Eventing 2025

Well done RF, great result. Love hearing how you're getting on. Are you aiming for Cornbury?

I agree HP, I think there could be some avenues open to them but I'm not sure the big ones should be. There's a world of difference between a horse that has raced a number of times and been in training for years and one that has never run or run once.
 
Squeak said:
Well done RF, great result. Love hearing how you're getting on. Are you aiming for Cornbury?

I agree HP, I think there could be some avenues open to them but I'm not sure the big ones should be. There's a world of difference between a horse that has raced a number of times and been in training for years and one that has never run or run once.
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I am yes - along with probably a lot of others! Cornbury is more broadly for thoroughbreds, which is I think why the RoR champs should be reserved for those that have raced under rules...

Also @Marshpiper thank you - but I feel calling it his "new job" is probably a misnomer, he's been eventing for 10 years and only raced for 1 😂
 
So jealous of all of you out eventing!
I retired my 3* horse to pure showjumping during covid and I seriously miss it.

So I have entered the small fat ginger horse for an unaffiliated 80 this weekend!! :D
She's still for sale so will have to mind her but feck it, might as well have some fun 🤣 IMG_1678.jpegIMG_4798.jpegIMG_5839.jpeg

Some pics of my older lady when we actually jumped decent xc fences and not just colored sticks 😢🥺
 
RachelFerd said:
Yeah they have. I don't think the horses that Oli T or Harry Dzenis were riding would have been eligible under old rules. Unless Oli's P2Ped in the UK under a different name... We've been puzzling over it!

Also interesting that of the top 5 horses, It's only my horse that hasn't been produced by a British team rider at some point in its life. Which is more credit to my horse's trainability!
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Oliver's I had a good stalk and could find the dam on racing post but zero offspring which tells me they haven't don't anything. Might at a big push have gone into training but unlikely as it has Brookfield prefix. It's tricky but with softening up I am seeing more who were never going to go racing coming through now and they maybe don't need such 'retraining' but I also appreciate they need a pathway.... anyway ex racehorse politics is maybe for another day!
 
RachelFerd said:
Yeah they have. I don't think the horses that Oli T or Harry Dzenis were riding would have been eligible under old rules. Unless Oli's P2Ped in the UK under a different name... We've been puzzling over it!

Also interesting that of the top 5 horses, It's only my horse that hasn't been produced by a British team rider at some point in its life. Which is more credit to my horse's trainability!
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And to your skills as a trainer! I doubt he would have trained himself to those levels ;)

A huge well done, great performance and great result against some very big names!!
 
RachelFerd said:
I am yes - along with probably a lot of others! Cornbury is more broadly for thoroughbreds, which is I think why the RoR champs should be reserved for those that have raced under rules...

Also @Marshpiper thank you - but I feel calling it his "new job" is probably a misnomer, he's been eventing for 10 years and only raced for 1 😂
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Well I have no idea what age he is….but he’s certainly not a baby, and he really looks marvellous….
A Plus Tard another Gold Cup winner won the big RoR class in Dublin last week…
We have so many ex racehorses who have really raced over here, competing at every type of equestrian competition and doing extremely well, from retired point to pointers to horses like the above who raced and won at the highest level possible….
Think you will see even more appearing soon….
 
Congrats @RachelFerd . I am another who thinks they should have raced (and indeed they did, until recently). Otherwise the whole 'Retraining Of Racehorses' is a complete misnomer. And I think it should be a showcase for horses who have done one job and have retrained to do another. I also spent a bit of time trying to work out exactly what OT's ride had previously done. But it certainly wasn't racing!
 
Gamebird said:
Congrats @RachelFerd . I am another who thinks they should have raced (and indeed they did, until recently). Otherwise the whole 'Retraining Of Racehorses' is a complete misnomer. And I think it should be a showcase for horses who have done one job and have retrained to do another. I also spent a bit of time trying to work out exactly what OT's ride had previously done. But it certainly wasn't racing!
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I did my first BE event in 12 years yesterday on my ex-racehorse. He is 12, but had a career in racing until he was pretty much 11. I think that is a completely different challenge to eventing a horse which was bred for racing, but never entered the system.
 
Gamebird said:
I did my first BE event in 12 years yesterday on my ex-racehorse. He is 12, but had a career in racing until he was pretty much 11. I think that is a completely different challenge to eventing a horse which was bred for racing, but never entered the system.
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Fabulous and truly a retrained racehorse.
 
I think he deserves to feature. And I finally get to contribute to the eventing thread! According to BE this was my 115th run on my 10th different horse, but also my first since 2013, when BE80 didn't exist!

We went to Frickley in 30C heat. He did a lovely dressage and was very bold SJing round the atmospheric main ring. The xc was a massive step up for him. It was probably as technical as the last Nov I did! 🤣 I possibly shouldn't have picked a venue that was also running a regional championship and a BE803DE, but I had thought it would be toned done a little for the standard sections. Nope! Big and technical! I was totally thrilled with his attitude. He just didn't understand the second element of a skinny to narrow shoulder brush on a curving line towards the end of the course (pictured - we had to jump the left side). But that's ok. It was a tough question, he's fairly new to this job, and he'll know more next time! Our section only had a 42% XC clear rate, and 30% didn't get round, so it certainly wasn't a walk in the park.
We go again!
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Gamebird said:
I think he deserves to feature. And I finally get to contribute to the eventing thread! According to BE this was my 115th run on my 10th different horse, but also my first since 2013, when BE80 didn't exist!

We went to Frickley in 30C heat. He did a lovely dressage and was very bold SJing round the atmospheric main ring. The xc was a massive step up for him. It was probably as technical as the last Nov I did! 🤣 I possibly shouldn't have picked a venue that was also running a regional championship and a BE803DE, but I had thought it would be toned done a little for the standard sections. Nope! Big and technical! I was totally thrilled with his attitude. He just didn't understand the second element of a skinny to narrow shoulder brush on a curving line towards the end of the course (pictured - we had to jump the left side). But that's ok. It was a tough question, he's fairly new to this job, and he'll know more next time! Our section only had a 42% XC clear rate, and 30% didn't get round, so it certainly wasn't a walk in the park.
We go again!
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Super outing and lovely pictures. He looks like he’s enjoying his second career.
 
Well done everyone on some fabulous results! They all look so smart!

Life has been busy but keeping ticking along. Had a few frustrating runs, with just annoying mistakes. XC runout at Portman where I changed my line from what I’d walked to something entirely bizarre then didn’t really commit, and a couple of silly SJ poles/time pens at Mendip/Portman.

Did Bicton RFs, ok dressage rather marred by jogging in the free walk and being hit in the face by a wasp. Brilliant SJ. Had a complete brakes and steering failure in the XC, he was incredibly brave and bold, but just completely blasted past 6b because I couldn’t turn. Incredibly annoying because we were more than capable of jumping clear round that track.

Decided to put him back in the combination bit he was in last year for XC, went to West Wilts on Wednesday and he was like a completely different horse from the moment we entered the XC warmup. It wasn’t even like he went to fight me and realised he couldn’t, it was like he gave a big sigh of relief as if to say “well finally, I’ve been trying to tell you I didn’t like that bit”. Jumped a foot perfect DC well inside the time to finish on his 30Dr for 3rd place. Leader was on a 28Dr and we’d have been up there without another couple of silly errors in our test!

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iknowmyvalue said:
Well done everyone on some fabulous results! They all look so smart!

Life has been busy but keeping ticking along. Had a few frustrating runs, with just annoying mistakes. XC runout at Portman where I changed my line from what I’d walked to something entirely bizarre then didn’t really commit, and a couple of silly SJ poles/time pens at Mendip/Portman.

Did Bicton RFs, ok dressage rather marred by jogging in the free walk and being hit in the face by a wasp. Brilliant SJ. Had a complete brakes and steering failure in the XC, he was incredibly brave and bold, but just completely blasted past 6b because I couldn’t turn. Incredibly annoying because we were more than capable of jumping clear round that track.

Decided to put him back in the combination bit he was in last year for XC, went to West Wilts on Wednesday and he was like a completely different horse from the moment we entered the XC warmup. It wasn’t even like he went to fight me and realised he couldn’t, it was like he gave a big sigh of relief as if to say “well finally, I’ve been trying to tell you I didn’t like that bit”. Jumped a foot perfect DC well inside the time to finish on his 30Dr for 3rd place. Leader was on a 28Dr and we’d have been up there without another couple of silly errors in our test!

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Well done on a really good run! Will you try to get to another RF?
 
TheMule said:
Well done on a really good run! Will you try to get to another RF?
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Yes, I’ve entered Chillington, just need to work on steps into water before we get there! (or maybe I’ll just need to superglue myself to the saddle)

I’m lucky enough to have 3x regional tickets for this year now, but Little Downham is a long way so will probably save that ticket for next season
 
Mine have been out and about this season but things have been/were a bit up in the air for both!

The 9yo had some patchy form which took a bit of unpicking, but think we have worked it all out and he is now with a new rider on a lease/sale arrangement. Bittersweet for me being my first homebred, but could be a very good outcome for him 🤞

The 6yo is also causing a bit of internal angst. She had a bad accident last year, competition career looking guarded at the time so that plays on my mind. She came back better than expected and has been out and about recently. Very buzzy!!! Too much tension for my liking in the dr/sj, not tipping over into anything concerning but still … we are keeping an eye. And then she goes out and looks pure class xc. A right conundrum as to what to do for the best. Horses huh!


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iknowmyvalue said:
Yes, I’ve entered Chillington, just need to work on steps into water before we get there! (or maybe I’ll just need to superglue myself to the saddle)

I’m lucky enough to have 3x regional tickets for this year now, but Little Downham is a long way so will probably save that ticket for next season
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Me too, and the water worries me as well! It’s also a blooming long way away and my guy hates being stabled- I've managed to find him a paddock for the night, but I'm just going to have to hope he settles well and can cope
 
Can I ask how you guys are finding the ground BE?

We’ve only done Horse Events or Cotswold Cup for a few years and haven’t evented for the last 6-8 weeks due to the lack of rain.

I know Herefordshire is one of the worst affected counties by the drought this year- is the ground that much better elsewhere and how is the BE prep for all phases?
We want to go and play but I don’t want to travel miles to withdraw.
 
Most events are doing a huge amount of work to their ground and we have been happy to run. There have been a couple we’ve been to where the ground Xc wasn’t suitable and so we didn’t run xc, and we deliberately haven’t entered a couple which get hard at the best of times.
 
millitiger said:
Can I ask how you guys are finding the ground BE?

We’ve only done Horse Events or Cotswold Cup for a few years and haven’t evented for the last 6-8 weeks due to the lack of rain.

I know Herefordshire is one of the worst affected counties by the drought this year- is the ground that much better elsewhere and how is the BE prep for all phases?
We want to go and play but I don’t want to travel miles to withdraw.
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The only one we have been to where we were utterly disappointed was Farley. So much so that I’m going to have to be desperate for a run to risk an entry there in the future.

Upton was exceptional and we happily put an extra £20 into the optional pot that was going around.

Aston was good.

Bicton was good.

Even West Wilts that can be a little dodgy was making a noticeable effort.
 
millitiger said:
Can I ask how you guys are finding the ground BE?

We’ve only done Horse Events or Cotswold Cup for a few years and haven’t evented for the last 6-8 weeks due to the lack of rain.

I know Herefordshire is one of the worst affected counties by the drought this year- is the ground that much better elsewhere and how is the BE prep for all phases?
We want to go and play but I don’t want to travel miles to withdraw.
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As others have said, most places have put an enormous effort into their ground. Bicton was great ground, West Wilts was on the firm side but even then could see hoof prints in places!

Bovington was verging on too hard, and that was back in May so I wouldn’t want to go there again until we’ve had some decent rain. But they aren’t on the calendar again until October, so hopefully we will have had something by then! I know they moved to a later date after repeated cancellations for being too wet, so I suspect it’s a rare issue for them!
 
My event season is probably over next week as my big goal was cornbury but I can't get another prep run after Wellington this week and a very local event will be too hard even though timing was perfect. I don't want to run 2* on just 4 novices and the entries close on Tuesday and Wellington is Friday. Just bad timing. I did look at Osberton but would cost me an extra £1k to get there and it was cornbury I had set my heart on.
 
LEC said:
My event season is probably over next week as my big goal was cornbury but I can't get another prep run after Wellington this week and a very local event will be too hard even though timing was perfect. I don't want to run 2* on just 4 novices and the entries close on Tuesday and Wellington is Friday. Just bad timing. I did look at Osberton but would cost me an extra £1k to get there and it was cornbury I had set my heart on.
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Oh that’s a shame, I love following your vlogs! fwiw I think you should go for cornbury anyway, she is on flying form. ( not at all because I selfishly want to watch the video) 😆😉 🙏🙏
It’s too early to end your season xx
 
McGrools said:
Oh that’s a shame, I love following your vlogs! fwiw I think you should go for cornbury anyway, she is on flying form. ( not at all because I selfishly want to watch the video) 😆😉 🙏🙏
It’s too early to end your season xx
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Oohhh please can I know where your vlog is? I'm and getting addicted to them. Particularly to @TheMule s one!

Edit I mean @LEC
 
So I took the fat ginger horse eventing yesterday!
Haven't evented her myself in over a year. Last event was an EI80 where she took 5th.
I had no aspirations yesterday, no expectations.
Just wanted a nice stress free day out with my pony.
And that is what we had, from start to finish she was perfect.
22 dressage and double clear to take 2nd :)
I know 80cm is teeny tiny but she LOVED it.

Theres a unaffiliated league running (Because eventing ireland cant seem to get their shite together) so we will aim for 2 more runs to qualify for the league final end of september!
Maybe she wants to be and eventer after all :D

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Well done everyone some great results 👏 Love hearing how you're getting on and particularly the RoR's - not that I'm biased at all!
 
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