots of changes of direction etc, so they really don't canter for more than a few minutes even though it seems like longer. It's also a good idea to make sure you are comfortable in your galloping position for approximately the time your courses will take, if not a bit more.

You can also start to do a bit of xc prep in the school, starting with "baby" exercises to work on accuracy and boldness. It's not the same as getting out and about but the better prepared your horse is to answer the questions, the more productive your schooling will be.

There are also the BE80 jump training classes. The nearest to you might be Wellington, which is kind of a haul, but at least worth going to watch even if you don't get there with a horse.

 

[Twiglet]

Thanks all, good info there. I think the thinking is now Borde Hill BE80 in May. Hit major issue over the weekend though....the little sod didn't load to go to a SJ lesson Lots more practice needed there....gah.

 

[Luci07]

I am not a massive fan of Munsted. It's a lot of money to pay to run there and is probably the most unimpressive course of any of them! I have never got lost at Tweseldown as the course is pretty circular. It's always massively subscribed, particularly at the beginning of the season but of course it is also one of the few courses which can almost guarantee to run early in the season even when everything else is waterlogged.

We train at LMEQ a lot, both with the XC and the SJ arena (LMEQ kindly have similar fences to what Tweseldown have!) I have the same aims at you and I am ahead of the curve with the dressage, pretty much in track with XC, and not consistent enough SJ so that is my current focus. I will also be doing a couple of sessions training mine to move properly on the gallops. Plan is to go hunting too next year before it all kicks off too..

Pm if you ever want to join us as my YO regularly runs sessions over there and we go en masse!

 

[noname]

I didn't do any specific fitness work to prepare my youngster for BE80. He completed in the time and wasn't sweating at all. Horse has raced successfully so didn't want him fit and excited. Prob don't need to do any additional galloping unless you have a heavier stamp WB or chunkier cobbier types that find galloping and fitness more difficult. Remember speed is only 435mpm. Normal winter SJ and dressage sufficed. I did 1 or 2 xc schools before. My first one was ascott under wychwood followed by solihull. Solihull was easier than ascott.
Have fun!

 

[Luci07]

I didn't do any specific fitness work to prepare my youngster for BE80. He completed in the time and wasn't sweating at all. Horse has raced successfully so didn't want him fit and excited. Prob don't need to do any additional galloping unless you have a heavier stamp WB or chunkier cobbier types that find galloping and fitness more difficult. Remember speed is only 435mpm. Normal winter SJ and dressage sufficed. I did 1 or 2 xc schools before. My first one was ascott under wychwood followed by solihull. Solihull was easier than ascott.
Have fun!

Difference with yours is that he knew how to gallop. If you watch babies most of them will waste a lot of physical effort galloping where as a horse who has been trained to move on properly propells themselves over the ground making life much easier for themselves. Not difficult to do and I am not after a speed bunny, just want to give mine the easiest ride. He is ISH but out of a TB stallion so resembles a good chaser type. He can move but will still have the training before we go out.