Facilities for a competition horse

blackhor2e

blackhor2e

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Out of interest...What facilities do you believe you 'need' in order to keep your eventer, sj or dressage horse fit for competition?

I'm thinking of moving yards and on my list of 'needs' are fields to exercise in, I can't imagine how I would keep my eventer fit without them. Am I being silly 'needing' this or do you believe you can keep horses fit with lesser facilities?
 
It depends on whether you have your own transport really I know people that keep eventers at yards with no fields but then they regularly take the horses out to all weather gallops off site in the lorry. We are also only 10 mins lorry journey away from Windsor great park so they do fitness work there too rather than needing a feild.
 
I think its essential to have a decent sized arena with a good surface which remains rideable through most weather conditions. I don't think an exercise field is essential and even if its available I think I'd prefer to use an all weather gallops for proper fittening work. If that's available on site, brilliant but if its a short journey away that would be ok with me.
 
b1ackhorse said:
Out of interest...What facilities do you believe you 'need' in order to keep your eventer, sj or dressage horse fit for competition?

I'm thinking of moving yards and on my list of 'needs' are fields to exercise in, I can't imagine how I would keep my eventer fit without them. Am I being silly 'needing' this or do you believe you can keep horses fit with lesser facilities?
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I agree with you that fields where you can do plenty of interval training are extremely useful. My daughter events and the yard where we are on is a perfect training ground as we have 200 acres of land to ride around, flat fields to one side of the farm and hilly ones to the other. From the dressage point of view, as this now seems to be the deciding score nowadays, mirrors, which we also have are fantastic for improving your position etc. I also think though that roadwork is essential for toughening up the tendons and ligaments so its important to be somewhere that you can safely hack out on the roads. My daughters horse has finished full of running in this their first year of eventing every time and I am convinced its due to the fitness training programme we have been able to put in place thanks to the facilities at our disposal!
 
For me I (I have a horseball/all rounder), I need a school, access to good hacking, somewhere to lunge, be able to practise shooting (horseball) and personally I love a horse walker- luckily I have all these plus mirrors in the school and surround sound music :)
 
This is something I've been thinking a lot of recently, as a very good friend has taken on a private yard and invited me to join her but it has no school, and as much as I long to go there I can not see how I can continue to compete (low level eventing) without a school so have said no.

So for me its an arena, I have transport so can get round lack of hacking or areas to do interval training but do need to know I can ride every night whatever the weather.
 
A school is not always necessary depending on the ground you have. I used to live in an area with very sandy soil and really never needed a school, my field was flat and suitable for schooling in walk and trot all year round, it wasn't suitable for cantering in very wet conditions but was fine most of the time. I had a lesson one day a week, competition one day a week, schooled and hacked the other days. I competed generally in 1.10 sj with the odd 1.20 and was well enough prepared.

Unfortunately I mad the ridiculous decision to move house to an area with wet and boggy land so I had to build a school this time.
 
well I competed my show jumper up to 1.20m without an arena or jumps or big enough fields to fitness work (fine for flat work) so I am pretty easy. lol but I would love an arena. I have jumps now but they are just in the flattest field.
 
For me, a decent sized arena with a good all weather surface is the main thing. Interval training can always be done in a big arena if need be. Use of showjumps. Good hacking. Fields to ride in are a bonus but as long as the hacking had places to canter I wouldn't mind not being able to use the yard fields.
 
Only facilities I need are only what Ive ever had - fields. I'd always want fields so my horses get 24/7 turnout (I think this keeps them so much healthier and fitter). And of course I ride in them too.

I'd LOVE certain facilities (like a school!) but I dont NEED them, I haven't found not having them has held us back as far as the level I've wanted to compete at.
 
I would need a decent sized school, all year turnout and decent hacking.

The canter work is a faff as it means a 2 hour hack to get to decent places to do enough canter but it's doable.
 
I have an arena and good road hacking... don't use the arena half as much as some people as I don't like schooling on surfaces too much. I do lots of schooling exercises out hacking, and a 10min box ride is a sandy soiled 3.5mile xc ride which I have a membership for so I go there for hill/fitness work. If I'm honest, I'd rather have no school, a flat, well draining field and good hacking on and off road.
 
I was on a yard with 2 schools & slightly crap hacking. I told myself that I could easily do without the schools as long as I had a good hacking & a flat field......

I have the hacking, I have the flat field but currently no funds to put in my arena :( & boy do I miss it!! Last summer with the constant wet it was a nightmare, this summer it's been baked solid, all winter I can't school on the grass. It's a nightmare :(

Seriously considering building some sort of cheapie bodge job so I've got *something* to school on.
 
imo, if you work full time then you need a floodlit arena for the winter.

I've been at yards without and I'm sure its fine if you're at school or work flexi-time but if you are arriving at the yard at 5.30pm or later in the winter, you need a good surface and some lights!
 
millitiger said:
imo, if you work full time then you need a floodlit arena for the winter.

I've been at yards without and I'm sure its fine if you're at school or work flexi-time but if you are arriving at the yard at 5.30pm or later in the winter, you need a good surface and some lights!
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Agree, unless of course you are turning away every winter or can afford the time and money to box somewhere every night. If you keep your horses at home then it is a little different because boxing out won't take up your entire evening and you could probably manage to ride before leaving for work for most of the winter.
 
I have a novice event horse , the yard I am at has turn out in the summer but restricted/ stopped in the winter. We have two indoor and two out door arenas and a horse walker. The hacking is pretty rubbish though.
Ideally I would like better hacking as i think this really helps with fitness ( At the moment we have to box to gallops or better hackimg which is a pain) and as long as the outdoor was flood lit I can suffer a bit of getting wet without an indoor. I would also prefer more turn out in the winter, even if its just a couple of hours.
 
dr
for me an arena with a good surface that doesnt get deep and decent lights!
fields to hack are bonus too- luckily got a huge one with big hills which is great for general fitness work.

i had them at home with no arena and boxed to a lovely arena or walked them there- took 10mins on foot. but with 3 in full work it was just awful....
plus stables to bring in to- only had 2 boxes for 4 horses!!
 
We only compete in low level dressage and showing, and hopefully SJ now we're getting our act together!

We don't have a school. We have a field that we can only ride on in summer. A lot of our schooling is done on hacks and in stubble fields (farmer who owns our farm owns them).
TBH I am dreading winter- nowhere to ride when its dark so thats after work riding done with for us, and I work at weekends too during the day and at night, So I will probably have to give up the weekend day job if I want to ride at all!
 
A school with lights is a must for me, that and turn out all year. The last 3 years I've had the horses at home, we had a lovely lit school and a walker but only 1.5 acres of very wet grazing, it was a lot of work to keep everything happy so I've moved my mare and foal to a field and the mare will come back into work from there by just hacking over winter. My 2 gelding who are in work are of to a yard that offers full grass livery - fully managed herd turnout with hay in field -but that has a well surfaced lit school. I'm hoping that the boys will be happier and healthier out and I'll have more time to ride and more money to train and compete.
 
A field for riding in is the last thing I look for. I need decent school/schools with good lights as don't ride until 7pm during the week - decent hacking (have been practicing dressage tests on the downs all summer to get him used to going on grass :p) and some facilities for fast work (sand tracks and all weather gallops have been fab as the ground has been so hard).
 
For me, a floodlit school is a necessity, as am at livery and work full-time. Morning riding not an option as my gym isn't open late so I do my own fitness work in the mornings!

We aren't allowed to ride in our fields as horses are out 24/7, but with miles of forestry tracks up and down hills, and quiet road hacking up and down same hills, we get plenty of fitness work in all weathers, so field not required. Lit school (small, but means your perfect your jump-off turns) and plenty of hacking!!
 
I show my horse in western and breed classes, plus I'm planning to do some dressage this winter. We have a small indoor school which if fab for lungeing and groundwork but a bit small to do much ridden work in. We're having a bigger outdoor built at the moment which will be fab. We have a flat field to ride in with show jumps, but it got so hard this summer it was unusable. In all but the dryest weather we have been able to school in the parkland, although it's a bit uneven and you have to dodge sheep and cattle. It's been OK-ish - I go off to hire another school or have a lesson most weeks anyway because my boy enjoys it, but the restricted facilities at home means I generally ride alone unless hacking, which is not ideal. I've spent quite a bit on arena hire this summer to do any sort of competition prep, mainly because of the hard ground. However, we do have some (hilly) off road hacking, which means that he is very fit!
 
A horse walker - I would really struggle moving anywhere without a horse walker. This really helped with fittening my horse in preparation of a three day event. And a menage because I work full time and need to ride in the winter under floodlights.
 
Firewell said:
Not sure people would be happy with riding on our fields this summer ;). Rock hard, rutty and slippery.
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Al has a field for schooling in and then around us are all the belts and things for hacking. Even when she has lessons its all on grass! Think she finds it more useful as they always compete on grass and so need to be used to it... Luckily even when it's hard the ground is flat with grass cover so its not bad!
 
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