Eventing training during a trip to the UK

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Hello everybody,

I need some advice about riding possibilities in the UK.

My daughter will be coming to the UK in January next year for a 3 month intensive english course. She wants to be able to have lessons, especially cross country, at the same time. I do not yet know exactly where she will go to school but, if possible, I would like a general idea about how lessons/ competitions are. I would be grateful if somebody could answer these queries.

If she is taking lessons in a yard/school will she be able to organize with them to have a horse for a competition? For example in France the riding clubs provide horses for lessons or competitions or through them you can find a horse on full or partial loan with which to compete. Is it the same in the UK? Is it difficult to find on loan a horse with some experience at novice level and wishful thinking intermediate?

I have also found all the necessary information about language training centers but the people at the British Council seem to be completely defeated by eventing.
On the off chance I am listing the places where she can study. She doesn’t mind where she goes as long as she can ride.

Can anybody recommend a yard/ trainer near one of these places?

Sidmouth or Exeter. Devon
Purley, Surrey
Cambridge
Brighton
Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire
Twyford, Berkshire
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Bournemouth
Hastings, East Sussex
Tyne and Wear
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (I thought this would be a perfect choice but the people at the University couldn’t help me)
Warnford, Hampshire

Thank you.
 
VERY different system between France and UK, and I would imagine your daughter's best bet to find a horse to compete in that very short time-frame (Jan - March isn't exactly peak season) would be to use her experience at Novice to identify an amateur / riding club owner who would appreciate the help over the winter months.

E.g. I have a horse that could do with extra exercise in the winter months. If an experienced rider came along I would be happy for them to use her on a short-term basis and I would be happy to take to competitions if partnership looked good. By "competitions" I don't mean anything affiliated or anything too exciting as not enough time for horse and rider to get to know each other and not enough events to go round in the early months.

So a private horse is likely to be your best bet.

In my experience, lessons in the UK on school horses are very different than in France. Not many offer XC at all, or when they do it's often uninspiring. Higher level lessons on schoolmasters are extortionate and not what your daughter actually needs by the sounds of it.

Good to start looking for your connections now as you may well find the right fit for your daughter but probably not easy.

(also worth considering professional yards that need extra help in exchange for rides?)
 
Vittoria Panizzon is based near Cheltenham and has people staying with her for intensive training, it would be worth asking her - details are on her website
 
Firstly how old is your daughter?
Does she drive?
What is her current level of riding? Does she have her own horse(s)?
You elude to eventing to Novice and potentially intermediate standard, over here that is considered a very proficient level of competition especially for a younger rider - often riding school language gets confused.

If you could clarify the above it will be easier to respond more appropriately.

Either way, Jan-Mar is the wrong season for eventing in UK. Eventing starts in March but is often cancelled due to the weather/ground. Many xc training courses are closed Jan/Feb - this year the eventers were struggling to get runs and schooling well into April
 
Lévrier;13792806 said:
Vittoria Panizzon is based near Cheltenham and has people staying with her for intensive training, it would be worth asking her - details are on her website
Click to expand...

This would be spot on.
 
There are some excellent Equine Colleges in the UK where they mostly have their own horses on site for college students to ride and train on. Would it be possible to find out if any of these colleges also do English Language courses that may be suitable for your daughter?

Here's a few of the colleges:

Hartpury College, Gloucestershire
Myerscough College, Preston
Bishop Burton College, Beverley,
Askham Bryan College, York
Sparsholt College, Hampshire
Bicton College, Devon
Moulton College

Also, Talland School of Equitation in Gloucestershire is a Training Centre and they have residential students from overseas, so they might be a good place to start with as they may be able to put together a studying package for your daughter to combine the English Language studies locally and riding training on site. They have horses competing at National and International Levels in Dressage, and also a lot of their students compete at a high level with eventing as well.

Edited to Add: Just re-read your list of locations - Talland is in Cirencester which is about half an hour by road to Cheltenham. Also, Talland is a BHS Accredited Training Centre.
 
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Thank you all your answers. My daughter is seventeen now (will be 18 when going to the UK). She will not have a car with her. Her English level will not allow her to go to college unless it is a course in English designed for foreigners.

As to the riding, the situation is a bit particular. We have been living in Argentina where eventing is a very rare sport and where it is difficult to find a horse even for a T80. She does not presently own a horse. So for the past 3 years she has ridden what she could find, literally. At the moment she is riding an 8 year old that had never done cross or dressage and had 6 months very good work on jumping. She rode him for the first time last week and came 2nd of 40 in a T90. Let me also add that she is presently the only under 21 rider. So far the highest she has done is a T100. Last year while on holiday in France she went to riding camp and she rode a mare which had done 1 and 2 star events and found to her surprise that she could do a 1star course in training. This is why I would like to loan or lease a horse which has more experience than she does so that for once during lessons the coach can concentrate on her. This is why I mentioned a high level horse. I do not know what level of riding she has. In France she did her Galop 7 which I looked up in a Webb site and it said that the 6/7 is roughly equivalent to a BHS 3.

Her plan is to look for an apprentice position in an eventing yard after her English course. But she feels that in order to be credible she must be able to have ridden at novice level at least at training. She is afraid that what she has done will not be considered good enough. This is the other reason why she would like to concentrate if possible on a novice level work during her English course. And yes we tend to forget the English weather. Will look at Victoria Panizzon and Talland.
Thank you so much for helping.
 
How good is your daughter's English now? Is it good enough for her to be able to understand people teaching her?
 
I'd say you might find an eventing yard willing to leasea schoolmaster for an appropraite price - loan would be unlikely.

Worth putting an advert on british eventing or just start contacting eventers on it?
 
Thank you for all your input. It has given us an initial picture to work with. We were a bit shocked at the price for lessons at the yards, way over anything we saw in France, this will have to come into consideration. We will wait until a couple of months before her trip and start contacting yards.
 
You could consider using a riding centre (and I mean a decent training centre ) for an initial apprenticeship? I know she would need to get her English up to standard first but getting her BHS stages would really help and that can be done more easily at a center like Talland or Wellington. Apprentice positions are very competitive here and good ones hard to come by. They require more stable management experience than riding ability though.

Is there anything magic about the UK? I have a foster daughter currently training at an eventing yard in Spain where the set up is much more similar to what you have seen in France and you would at least have no language difficulties.
 
What is magic about the UK is the eventing, I don't think there is another place quite like it. However France is a possibility since she we are french.

But we are hoping she will find a position. She has completed her BHS3 equivalent in France and has been working as a groom in different yards during her summer holidays since she was 10. By the time she was 14 she was doing a 12 hour day between lessons and cleaning. A working student position is the only way she will be motivated to learn English. I just hope she gets one where she won’t just be exploited but will get something in return.
 
Thanks for the update!

As far as the best regions in the UK to aim for, I think for eventing, there are a lot of professional eventing yards, XC schooling facilities and affiliated BE competitions around the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire counties, but as BE affiliated competitions are spread across the UK you will find there are yards in all regions - depending on where your daughter chooses to study.
 
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