Worth even bothering with eventing anymore?

[SO1]

I would agree with others I would give up as at the moment it does not sound like you have the money to invest in lessons and outings to cross country courses in order to practice enough to get confident going around the x country.

The only suggestions I have would be moving to a yard which has a country course or is within hacking distance of one you could hire so you can have lessons and practice doing the cross country section - dressage and SJ are normally easy enough to practice on most yards with a school. Or at the beginning of the season take a week off work and see if you can find an equestrian center with a x country course, where you horse could stay for a week and you could go and have lessons or go on a course there to be able to use the facilities so you get confidence at the beginning of the season. However I expect this would be expensive so if money is an issue that might not work.

Sadly eventing is expensive and for a lot of horse owners too expensive for them to compete in regularly and if you can't have the lessons and practice it probably is not fair to take your horse out eventing esp x country which seems to be both your weakness in terms of confidence without adequate preparation and practice.

What is it you like about eventing is it the cross country? If it is only because you want to do three different things in one day so you think you get better value for money then you might able to find shows where for example you could do a working hunter class, a SJ class and flat showing class on the same day or you could try arena eventing.

 

[glamourpuss]

Honestly, at this point, I would take s break from affiliated eventing. It's not the be all & end all. Don't think of it as 'giving up' eventing more as taking time away to train.
I would recommend 2 books, The Chimp Paradox & Bounce. The Chimp Paradox in particular has been a complete game changer for me & I refer back to it time & time again.

Find a way of running in the odd weekend unaffiliated ODE, do SJ, dressage, XC clinics (the BE ones often run in the week)
Think about saving some money for transport....a friend of mine has recently negotiated an amazing deal with a local company regarding the hire of their 3.5 ton self drive box, so she has got her transport sorted.

 

[glamourpuss]

Also there are ways to be totally immersed in the sport of eventing without forking out tons of cash.
When I had my break i volunteered at events. I loved dressage writing & fence judging. A great day out, giving something to the sport, well fed & usually got a schooling voucher as a thank you.
I also helped at a pro eventers yard. I helped them at events which was fantastic & I learnt so much. If you don't feel confident to approach a pro maybe post on Twittaeventing FB group or similar offering your services...I know lots of us travel/compete alone having the chance of a pair of experienced hands helping would be amazing.
Even when I've been away from competing I've never felt outing the sport.