how do you justify the cost of eventing?

Another way to justify it is that at least you get to do three bits for the price and one of them takes quite a while and is so say fun. Affiliated showing classes can be £40 - £45 to enter and all you do is a go-round, hand your horse to someone else to ride and can still get beaten by the judge's best friend on a misbehaving horse! My choice I know, just don't have the nerve to jump nowadays. Upside is some shows do have reasonable prize money, others though struggle to have the first prize as much as the entry fee. Am currently deciding whether I can justify entering Windsor at £43.50 a class with a £43.50 first prize and another class at £51.50 with a £55 first prize and yes, of course, the answer is I will as I like competing there.
 
I don't event (far too much of a pansy for that!) but I spend a lot of money showing. I justify it by saying that if I spend £100 on a show day once a fortnight or once a month in the summer, I could easily spend that much going out at the weekend (which I don't). It's very easy to spend £50 on a night out, which a lot of people do week in week out. By being into competing, we wake up without a hangover on a Saturday/Sunday morning and go spend some time in the great outdoors! The only problem comes when you *do* wake up with a hangover and then you have to go spend some time in the sodding outdoors :)
 
now_loves_mares said:
I don't think my Dad would agree :rolleyes:. I am now <cough cough> somewhere in my late 30s. Pretty much all my life he's either been towing me about, he has built me one trailer and done at least 3 lorry conversions, welded by ancient landrover back together many a time (he's a mechanic). I have a lovely field shelter he has built. He's kicked my butt, wiped my tears, and even (slightly depressing bit) buried my much beloved eventer, which I think he found pretty hard. But right now, he has spent every single weekend for at least the last year putting the body of my lorry on a new chassis. He bl00dy hates horses now :D

I am convinced that if at the age of 16 I'd told him I was giving up horses to start injecting myself with hard drugs, he'd have enthusiastically applauded and thought how easy his life was going to become :p
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Love this! My dad is so the same. I still go home with bits of horsebox hanging off and look appealingly at my dad for him to fix it up. He drove me about all over the place when I was a stroppy teenage brat, now turns up for XC schooling sessions when I can't find anyone else to come with me and comes to events with me when I go home.

Bet yours found it hard to bury your horse; the horse was probably as large a part of your dad's life as yours! Dads are unbelievably selfless, aren't they!
 
HotToTrot said:
Dads are unbelievably selfless, aren't they!
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Both my parents gave up so much for my sister and I, we spent many years every weekend at shows competing.

Reminds me how much I miss my Dad:(:(

Even though I now live miles away, my Dad came up a few times with welder in the back of his van to fix things on my old 4x4, then he helped put a living in my first horsebox, and when he had been to a show, he would go home and tell all his clients (he was a farrier) for weeks what I had been up to:).

Mum comes up alot too, she is a great trainer so I look forward to it as she can kick my butt! I speak to her everyday yet we always have something to talk about :rolleyes:

They really do go beyond what being a parent is don't they.
 
HotToTrot said:
Love this! My dad is so the same. I still go home with bits of horsebox hanging off and look appealingly at my dad for him to fix it up. He drove me about all over the place when I was a stroppy teenage brat, now turns up for XC schooling sessions when I can't find anyone else to come with me and comes to events with me when I go home.

Bet yours found it hard to bury your horse; the horse was probably as large a part of your dad's life as yours! Dads are unbelievably selfless, aren't they!
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Yes, very. He was a very special boy, that had given us all some amazing memories. I turned up at my Dads with the horse in the lorry, to be PTS and buried at his house (so we'd never have to leave him, sappy gits that we are). Dad had clearly been crying quite a lot, and it's the only time in my life I remember seeing that.

<end of depressing bit>

Arctic Fox, that's great that your Mum can help you out! Mine is slighly horsey so practical enough, and is much better at plaiting and tack cleaning, so I always try to rope her in to help. But I remember when I was young, I had a mare that didn't like XC much. We'd walk the course and Mum would say "oh T will FLY over this, noooo problem" and I'd know immediately she was thinking "oh cr@p, no way she's going to get past this fence!". I've pretty much banned her from walking the course until after I've ridden it now :rolleyes:

This is rather off topic to the point about justifying the cost, but then again maybe these family memories are what it's all about. :)

ETS I've decided that's exactly it! I remember my first ever JRN on said eventer. I was 15. Mum, Dad (pre divorce!!), little bro, another rider, and my best friend all trailed 7 hours to the SW of Scotland. Stayed 2 nights I think, all crammed in my wee lorry. Had an absolute blast! Was leading after dressage, but had 2 run-outs XC as was a bit weedy back then and not very fit! But I have amazing memories of that, and many subsequent trips, including getting lost in Glasgow on the way home, my friend leaning off the luton to find out why we'd stopped, and as it was on a steep hill, she fell off the luton :D
 
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Stick head in sand and don't look at my bank balance!!:)

I justify it as horses are really all I have as family are too far away and circumstances brought me to a new area where I had to start again and would have been lost without having a horse.

Friends are all horsey & social gatherings are all with horsey friends.Likewise unless it has the label Musto or Joules on it I'm not interested.

After a hard week at work it's good to know you can escape to go away competing.Already planning next weeks road trip and the supplies required for the lorry.

Plus it's surely cheaper than therapy right??:)
 
You will probably find that it's expensive to enter, as it's expensive to run.

Course builder is needed before the event. To what extent will vary, but if you want to re-jig the course significantly/need new jumps, this wont come cheap.

New xc jumps. At a guess you will be looked at least £200 of timber for one jump - then labour to construct!

Health and safety/insurance/ground prep all need to be taken into account as well.

Added on top of that you need the SJ course builder, and pontential purchase/hire/construction of SJ's.

None of this comes cheap, so when you think about it, the entry fee of £60ish is really not that bad for the amount of effort that has gone into organising the event.
 
wench said:
You will probably find that it's expensive to enter, as it's expensive to run.

Course builder is needed before the event. To what extent will vary, but if you want to re-jig the course significantly/need new jumps, this wont come cheap.

New xc jumps. At a guess you will be looked at least £200 of timber for one jump - then labour to construct!

Health and safety/insurance/ground prep all need to be taken into account as well.

Added on top of that you need the SJ course builder, and pontential purchase/hire/construction of SJ's.

None of this comes cheap, so when you think about it, the entry fee of £60ish is really not that bad for the amount of effort that has gone into organising the event.
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But how can unaffiliated events run round the same track with the same judges for so much less? The PC ODE mum runs is round the same courses as the BE equivalents, with the same judges and the same course builder- it costs £27/£32 (member or not) to run. The 2 events are 2 weeks apart, and the course is unchanged in that time...
 
Don't need to justify it, it's worth every penny to me. Only time it hurts is if I have to withdraw and pay £70 for nothing.

You are a long time dead. If you can afford it just do it.
 
Lolo said:
But how can unaffiliated events run round the same track with the same judges for so much less? The PC ODE mum runs is round the same courses as the BE equivalents, with the same judges and the same course builder- it costs £27/£32 (member or not) to run. The 2 events are 2 weeks apart, and the course is unchanged in that time...
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Theres a difference in the organisation of it for a start - being able to enter online, times texted to you instead of having to ring a number after 6pm only to get constant engaged tone, results organised much quicker and of course having a permanent record (though thats not always a good thing!)
 
With so few events close by and the cost of diesel a huge factor, I haven't justified it hence not rejoining this year. Going to do the unaffiliated at the same places but over half the cost in entry fees, and no BE to join.
 
Lolo said:
But how can unaffiliated events run round the same track with the same judges for so much less? The PC ODE mum runs is round the same courses as the BE equivalents, with the same judges and the same course builder- it costs £27/£32 (member or not) to run. The 2 events are 2 weeks apart, and the course is unchanged in that time...
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fair question - here is an indication of why it is so expensive at BE and less so at unaffiliated:

assuming the course already exists - at in the order of £500 a jump - thats every jump at every height... and no less than £20,000 for a half decent water...

unless you run the same course year after year after year... it costs about £7,000 to change your course for an event - new jumps, rule changes and therefore amending fences etc

keeping the track sound - so not using it much or at all for the rest of the year - no income from the ground

mowing, seeding, spraying, sanding the track

buying flags, poles, numbers - at about £3 each - how many of those for a course with 80, 90, 100 and novice - rough estimate is that you need 80 sets of everything x 4 x £3

ropes and rope poles for probably about 5km

new rules on flags and poles - remove all the old ones, buy new ones...

digger hire, buying in sand, stone etc

preparing hard tracks to car parks

hardening the car park

buy/repair/paint show jumps

buy 6 x dressage arena boards and markers

and we havent even got close to the event.

take days off the daytime job to liaise with steward and TA on track changes

spend days (months in advance) asking volunteers to come, and following up.

spend days and days organising the entries, issuing time slots, answering the phone,

create and pay for programmes

buy dressage sheets

buy rosettes

buy hundreds of clipboards and pens, score sheets

buy results sheets

tractor time and fuel...

insurance - and dont think that comes cheap for liability in this sport

on the day:

doctor x 2 at £500 each
vet - same
farrier - a bit less
horse ambulance - a bit less
paramedics and ambulance x 2 - about £800 each
feeding 150 people - jump judges, dressage judges etc
prize money
PA system - £1000

in the roundest of figures - income from entries and start fees... £25,000. expenditure... abut £25,000... it is a very marginal business. lose an event, no start fee but everyone still has to get paid - lose £2,000.

and don't count your own time, which is weeks and weeks of 6am-10pm working at what will certainly be less than minimum wage

then run an unaffiliated a week afterwards...

no doc, no vet, no farrier, no horse ambulance, but defo 2 x paramedics and ambulances
still have to cater for everyone, still have to find a whole new lot of volunteers, still have to spend week of office time

thats why an unaffil over BE course is cheaper - because the set up costs fall on the BE event - they have to - and the course owners use the unaffil to get a little money back.

bottom line - any event except the big ones that attract the paying public, run on the breadline. there is no money in it. it would be far easier and profitable to run cattle over the ground and to stay at the day job - so organisers, like competitors, do it because we like it and we want to.
 
Britestar said:
Sadly, I can't justify it anymore. Too few events around me and all a minimum of 2 hrs drive away. Just can't afford it.
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You must live next door to me.

Me nearest event is over 70 miles away and due to the crummy roads in Wales, the travelling time and cost of diesel driving up and down the valleys it is getting too much.
 
Thank you Wessex Yeoman - Our RC always runs it area qualifiers after a BE event and guess what the courses are very similar because all the hard work has been done for the BE and jumps are all placed and distances measured etc.

Also that is not forgetting that BE also have 8% of every entry?
 
I'm interested in the medical costs - for a RC event I used a company which also provides paramedics & ambulance for a local BE event, and 8hrs was just under £350 for 2 paramedics and a 4x4 ambulance. So £800x2 has to be for an event running more than one day, surely?
 
Can u put a price on happiness, the sense of achievement of what u and your horse can do over the three phases? Plus the adrenaline rush of the xc, the anticipation and build up to the day plus all the fun u have on the day just being with like minded folks. Instead of five minutes in a dressage arena you have your money's worth with the three phases. Whilst u can do, there is no point having regrets when u old saying u wish u had done x, y,z etc... Life is too short and u never know how long u have on this earth so make the most of the time u have.

However, Saying all that u do have to figure out the £. I have a bank account which is my horse account for everything. If I go over one month, I do less the following to balance. I try to save more over the winter so I can play more in the summer. I choose my events carefully and when money tight I budget carefully.
 
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