Eventing 2024 Season Thread

TheMule

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Went eventing, turned into a very expensive dressage test after I got jumped off at fence 2 of the SJ, gahhh.

So frustrating as he’s been going better than ever, and warmed up like a total dream. Had a dodgy jump over fence 1, can’t work out why, even after watching the video a million times. Thought I’d got my balance back and we could go straight to fence two, I was wrong. Hit the deck. Both fine, went back into the warmup afterwards and he was still jumping brilliantly. I’m sure once we’ve got a few good runs in again it will be a funny story and video. For now I’m having a small pity party while trying to work out how I’m going to get a run in with grass SJ before Bramham (my next 3 events I’d planned all have SJ on a surface) and trying to make myself feel better by looking at how many people had problems XC (at one of the fences I already didn’t like)

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What a shame- sometimes it just isn’t your day, I'm sure there’s nothing more to it than that
 

Honey08

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What a fabulous video of a great round. I’d love to go to Thoresby. I used to live nearby. But it’s a really busy weekend for my cafe.
 

asmp

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There's no hope of eventing for me anytime soon, for several different reasons, but I did enjoy a day of fence judging yesterday at Larkhill. It kind of counts!
We were Fence judging yesterday too! It was very long day, wasn’t it? Had a few problems at our fence but the ground held pretty well after all the wet weather we’ve had.
 

millitiger

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I've sacked off eventing for April.
First event cancelled for weekend just gone and don't fancy entering anything else and losing % of entry through cancellation.

Doing BD qualifications this month instead and look to event from May onwards 🤞
 

TheMule

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We were Fence judging yesterday too! It was very long day, wasn’t it? Had a few problems at our fence but the ground held pretty well after all the wet weather we’ve had.

Very long! I was a bit surprised they ran the last few, but luckily all seemed to sight the fences ok. We had the nasty fall at our fence, which reminded me why I'm a bit 50:50 about eventing now 😕
 

RachelFerd

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He looks like a dream to ride XC 🤩
I used to lamb at Thoresby estate, it's nice seeing it with XC jumps everywhere

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments. He is indeed a dream horse to go XC on - very careful about where he puts his feet. And no pulling or tricky behaviour. Just occasionally needs a bit of extra leg and encouragement to believe in himself.

And sorry @iknowmyvalue for a very frustrating day out - these things just sometimes happen :(
 

iknowmyvalue

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Thanks everyone for your lovely comments. He is indeed a dream horse to go XC on - very careful about where he puts his feet. And no pulling or tricky behaviour. Just occasionally needs a bit of extra leg and encouragement to believe in himself.

And sorry @iknowmyvalue for a very frustrating day out - these things just sometimes happen :(
Thanks RF, I have watched the video a thousand times and I think if any other combination of events had happened we’d have been fine. So just one of those things I guess.

Booked myself a lesson today to debrief with instructor and make sure we are both still feeling confident, then I’ve entered oxstalls next weekend to try again. If he’d felt wobbly in the warmup afterwards I probably wouldn’t have, but he didn’t feel like he’d lost any confidence so decided to put any demons to bed sooner rather than later. Plus otherwise we’d be struggling for a SJ round on grass before Bramham as next few events it’s on a surface…
 

RachelFerd

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New re scheduled date for breckenborough

Exciting News 👍👍
After a tough weekend which turned out more tiring than when we actually get to run !! 🙈
We have been working with BE to find an alternative date for Breckenbrough Horse Trials and it’s been agreed we are going to run an event on 11-12 th May .The Schedule will be out with entries open soon.
I’d like to thank Rosie Williams and Adrian Ditcham and everyone at BE have been very proactive and supportive and as an Organiser it’s been a very straightforward process.
Thankyou to my team onwards and upwards something to look forward too 👍
 

Peglo

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@RachelFerd those jumps look enormous until he pops himself over them so easily. It was a lovely round to watch, both of you look like you’re having such a good time. Really enjoyed watching it.
 

ycbm

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Thanks everyone for your lovely comments. He is indeed a dream horse to go XC on - very careful about where he puts his feet. And no pulling or tricky behaviour. Just occasionally needs a bit of extra leg and encouragement to believe in himself.

And sorry @iknowmyvalue for a very frustrating day out - these things just sometimes happen :(

You taught him from scratch though, didn't you Rachel? That looked like a real pro round.
.
 

SaddlePsych'D

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A quick pic from Oxstalls this afternoon. Thoroughly enjoyed my first BE volunteering experience. Great weather, beautiful location and wonderful to see so many riders happy to be out competing.

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iknowmyvalue

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We evented at Oxstalls today! After last weeks fall I was nervous, but Pepsi was just awesome (it’s amazing what happens when you ride how your instructor tells you!)

30.3 dressage and double clear round a course that caused its fair share of problems (<50% clear SJ, and heard a few XC issues over tannoy too). SJ wasn’t the most stylish round, but it was how he needed me to ride today. Just adding some time penalties in the XC as reverted to putting the handbrake on because I was nervous, and also forgot I was wearing a watch. But still sneaking into 9th in our section 😁

xc2_5511_h 12.jpegsj1_2542_g 11.jpeg
 

Ample Prosecco

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We evented at Oxstalls today! After last weeks fall I was nervous, but Pepsi was just awesome (it’s amazing what happens when you ride how your instructor tells you!)

30.3 dressage and double clear round a course that caused its fair share of problems (<50% clear SJ, and heard a few XC issues over tannoy too). SJ wasn’t the most stylish round, but it was how he needed me to ride today. Just adding some time penalties in the XC as reverted to putting the handbrake on because I was nervous, and also forgot I was wearing a watch. But still sneaking into 9th in our section 😁

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Fantastic!!! Woop woop x
 

TheMule

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We evented at Oxstalls today! After last weeks fall I was nervous, but Pepsi was just awesome (it’s amazing what happens when you ride how your instructor tells you!)

30.3 dressage and double clear round a course that caused its fair share of problems (<50% clear SJ, and heard a few XC issues over tannoy too). SJ wasn’t the most stylish round, but it was how he needed me to ride today. Just adding some time penalties in the XC as reverted to putting the handbrake on because I was nervous, and also forgot I was wearing a watch. But still sneaking into 9th in our section 😁

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Well done! DC and a placing, doesn’t get much better than that!
 

silv

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Hehe - got my Thoresby XC video through today - enjoy my horse making it look way too easy 😂

You must be pretty happy watching that, text book round and you and horse look great together, he looks so happy and relaxed. Pretty meaty course too. He is a lovely horse by the way.
 

iknowmyvalue

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Our round from Sunday! I’m just chuffed to bits with him, I can’t stop watching it.

Definitely needed to get moving more around the first part of the course to make the time, but that’s on me. He was well up for it from the word go! Nice to know I’ve managed to get him fit enough as didn’t feel tired at all by the end.

You’d think he’d done hundreds of BE90s, not two 18mo ago which were horribly messy and just all over the place. Then spent the last 12mo at 80cm trying to get over a particularly nappy phase which knocked both our confidence.
 

ihatework

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IKMV that was a lovely round, well done. I remember commenting on a post quite a while back when things were a bit iffy, and it looks like you have really taken the time to build the foundations back 👍
 

LEC

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Just put you leg on on landing by thinking to yourself ‘and go’ and you will make the time easily. Rest is great.
 

RachelFerd

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@iknowmyvalue - great video! As others have said - getting into the habit of landing and getting moving on the first stride as you're away from the fence will save you 20 seconds round a course. Good luck with the ongoing Bramham prep!

Sadly I'm not getting to run at Kelsall this weekend - as some might have seen in the vet forum, my chap managed to split his forehead open in the field and now has 12 staples in his head. Fingers crossed we get a smooth recovery and we could/should still be on track for getting to Osberton in early May.

Really frustrating as we had a good SJ lesson the day before his field idiocy where he was popping through some technical exercises and a related distance line that was 1m30/1m35 - which I find terrifying, but is ultimately as big as he'll ever need to jump in an eventing context.

Meanwhile our local event at Bradwall has been cancelled :( I had been thinking about entering the 7yo, but held off because of weather uncertainty. It's been so wet they can't get onto the site to prep it properly. Doesn't surprise me as we're nearby and our fields have never been wetter. I don't think I'm going to get the 7yo out to anything until late May now - but continue to keep working on his SJ in the meantime.

Still planning to go and have a quick spectate at Kelsall at the weekend - they're advertising free entry and parking for spectators this year if anyone is tempted.
 

LEC

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I actually emailed BE yesterday due to SW issues with calendar as Rosie said very clearly on Podcast they don’t read social media.

With the loss of Bovington is there any plan to put any events on in the SW for us as we currently only have one SW based event in May? There has always been a weird void in May with Howick and Pontispool often treading on each other's toes and then both lacking entries as so close to each other and now we have lost them to BE.


In May we have lost Broadway (which is Midlands but easy access), Bovington and Howick and we have no BE events until Mendip Plains. As a BE member it is really hard to be able to go to BE events in May when the unaffiliated I am surrounded by within 90 minutes is: Ascott Under Wychwood, Pontispool, Broadway and Barbury.


If we compare May to June, we have 6 x BE events in June with 5 of them all gunning after the same Grassroots market at 80-Novice in West Wilts, Oxstalls, Howick, Kingston Maurward and Launceston. With Nunney being the exception, offering 2/3* classes.


I appreciate I am in a very privileged position with travel as only 10 minutes from Junction 22 (near Weston-super-Mare) of the M5 so can get up and down M5 easily, but the calendar is incredibly frustrating and has been like this for years with the issues in May and June. I will end up doing unaffiliated in May and then having to limit my BE runs and not support events I would want to, as l always make a concerted effort to support greenfield events. This then has a knock on effect, as ideally would like to qualify for a regional final, and despite us being the latest area in the UK to get going eventing due to the type of ground we have and the extreme weather, we have the earliest regional final in August which will mean mediocre to poor entries for the Port Eliot due to the knock on issues of cancellations, poor calendar and rubbish weather.
 

Cragrat

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It will be interesting to what response you LEC.
I haven't done as close an analysis for our area, but I know we have a similar 'feast or famine' with adjacent venues being very close to each other, ( and therefore in a run of bad weather, they are similarly affected) and then large gaps in the calender which just encourages unaffiliated competitions to fill the gaps.
 

LEC

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Apparently there is a big calendar review going to go ahead. The SW calendar drives me mad though. It must annoy everyone as organisers lose out as well
 

BACR

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I've been looking at the calendar for East Anglia as my lad is just about ready to take to his first BE and it is completely dire. Nothing in the whole of Norfolk apart from Burnham Market, where the first one started at 100 and we can't start at that hight, until September with the second Burnham Market event. There is nothing within a 2 hour drive until Little Downham in June and then it'll be either ALW or Lincs based events all of which are a 3 hour plus drive each way. So many losses in this part of the country (Isleham, Great witchingham, Stratford Hills, Horse Heath, Keysoe) I hope that some can be brought back to the calendar. In the meantime I'm grateful that Great Witchingham are running an unaffiliated every month so at least we can get out there.
 
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