Eventers.... how do you afford it? and musings...

Last Jan / Feb I sat on the internet and looked at all of the BE venues that I know / like and searched for any unaff events they were running and also PC events. I entered them on a spreadsheet (sad I know). Competing from BE intro to PN and even novice i produced a full years worth of events and would have only needed to do one BE on a ticket to compete ever other weekend (If I wanted to).

Some of the PC ones were better ran than others, but it saved LOTS of money!!!!!Just took a bit more work.

Most of the eventing centres that run BE are now runing unaff as well!

Oh - and most of the time you do not have to enter weeks in advance
 
I start saving now. Every time i clip a horse, teach someone or sell something on ebay, that cash goes in a pot at home.(shhh) I also add any money i get given at Xmas birthdays etc.
I have my registration as a Xmas pressie and then i do entries on credit card. When the credit card bill comes i take the cash out of the pot and go and pay off however many events are on the bill.
By constantly adding to the pot over the summer as well it seems to work out quite well. This season i have about £30 unpaid on my credit card bill which i will pay off next month.
 
By having no life!

As Figjam says, there's sod all in the way of unaff ODEs running over BE courses up here and the few unaff ODES that run are hit or miss. It's really BE or nothing.

I'm on a fairly good salary so have a standing order to my 'competition account' - pay for entries, start fees and training out of that.

My horses are all kept at home so although it means a 4.30am start to get everything fed, mucked out, groomed and exercised before heading to work, it's worth it when you get the results.

Buy everything in bulk, from bedding to haylage.

Also get extra cash by bringing on and selling a few horses a year which tops up the funds.

And having a horsey husband helps immensely!! He understands why I have such a mad lifestyle....

It goes without saying that we don't do holidays at all (last one was nearly 6 years ago), but we do enjoy good food and drink, but do so at home, rather than going out.

Suppose it all boils down to management of finances and time.
 
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Kidney didnt sell GB
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maybe the Liver would be a better option?

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I hesitate to say that I doubt it would be worth much!
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Lol!
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I am poor with a capital P! I managed to save some money up every month last year and have just bought a trailer so I can go to places. I calculated that this was cheaper than me hiring the transporter every time (£15 per hour waiting time at an ODE is not cheap
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) so consequently I have only been able to afford a few events this year.

However, I love eventing and I will save and sell everything I have so that I can keep doing it
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However, I don't have childre, I don't drink/smoke/do drugs and my clothes are from ebay/tesco so it's where all my money goes!

I'd rather not tot up how much it all costs plus livery etc as well. I think that could scare me quite a lot!!!
 
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I am amazed by the number of unaff events that people seem to find that are run over BE courses. Most of our BE courses up here are used once/twice a year for BE events and not at all between. I can think of one (Bishop Burton) that was used for the Riding Club Areas this year and other than that I have never seen an unaff ODE over a BE course!

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Skipton has an event over the BE as you said Bishop does and Osberton does too
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i also heard Richmond are thinking of doing something too. Aston also run 5.

Boss is next year taken her two unaff and maybe do a few day tickets. It just too expensive plus we have 3 dressage horses that need to go and play.
 
It is a struggle to get me and horse ready to go, send off the entry and then your stung by a starting fee. Arggg, just another £10!!
I am very mean to myself throughout the year, rarely go out or buy new clothes but the horses of course have 101 rugs and the best, whereas I can't remember the last time I got a new jacket.
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I just have a VERY large over-draft and dont tell the oH wat it all costs,he has no idea !!
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arrrrrrrrrrrrjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjh. I love doing BE events but know i cant keep up as its so expensive,just go from 1 season to the nxt and enjoying it while i can.Hey,u only live once
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.. I have tried asking admin about this earlier this season but no joy. There is not much up in the north west anyway and its really hard to find out about other events- usually find out just a little too late !!! Usually becaause someone has responded to 'what are you doing at the weekend'!! Maybe we should start a what are you doing for the next 4 weeks!
 
I currently do BE and BSJA and have done for the past 6 or 7 years now (and also ran a second horse at RC level and showing at the same time). It is damn expensive. I afforded this purely because I had a full time job and I and my horses live at home
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However, have just bought my first house so am very unsure how I will afford BE and BSJA next year.
 
I dont event, but my daughter does and has done 14 intros/PN this year. Ned now out in the field for a well earned rest, bless her. I only afford it because my company sponsors her and pays entry fees and registration as well. I am lucky enough to claim most of my diesel from the company and they kindly provided her with a Racesafe body protector and hat silk in company colours, plus logoed up saddle cloths and rugs and recently a Point Two air jacket (some of you may have seen her in dark violet colours with a large violet and lime green H on her saddle cloth. In return, we ususally manage to get a mention on the cross country commentary and if she does well, we give her and the company some publicity in the local rag. All claimed against commercial sponsorship on the business. Mind you, we always take our own food and drinks etc as the food vendors are a total rip off. We didnt bother at Aldon and paid £3.50 each for some chips! I am so glad we can do this, as I dont think we would manage without some huge sacrifices.
 
I don't afford it, my sponsors do
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just got a sponsor that has agreed to do 12 BE events (incl fuel ect ect.), membership, lessons and anything else I want to do.

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If I had not have found a sponsor I wouldn't have been able to do BE
 
I event and only afford to by doing not much else! Horse stays at home so luckily I do not have livery costs. I work full time and use holidays to travel to events (I live in Scotland and horse is advanced!) I also work on Saturdays through the winter for my local racehorse trainer and that gives me enough pocket money to pay for lessons! I only buy clothes when I have worn through the old ones! I double up on transport to events with friends and don't drink smoke etc or go out. Every year I wonder if I can afford it and every year I seem to be able to scrape by. Would not change it for the world!
 
Im very lucky in the fact i live at home at we also have the horses at home - i pay mum an amount a week out of my wages for horse feed and my food (not that it covers it) I pay for membership, farrier, vets, insurance etc out of my wages. I would say i go out every other weekend from sept-dec after that work gets to busy with racing and im pointing. Oh thats another thing as well as BE i have to do all the pointing reg stuff but luckily with that work take it out of my wages, i can use the gallops free of charge and the stable is £25 a week and then i do pay for all of zacs food! Another thing we have done this year is to double up on transport for the events we have done.

TBH - im not sure how we afford it all and fingers crossed i win the lottery, Buster proves him self next year or the pointer wins me some money back!!

Also would love to do som Unaffs but with wanting to move song back up to Int is not possible!
 
BBs - leave the country! If we had stayed in the UK with the two boys and they had finished last year together at CIC** level (as they did here), well, I don't think we would have been able to pay for it!

Compared to the UK we save here by: paying one lifetime registration fee for the horse to compete in all affiliated national discipines, 75 euros (BARGAIN!); slightly let down by both me and neddy having to registered with BE (neddy wouldn't have to be if not competing internationally), my rider licence is annual but covers me for all disciplines; eventing in March, April, October and November at RC events (up to 2* level) for 5 euro entry fees (prizes in kind); eventing in the other months for 25 euros an event, although almost always held over more than one day and stabling charged between 50 and 75 euros, so you have to work out the diesel to see if it's worth it; diesel is cheaper than UK; generally a wider choice of international events than in UK, so much more flexibility on dates when it comes to fitting in qualifying runs (incorporating neighbouring countries here!); can go showjumping up to really decent 130 tracks almost every weekend at 2 or 3 day shows within an hours drive between april and october at an unbelievable number of different venues, very decent prize money too. The top regional sj classes round here are just incredible, there was one last month where the 1st 8 places were filled by international riders, 2nd was none other than Rodrigo Pessoa!

On the downside - lorries (and all vehicules) are insanely expensive, it ain't as smart as BE and the courses not as consistent, you have to pay horse tax, VAT is 21%, Belgium comes in as the 3rd-highest taxed nation in the EU.....
 
Errrm, cheap mortgage, clothes from Tesco, no holidays, no social life & a ridiculously understanding & supportive OH.

The horses are at home (well Mum & Dads) & usually live out in summer (except this year as they were intent in killing themselves/each other)

Get equipment for Birthdays/Christmas. And so on!

Wouldn't change it, I have goals I want to achieve & can go on holidays when I'm old married & pop out a sprog
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I think it's a bit of a case of where there's a will there's a way!

- i haven't been on holiday in years
- i never eat out, and cook vegetables from scratch to save on food bill
- horse lives out (fortunately on v good grazing)
- horse gets no luxury tack, no luxury rugs and no luxury supplements
- i can't afford regular lessons, and watch other peoples instead or get people to video me
- don't have own horse transport and try and share lorry rental costs with others
- i work a 55 hour week (with horses) and have to fit my horse in around it

And I still didn't even manage to make it to a BE event this year despite my very best efforts, horse was determined to injure itself at regular intervals, so all the scrimping and saving was pointless!!
 
Quick reply to say - I can't afford it! I'm a teacher so I earn OK money, I keep my horses at my Mum and Dads farm which is free so I only pay for shoes, vet and my competition/training, after that and my household bills I can't really afford to feed myself!
 
well i dont yet BE event however either next year or the year after i am hoping to do so,
the way i am going to afford it i think is getting a job at 16 along with my A levels and by then having 2 horses to keep up to fitness i will be paying half to all the events probaly, then i will be limited on how many i can go to so my paretns dont get compleatly annoyed at me spending £70 or however much it cost every 2 weeks depening on how oftern a class comes up.
erm in a few weeks depending on if we find anywhere , we will be moving house gto somewhere that has land and stables at home, with me standing at the side lines beggin my parents to have a sandschool installed as i cannot school a 5year old in the middle of the winter on a field, he is not good anyway on grass as tends to slide left right and centre and that is when the grass is dry.
am planning on doing as many ponclub events and ridingclub events that is possible for the eventing, in just have to get rallied up and get put on the list for them to notify me of when some ODE are coming up.
and finanlly have to get some good staff for my parents so that they can look after the business for a few days for my parents to take me to events.
in my horses i have to make sure that they are not high maintence horses, they have to be good does, and not unecciserialy expensive.
 
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