Help with my first one day event

[moodymare1987]

Well I am planning on doing a one day event with my horse ben in a couple of weeks, but need a few pointers as to what to expect etc.

Never been to one so dont know what goes on, what to wear for each phase.
I am really excited as never done anything like this before, I

am going to do the senior pre novice which is 2ft6, which is easy enough for our first one, dont want to scare us both so thought would do easy height to get bit of confidence.

So please any help if you will

 

[chester1234]

For your dressage : tweed jacket, fawn / cream breeches, black / blue hat cover, and matching boots / chaps / long boots. Horse will need no martingale, no boots, white numnah, and a snaffle bit. Make sure you're plaited too!

SJ : as you would for your dr, horse what he normally SJ's in.

XC : colours, back protector, medical armband [ring the secretary to see if there'll be any available on the day, they're usually about £5.] Boots for the horse, change your numnah if you want.

Make sure you stay calm, know your courses like the back of your hand, and drink enough water to keep you hydrated without peeing all the time!! Arrive in plenty of time so you don't have to rush your course walk - we usually arrive 2hrs early than dr time. Stay calm, and ride each phase as if it was a separate competition - you're then less likely to put pressure on yourself!! Make sure you have water / sponges / fleeces for pony after the XC. And, prepare for every weather eventuality

Seriously!!

I don't think there's anything else I can tell you, but make sure you take a deep breath before each phase, but remember to keep breathing!! And I look forward to reading all about it!!

 

[Starbucks]

It's all pretty easy really!! You get times so you know what time you are doing everything - they normally give you an hour-ish inbetween, min 40 mins but sometimes you get time to walk the XC course in between... sometimes you have hours to wait after your dressage but not very often.

As for what to wear - just wear what you would wear for individual disaplines, so black/blue/tweed jacket for Dressage/SJ and XC colours for XC. They normally have a certain standard of hat/BP you have to wear for XC and you might have to wear a medical arm band - so check out the rules on that.

Hope that helps...

 

[kerilli]

cream jodhs, brown or black long boots or gaiters and short boots, shirt and tie or coloured stock with tweed jacket, or cream stock with navy or blue jacket. gloves for dressage. up-to-date hat, especially for xc. back protector for xc.
snaffle bridle for the dressage, plain numnah or saddle cloth ideally, looks smarter!
whatever you have lots of control and are happy in for the jumping.
you'll be given pretty exact times for all 3 phases. make sure you allow lots of time to walk the xc course and see at least a few go sj so you know the courses.
if you've not done xc before make sure you learn the xc course well enough as you go round to recite it all at the end, something along the lines of "fence 1 brush, downhill to fence 2 log, bear left to fence 3 tyres, hard left to fence 4" etc, this really helps so nothing takes you by surprise as you're going round!
allow plenty of time to warm up for everything. no boots on horse for the dressage test, but they're allowed for the jumping phases. make sure your horse is really in front of the leg before you go xc, so if s/he's a bit dubious about something, you can get a reaction straight away, put legs on and s/he'll go forward and pop the fence.
very best of luck, it's great fun and totally addictive!

 

[Bubblegum]

Nothing really to add on above replies except... there is a lot to remember on the day, so if you can take along a willing help/groom then this will definitely benefit you.
Oh and...its great fun, so Good Luck, and above all, have fun.

 

[moodymare1987]

Thanks everyone its a great help, I have hat and bp up to date and have all the right clothing so no worries there. I am really looking forward to it and depending on how it goes will do it more often

I have done a bit of xc before so we good on that, well done all disciplines as individuals so be bit nervewracking but I Will be fine.

 

[Starbucks]

[ QUOTE ]
"fence 1 brush, downhill to fence 2 log, bear left to fence 3 tyres, hard left to fence 4"

[/ QUOTE ]

God you learn your course much better than me K!!!

 

[Starbucks]

Don't worry - the thing about eventing is it always seems to be a nice day out, normally at least one thing goes well so it never seems like a waisted journy!!

Good luck!