MK3DE- preparing for it?

[diggerbez]

Hi folks... so given that i have a place on the MK3DE how the hell do i go about preparing for it? I have never done anything like this before and must confess that i don't really do much fittening work as it is- i just ride and school and hack with the odd trip to the gallops and that seems to work for what i do....but thought that i better take this a bit more seriously...given that there is the full roads and tracks day to prepare for.... i'm guessing that i need a stopwatch (any recommendations?) but from there i have no idea how to plan for this so if anyone has any ideas? or is there a book i can buy with a training plan in it? thanks

 

[glamourpuss]

When I did the MK3DE I didn't really do much more than what you're doing now. As long as you get a bit of galloping in you will be fine.
For a stopwatch I bought the optimum time event stopwatch they are about £40. It's unlikely I will be going to MK this spring so I could lend you it if you want
On the MK website there are some useful leaflets on preparing for the event
http://www.mkec.co.uk/page_navigation/index.htm?TITLE=threedayevent&PAGE=../page/threedayevent.htm

 

[PaddyMonty]

OK, and breathe
The roads and tracks and steeple chase are not the same as you would get at BE. They are much shorter and much slower.
The R&Ts iirc are 4km and 3.5km. A steady trot would get you round in time.
The ST is only 1000mtr and run at 500mpm with 6 jumps. Easy.
As long as your horse is fit enough to do a BE100 comfortably then you will be fine for the MK3DE.

There are little tips to help you.

R&T get ahead of the time. On R&T 1 I do this by having an easy canter for the first 1.5k. There are parts you will need to walk so getting ahead of time relieves and stress. Your steeple chase time starts as soon as your R&T1 time finishes so if you come in from R&T1 a few mniutes early you will have a chance for a quick drink, shorten stirrups etc before setting off on steeplechase.

Steeple chase make sure you hang slightly left on exit from the start box then get a straight approach to the first jump. Remember your horse will not have jumped at all up to this point (no warmup fences). Too many people try to take fence 1 on a slight curve following natural line from start box and end up running out to the left at the fence.

R&T2 starts as soon as you pass the finish line for Steeplechase.
Another big mistake often made here is to bring horse straight back to walk as they cross finish line. Far better to bring the horse back to a steady canter for 500mtr then a good trot for another 500mtr. This puts you up on time. Trotting where you can after that (steady one) will put you further up on time which will allow you to walk( or even halt a while) the last 1km.
Horses respiration and heart rate should be pretty normal by the time you hit the vet check. I've done it 3 times now and never had to represent to vet after 5 mins. Never picked up time faults either

XC as normal.

Most of day two is really a glorified short steady hack with a bit of a blast round the steeple chase in the middle.

Just go enjoy, it's great fun.

Most important bit is having your support crew where you want them, when you want them and with the equipement needed for both horse and rider.

 

[SpottedCat]

Having done the 3 day at Aldon at PN level last year, I'd agree that you don't actually need to do anything more than you'd do for a normal PN fit horse (assuming yours has a reasonable amount of blood and is not a cob!).

Be aware that if your horse finds hacking exciting, then the R&T, especially the one straight after the steeplechase, will be doubly exciting because not only have you galloped at fences, you are now hacking chasing people. I love the idea that you can bring them in not needing to represent to the vets, but if I'd tried to halt on the second R&T I'd have been decked, and frankly it was all I could to to bring him down to a sideways jog. Eventually I ended up allowing him to trot/canter as it was safest for all concerned. Add to that he could hear (and see) the XC start, and he was sky-high, but if you do have to represent, don't panic, a quick walk was all it took for mine to be passed fit.

Huge words of advice - YOU NEED HELP! There is no way I would have wanted to do XC day on my own. I did the dressage and SJ days alone, but you need someone in the 10min box to help you, let you have a drink and a brief sit down etc, walk the horse for you, wash the horse off for you before XC etc.

Remember to trot into the 10min box as it lets the vets check soundness without you having to go back and trot up again.

Kit for 10 min box: Spare studs, spare reins, spare stirrup leather. Loads of towels as you need to wash off the horse then dry the reins etc. Drink for you. Chair for you. Rug for the horse. I took everything over in a box, then laid it all out so it was easily accessible. If you get your helper to stand in a sensible place, they can check you've got all studs in as you trot into the 10 min box which means one less thing to check.

At Aldon, they allocate you a steward as you enter the 10min box, who will keep time-checking you. If you are late to XC they start the time anyway. Also be aware that after steeplechase, you may find a horse which is somewhat stronger and more keen than you are used to - it took me a bit by surprise (god knows why, I'm usually quite intelligent!).

It was, without a doubt, the most fun thing I have ever done, and I fully intend to do it again!

 

[ecrozier]

Echo all the others really! I did it with J who is naturally fairly fit, and tbh I overdid the fitness work, he could have done the whole thing twice! And we ended up with too fast time penalties on phase D as he took off with me up the final hill in pursuit if horse in front! If you do a reasonable amount of cantering on hacks an your horse is event fit you will be fine. You will have a blast, I'd love to go again one day, we came 4th
If you need a watch and don't want to buy one just shout you can borrow mine - and if you get stuck for ground crew, I am not a million miles from MK. Oh and actually I found my ground crew through HHO, managed to team up with two other competitors and we crewed for each other. You do need at least one competent person as paddymonty says, preferably a couple.

 

[PaddyMonty]

Be aware that if your horse finds hacking exciting, then the R&T, especially the one straight after the steeplechase, will be doubly exciting because not only have you galloped at fences, you are now hacking chasing people. I love the idea that you can bring them in not needing to represent to the vets, but if I'd tried to halt on the second R&T I'd have been decked, and frankly it was all I could to to bring him down to a sideways jog.

Justy to make you jealous, my last outing at MKEC3DE

This is on RT2

and waiting for start of steeple after RT1 9I had a good few minutes wait)

and on steeple

Day 2 done. Horses doesn't look very tired to me.

 

[SpottedCat]

PM you can seriously go off people you know! In contrast, Lex on here found me after she saw me 'hacking' the R&T the day before, and I made everyone watching (including the starters) do a sharp intake of breath before the steeplechase start as he went from stood still, to full on handstand in a fraction of a second.

Anyway, the point of this post was not to be jealous of your nice calm horse, but to say SEE YOU THERE diggerbez - I've won the team entry, so a gaggle from my yard are going (we all entered hoping one of us would win!!).

 

[digger2]

No advice other than have a great time, lots of pics and full report

def on my list of things to do

 

[BeachBreaker]

I used to keep my horse at MKEC for a few years before going away to uni. I did the 3 day a couple of times with my show jumper, who was very limited in xc experience and galloping. We had a great time and everyone is so helpful if you get in a muddle. As others have said, it helps if you have a couple of people on the ground to help change tack, throw water on the horse, throw water at you! Which class are you doing? There is lots of info on the website regarding speeds/times of each class and there should also be info regarding a welcome meeting when you get there and potentially a course walk. Shouldn't worry too much about a fitness plan, as long as he has had a few gallops and a bit of xc you should be fine. They are also very good about letting you hand graze, pootle around with the horse so lots of chill out time for him. Hope you have a fantastic time! I am very jealous and would be going if my new horse wasn't so green and I wasn't doing my final exams!!! Look forward to the report

 

[star]

we did the long format RC HT champs at ALW last yr and it was great fun. I took him to the gallops once to time him with the stopwatch and get an idea of what certain speeds definitely felt like but I think if anything I got him too fit. He made XC day feel so easy and in the end my only problem was him napping off the XC and back onto the R&T route and running out at fence 7 costing us 3rd place He came into the 10min box with a HR of 42 and went out with a HR of 36. He can be pretty hot about hacking as I hunt him so if he comes across other horses he thinks he needs to catch up but he was generally very good. I got my event stopwatch off ebay for about £40, wrote times on a piece of card and stuck it to my arm covered in sellotape (in case it rained). I got one of the old event books written by Ginny Leng which talks about preparing for long format 3DE and what to take to the 10min box etc - that was v useful.

this is my boy at the end of phase A:


and on phase B:


in the 10min box looking very unbothered:


and off on the XC:


hoping to do Aldon BE100 3DE end of this season if all goes to plan and fingers crossed the RC champs again.

 

[diggerbez]

ooooh thanks for the ideas folks...am very excited! (can you tell? )
i may yet be calling on someone to come and help me XC day if i can't blag anyone from up here to come down for 4 days with me! hoping that i might be able to as its the diamond jubilee so people will be off work....
fortunately, whilst he is a complete pratt to school, V is Mr calm and sensible when hacking so hopefully he'll be well behaved on the endurance day...however, i may be proven wrong and end up eating my words on that one
think i definitely need to get practising with the stopwatch. only used one once before when i did one of those BE training days and i'm hopeless with distances and things so would be good to start getting my head round it all

 

[mkec]

It's great reading the comments about this event, we hope that we see many of you.
With regard to the Roads and Tracks, there is a compulsory minute hold after Phase A before you start on Phase B (the steeplechase). i.e if you came in 2 minutes early on Phase A you would then have 3 minutes before you were started on Phase B. If you came in late on Phase A you would still have the compulsory 1 minute hold. Phase C time starts as soon as you finish the steeplechase.

Our biggest tip for the steeplechase would be to have your stick in your left hand!

We are more than happy to help if anyone has any queries, so please do contact us.

 

[nikki_07766]

No help re tip's as I'm in the same boat as you, I'm just doing lots of canter work as and when i can along with our normal fitness/competing etc.

On another slight blonde note, how do you know you defo have a place, i thought entries didn't open till 1st April or have i missed something quite important!.

Good luck and hopefully see you there.

 

[mkec]

Entries open 1st April and close 8th May, and will be on a first come first served basis, so get your entries in early. There were two individual and two team places won in a competition and they will therefore get their place.

 

[diggerbez]

No help re tip's as I'm in the same boat as you, I'm just doing lots of canter work as and when i can along with our normal fitness/competing etc.

On another slight blonde note, how do you know you defo have a place, i thought entries didn't open till 1st April or have i missed something quite important!.

Good luck and hopefully see you there.

i won a prize

 

[diggerbez]

It's great reading the comments about this event, we hope that we see many of you.
With regard to the Roads and Tracks, there is a compulsory minute hold after Phase A before you start on Phase B (the steeplechase). i.e if you came in 2 minutes early on Phase A you would then have 3 minutes before you were started on Phase B. If you came in late on Phase A you would still have the compulsory 1 minute hold. Phase C time starts as soon as you finish the steeplechase.

Our biggest tip for the steeplechase would be to have your stick in your left hand!

We are more than happy to help if anyone has any queries, so please do contact us.

thanks for this...very useful

 

[Ludi-doodi]

You'll have a blast - it's 7 years since I last did it, but it is such a wonderful event. The one tip I have for you is baby wipes, baby wipes, baby wipes and even more baby wipes but best get the fragrance free ones as you'll never want to smell another one for the rest of your life if take the perfume ones!! The showers are a very, very short drive away from the main show grounds (or a long walk) and so you might not have the time, nor the inclination to do all the ablutions you might normally do!

I have a DVD of the steeplechase, XC and the SJ from my first time there, I can copy and send it to you if you like, but I guess it's likely to be different as it was soo long ago when I went. I also have a XC watch which I bought to take with me and now only use for interval training if you'd like to borrow it?

If things work out better for me this year and I can get more practice in, I'd love to go to the September comp.

Oh, if you look at the MK website there are handly download booklets and about the various phase and iirc about getting ready to go.