Getting into Eventing

[Jumpinjavatb]

I just purchused my potential eventing horse, a gorgous 3yr old, 4 in Feb, Standardbred filly, she's already almost 16.3hh, and a bit butt high right now. She raced until Oct. but didn't really like it too much. :p
Her legs are nice and clean and she's got the build of a champion.
My tb had to be retired from jumping 2yrs ago and retired completely this year due to an ankle injury, I miss riding him something fierce.

Any tips for someone dipping their feet in Eventing. Next year I will do a few schooling eventings with my friends school master so I can know what to expect and I don't go into this cold turkey. Who knows I may not have the nerve to jump those solid jumps...a bit scary :(

Bonnie

[MyLittleLoverBoy]

you can start out by doing like local farm events that are really small, then start doing starter trails where your competeing against more people but only doing like 18 inches and walk trot test! but as your horse grows more confident you can start doing it more and working your way up! i would work at your horses pace not yours! and your first couple events i would recomend troting your cross country courses again until your horse gets used to being in open places!

[Lizard]

you can start out by doing like local farm events that are really small, then start doing starter trails where your competeing against more people but only doing like 18 inches and walk trot test! but as your horse grows more confident you can start doing it more and working your way up! i would work at your horses pace not yours! and your first couple events i would recomend troting your cross country courses again until your horse gets used to being in open places!


I agree...you should probably do some schooling shows, and also if you can haul somewhere to school, you should probably get your horse in the water and maybe over a very beginner ditch, so you don't over-face her in the beginning. you could also pop over some little logs and coops and beginner stuff to get her confidence up, but of course, when you think she is ready for it, and she thinks she's ready for it!

[MyLittleLoverBoy]

I agree...you should probably do some schooling shows, and also if you can haul somewhere to school, you should probably get your horse in the water and maybe over a very beginner ditch, so you don't over-face her in the beginning. you could also pop over some little logs and coops and beginner stuff to get her confidence up, but of course, when you think she is ready for it, and she thinks she's ready for it!


in the begining i wouldnt worry to much about water, ditches, banks, and tables cause in elementry and schooling events there really arent any! but coops, boxes, logs brush, and small stuff like that is what you should start with! it also wouldn't hurt her to get used to taking jumps down hill and up hill in the begining aswell! you can let her run through water and stuff but you really dont have to worry about jumps in the water or anything at the begining! the most recent event i did it was my horses first event and i went elementry and we had like a few logs, a coop, hay bales, brush box, a little bench thing, just small simple stuff i think it was a total of 10 jumps!

[Lizard]

in the begining i wouldnt worry to much about water, ditches, banks, and tables cause in elementry and schooling events there really arent any! but coops, boxes, logs brush, and small stuff like that is what you should start with! it also wouldn't hurt her to get used to taking jumps down hill and up hill in the begining aswell! you can let her run through water and stuff but you really dont have to worry about jumps in the water or anything at the begining! the most recent event i did it was my horses first event and i went elementry and we had like a few logs, a coop, hay bales, brush box, a little bench thing, just small simple stuff i think it was a total of 10 jumps!


totally...i wouldn't push it thru the water...maybe just go down the ramp and up the ramp IF SHE TAKES YOU TO IT...but don't force her to if she doesn't want to, but if you try and she says no, you need to get her in it because if you walk away, she will think its okay to not go in...same with every fence, ditch and bank. I wouldn't introduce banks yet until she is confident on everything else. if there is like a 6 inch bank witha lip on it you could try if you are out schooling and she has done everything else no problem. i had a horse who i was trying to move up to Training level, and he wouldn't do a down bank into water that didn't have a little ground line on it, so if we ever went schooling and there wasn't a ground line, we put a pole there so he thought there was something to jump!