Five year old running at intermediate

Rambo said:
It does make me laugh when people 'worry' about tendons and wear and tear on 'young horses'. At intermediate we are talking about fences that are 3'9" high at most....and most eventers are competing no more than 6 to 8 times a year ! There are showjumpers aged 5 and 6 who are competing at Foxhunter / 1.30m and above (and therefore schooling at 1.40m+). They compete 2 or 3 times a week...plus whatever they jump at home. The odd run round a 1.15m is little more than a days hunting....get real! Twenty years ago...before there were such thingd as Be90/Be100....British Novice / Discovery etc...we all used to wheel our 5yo's out and jump a Novice or a Newcomers / Pathfinders (1.15m).
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I agree with you completely. When I started competing BE at 15, we were still at the stage of running a young horse at novice straight away. Now there are many more restrictions. Funnily enough, the owners of the horse in question were 'showjumpers' and they find it difficult to understand how little we run eventing compared to how they would if he was showjumping. They're great owners and very understanding though. I get the feeling that if this thread was about a 6 or 7 year old about to run intermediate, having wins and placings at novice and a run IN, nobody would be bothered, yet as he's five, they are! Ernest Dillon said to me once a long time ago that you should disregard the age - and ride and progress as to how the horse feels. They're not robots and you can't say "it's now five, so I can do this" or "it's seven so it should be doing this"
 
Good to hear all sides of a story. Best of luck with the horse.

No offence, but I DO still think it's worth discussing - more so with your input - because the gist of it is, horses have to be treated like individuals and if people don't have the knowledge to make appropriate choices for them (which you obviously do) then they have to ask, not just assume everything is okay because there hasn't been a disaster yet.

It's no one's business what you do with your horse, other than yours and his owner's. The concern is with people who see an exception and think it's the rule and then they don't follow their own gut instincts.

It is very true horses ran younger at the various levels in the past but, to be fair, it was a bit of a different game. As with my comments re the YH classes, there are definitely exceptional individuals in the world but - by definition - most horses AREN'T exceptions and benefit from a more mearsured approach. THIS horse is not one of those horses but I also think it's worth saying that if someone thinks that, say, taking their 4 year old out at BE100 will mean he's going Int at 5, then that's simply not the case.

That's the great thing about the internet - you get some insight into what other people are doing and why they're doing it, hopefully from the horse's mouth!
 
I agree with you completely - I'm the first to admit I would never in a million years have previously dreamed of taking a five year old intermediate, but this one is very different.

We had a great first run with him - reasonable dressage, excellent clear showjumping and I eased him around XC. Plan was to pull him up if he showed any concerns over the increased height/width - we weren't concerned about technicality. He had a green run out near the end of the course - overjumped off a drop, and missed a skinny on a stride later. Happily came back round to it, and clear everywhere else. Funnily enough, it was probably the least technical of the combinations - the others gave him cause to think about what he was doing, this one he came in thinking 'easy' so taught him a real lesson!!
 
sounds like a super first run, and I think sometimes they have to make a mistake to realise that they do actually have to listen to you, especially since you've walked the course first... ;) ;)
well done and good luck for rest of season.
 
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