First weekend in Feb plans

What...so the forum is full of lower level plebs now?

What a shame.

Signed,

A pleb.

To be fair, I only jump small jumps, so I fit the description ?


You're not wrong.

Lol - your dressage work is definitely not lower level! This used to be a very eventing-focused section of the forum, back in the day (:P) there were fewer dressage riders and far fewer low-level eventing / jumping competitors in the C&T section. Reading C&T gave me the motivation to do affiliated competing, prior to that it had felt like a bit of a pipe dream. Admittedly I originally thought I'd be eventing, but then I accidentally bought a PRE so plans changed ?

The forum is a lot bigger and it probably is a truer reflection of equestrianism in the uk now. Things have changed a lot in the demographic of ownership and in competing. So the forum probably reflected what it was like at the time. After all BE80 didn’t even exist.

I'm not sure the Tack Room has changed too much, although it is a bit scarier now with more people willing to jump on anyone with a different viewpoint. The C&T section is definitely different, there was a big exodus of eventers to Twitter Eventing (I seem to recall some discontent with HHO, but I can't remember why) so people like me missed out on our vicarious eventing fix. TE has had far fewer eventing reports on it in the last few years as well - I think people tend to update their individual FB pages now.
 
I went cold turkey on HHO when I stopped eventing (at novice, and yes felt very much a numpty on here) because there was so much eventing chat that it was really rubbing salt in the wound ?
 
I think a few of the very good forumites felt they put a lot of pressure on themselves competing to report back, make it witty and shine positive light when actually they didn’t feel like that at all. All the same normal things that those on social media feel. They are certainly ones who shy away from XYZ eventing pages on social media. I think it’s perhaps easier to chat about things with your inner circle instead. If you are not in the right place that day the odd negative comment will pull you down.

Things have changed. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing. it’s just change.
 
Lol - your dressage work is definitely not lower level! This used to be a very eventing-focused section of the forum, back in the day :)P) there were fewer dressage riders and far fewer low-level eventing / jumping competitors in the C&T section. Reading C&T gave me the motivation to do affiliated competing, prior to that it had felt like a bit of a pipe dream. Admittedly I originally thought I'd be eventing, but then I accidentally bought a PRE so plans changed ?

I know, but I never feel like a "dressage rider" really.

Anddd, I don't know if you saw the photos from my PRE's first cross country jump schooling on a precvious "weekend plans" thread. Eventing may not be so out of reach with a PRE ? I think I'd really have issues keeping him fit enough for eventing though. He's sort of a fat man in a horse suit in that he loses fitness quickly so I'd really have to be on top of it all the time. With my TB I did not have that problem ? also only evened at low level (Uni and life got in the way).

I've been reading these forums for awhile (prior to joining) but my memory is fuzzy. I do get a bit excited sometimes when I see a thread in C&T that's actually about training something beyond the basics (although those are important too!), but it does seem rare.
 
I think a few of the very good forumites felt they put a lot of pressure on themselves competing to report back, make it witty and shine positive light when actually they didn’t feel like that at all. All the same normal things that those on social media feel. They are certainly ones who shy away from XYZ eventing pages on social media. I think it’s perhaps easier to chat about things with your inner circle instead. If you are not in the right place that day the odd negative comment will pull you down.

Things have changed. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing. it’s just change.

I can really understand this, actually.
 
I try to share articles and discussions of high level training (dressage), but they don't get many views/replies so die a death really. That then puts me off a bit.

i will make a conscious effort to engage on this as sometimes I feel like I should be paying back the years of my questions/ideas that other forumites
Did and still do for me. Several are still a big part of my horse life. I just cannot bring myself to answer questions like what bit should I be in etc as I am just not patient enough and it’s so nuanced. Yet I was probably that person and did learn.
 
I assume most people are doing their event reports on social media, I hadn’t thought about it but yes there are far fewer reports on here these days. I wasn’t around for the more high level riders posting on hho, that would have been good to read.

I am one of the ‘50cm/pony patters’. I’m loving my horsey life ?
 
CC - I did a couple of ODEs on my little, chubby, 15hh PRE but only unaffiliated. He absolutely loved the XC and would toss his mane and neigh at the start and end, such a typical show-off Spanish man ?. My other PRE was a better jumper but we stopped when he had an op on his fetlocks. I'll start Chilli over some jumps this year, I suspect he'll be quite exuberant.

LEC - I can entirely understand the social media pressure and I do now recall one poster (possibly themule) explicitly talking about the feeling of needing to write a positive post and the distraction it caused between phases. I don't have a close network of dressage friends so probably like to share a bit more here, though I don't have much actual dressage going on currently!

Shortstuff - I enjoy reading the articles you post but don't always have time to respond. I do think responses have dropped now we have a 'Like' button (which people campaigned for for a long time!) as it's easy to click 'Like' to acknowledge a post rather than reply.
 
I am one of the ‘50cm/pony patters’. I’m loving my horsey life ?

That is all that counts.

I know I am coming across as very judgemental, we just all have different things which interest us and inspire us. A discussion on high level Polocrosse would pique some interest from me as always interested in cross over training but it wouldn’t particularly inspire me. A conversation about jumping a 60cm course wouldn’t interest me yet I would be drawn and engaged in a conversation about producing young horses for eventing or the changes in novice eventing over the last few years with course design. Someone talking about being an amateur and aiming for first 4* or 1.30m or PSG would be inspiring for me.

Horses for courses as the saying goes.
 
CC - I did a couple of ODEs on my little, chubby, 15hh PRE but only unaffiliated. He absolutely loved the XC and would toss his mane and neigh at the start and end, such a typical show-off Spanish man ?. My other PRE was a better jumper but we stopped when he had an op on his fetlocks. I'll start Chilli over some jumps this year, I suspect he'll be quite exuberant.

LEC - I can entirely understand the social media pressure and I do now recall one poster (possibly themule) explicitly talking about the feeling of needing to write a positive post and the distraction it caused between phases. I don't have a close network of dressage friends so probably like to share a bit more here, though I don't have much actual dressage going on currently!

Shortstuff - I enjoy reading the articles you post but don't always have time to respond. I do think responses have dropped now we have a 'Like' button (which people campaigned for for a long time!) as it's easy to click 'Like' to acknowledge a post rather than reply.
*like*

?
 
When were all these posters around? I must have been lurking on here for nearly a decade now - don’t compete but started FJ-ing in 2012 so would have been interested in eventing updates specifically! The only ones I really remember who posted about eventing with any regularity were the hilarious mum with P/Carrot who then moved abroad, and then occasionally Rebecca(?) with Uno and the lady who was a vet and had a chestnut (Monty?) who she took to Badminton Grassroots finals a couple of times used to do brief updates? None of those are very recent either, although I’m sure I saw Uno still out competing last year ?
 
When were all these posters around? I must have been lurking on here for nearly a decade now - don’t compete but started FJ-ing in 2012 so would have been interested in eventing updates specifically! The only ones I really remember who posted about eventing with any regularity were the hilarious mum with P/Carrot who then moved abroad, and then occasionally Rebecca(?) with Uno and the lady who was a vet and had a chestnut (Monty?) who she took to Badminton Grassroots finals a couple of times used to do brief updates? None of those are very recent either, although I’m sure I saw Uno still out competing last year ?

My memory is shocking but I thinking peak time was around 2008 - 2012ish

There was still a weekend plans thread but I stead of replying on it after the weekend people would make their own threads/posts about their clinic/training/comp

One HHOer went to Burghley and had a horse fall. They got ripped by quite a few hhoers & from my perspective that was the beginning of the end. One of the most vocal naysayers who liked to remind everyone what level they'd competed at did a 180 and became the forum police about who could comment on what so people kinda stopped saying anything good, bad or just for discussion.

As LEC said a whole lot of regular and/or higher level competitors and trainers all exited (I think for TE originally but that didn't last!) and there hasn't really been anything matching LECs outline criteria eventing wise.

There used to be quite a busy dressage contigent but they've all melted away too (OT: who was the dressage poster with the chestnut mare (Jazz?) who possibly had psd? She posted a lot then just vanished and her user name is bugging me). I guess covid hasn't helped either and new forum habits have formed keeping everything on thr weekend plans thread
 
yeah around then i would say. we used to often have alliterative thread titles for eventing reports, and yes, there were a fair few serious dressagers too. Tempi, Booboos, that kind of era (questionable spelling of usernames :p)
 
My memory is shocking but I thinking peak time was around 2008 - 2012ish

There was still a weekend plans thread but I stead of replying on it after the weekend people would make their own threads/posts about their clinic/training/comp

One HHOer went to Burghley and had a horse fall. They got ripped by quite a few hhoers & from my perspective that was the beginning of the end. One of the most vocal naysayers who liked to remind everyone what level they'd competed at did a 180 and became the forum police about who could comment on what so people kinda stopped saying anything good, bad or just for discussion.

As LEC said a whole lot of regular and/or higher level competitors and trainers all exited (I think for TE originally but that didn't last!) and there hasn't really been anything matching LECs outline criteria eventing wise.

There used to be quite a busy dressage contigent but they've all melted away too (OT: who was the dressage poster with the chestnut mare (Jazz?) who possibly had psd? She posted a lot then just vanished and her user name is bugging me). I guess covid hasn't helped either and new forum habits have formed keeping everything on thr weekend plans thread

I know her real name as now breeds a lot (jetset?). The dressage lot included a now pro who has gone GP but ironically on here was an eventer until switched, An italian lady who kept a horse in Germany and wrote for Eurodressage. Halfstep wrote a book translating Harry Boldt.

The treatment of poor ElleJS was disgraceful as the mare had been going beautifully round Burghley.
 
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I know her real name as now breeds a lot (jetset?). The dressage lot included a now pro who has gone GP but ironically on here was an eventer until switched, An italian lady who kept a horse in Germany and wrote for Eurodressage. Halfstep wrote a book translating Harry Boldt.

The treatment of poor ElleJS was disgraceful as the mare had been going beautifully round Burghley.

Jetset_ that's it! Thank you

I remember all of them, the photos and the translation (because Tarrsteps wrote about him)

Yeah I felt heart sorry for Ellejs logging on to read all that afterwards ? so the forum just lost another person who could walk the walk...
 
I was in hho exile around then I think. It was much easier to not be eventing if it seemed like no one else was going out either ?
 
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