making time

I identify as an eventer. In a way that I never really did as a hunter, despite riding in the hunter equitation classes through college.

Maybe bc I ended up in the h/j world a little bit by default? It was my college's IHSA team sport, and that's how I found my Rochester barn, so riding hunters was a natural choice. But then with the introduction of Isabel, suddenly anything became possible and so I actively chose eventing.

being an eventer is not the same thing as being a professional eventer haha. i lay no claims to that. but damn the pros (and their incredible horses) are amazing to watch!

Thus, I'm an eventer. And have been since 2014. I love all three phases of the sport and work hard to keep learning and improving my skills in each. I've competed in exactly 20 three phase horse trials (withdrawing from one before xc and being eliminated in two others, but who's counting! lol...), with multiple completions in each level from starter to novice.

I have a skull cap and wear full seat breeches. Clashing or bright colors aren't uncommon, and my horse occasionally sports unconventional tack. Not to mention my obscenely massive collection of tack. Ya know. Standard features of the sport lol.

Not to say that there are "eligibility requirements" for identifying as an eventer. As far as I'm concerned, any student of any horse sport can identify as they see fit. No gatekeepers here!

isabel and i casually made the rounds at the local venues. ya know. here and there. <3

But there are a couple things I've never done as an event rider that sometimes make me curious. Make me wonder if there's something integral that I'm missing from the sport.

One thing I've never done is competed at a recognized event. Depending on where you are geographically, this can make a pretty big difference in your experience.

For me, personally? I don't have that concern. I've ridden my fair share of too-soft courses, and often an unrecognized event is less technical than its sanctioned counterpart, even at the same venues. But.... We also have plenty of venues that recycle most, if not all, of their recognized courses and jumps in the starter trials too.

There's a side effect of that fact, tho, that sometimes I *do* wonder about. Specifically: because I've only ridden in unrecognized events, and none of the starter trials in my area seem to time riders, I've subsequently never done a timed ride. Stadium jumping or cross country.

charlie's got no lack of enthusiasm, for sure!

And actually I'm somewhat notorious for taking advantage of not being timed. By taking longer approaches to challenging fences, or winding around difficult terrain instead of tackling it head on. Schooling through the water before approaching my flags, or circling in related lines when they're not flagged A-B. All without ever having to worry about making that time up later.

On the flip side, I've also never really had to worry about going too fast. Or think very deeply about managing my horse's pace for any reason other than my own general preference.

And it makes me wonder, ya know? At the highest echelons of the sport, making time is often a huge factor in determining the final leader board. And that same thing happens in the lower levels too - it's not uncommon to see enough time racked up on cross country to be equivalent to a 20pt jumping penalty (or more).

Essentially: In timed events, time matters. Speed management becomes a critical skill.

i think, with the right efforts tho, he'll polish right up to something special!

Personally, I've felt like there's somewhat of a hierarchy to priorities when it comes to my learning to event. Like, I had to start with just understanding and being comfortable with the most basic elements and rules of each phase. And that keeping time was what you did when you were ready to refine and polish, when everything else was already smoothing out. Then with each move up, you sorta start over again - not worrying about time until the other bases are covered.

This season I'm starting in a different place from each of the last three years. My horse feels like he's had a reasonably thorough introduction to the sport. Like he's got the basic elements covered. And we've got some ambitions for this year, including moving up and possibly dipping our toes in the recognized eventing waters.

So I'm thinking this will also be the year I start to take time a little more seriously. And I'm kinda excited by the idea, ya know? Like it's a whole other dimension to rides that I kinda purposefully have avoided bc I can go a little crazy about stuff like that. But it's time, I think. (lol puns).

so totally legit right here tho

I've got a couple ideas for how to start teaching myself the basics of making time. Mostly by just.... ya know... timing some standard rides. Probably starting with trot sets. We don't currently really time those, so much as we just ride specific routes through the fields on repeat. So an easy next step is collecting averages on how long each pass takes, thus getting a rough estimate of actual distance.

Then I can try working over that same distance at different canter speeds, seeing where our natural speed gets us, then trying to (in a controlled fashion) increase and decrease speeds. Which, haha, actually being able to influence Charlie's speed might be half the battle ;)

I'm curious tho, do you time your rides with an eye toward speed? Or do you practice different speeds during activities like canter sets? For those of you with a lot of experience riding timed courses, did you kinda just figure it out as you go? Or were there aspects more challenging than you expected? Either with regard to going too slow or too fast?

I'm all ears!