It may not be Badminton but a traditional 3 Day Event is still a big deal
An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country at
The Cotswold Cup Championships at Cirencester Park Unaffiliated 2022
The 2022 Cotswold Cup Championships are being held as a traditional three-day-event complete with roads and tracks and steeplechase at Cirencester Park in September
Let’s take a look at the benefits of preparing and competing in a traditional three-day-event.
1. Preparation. Fitness for a three-day-event is developed over weeks and months so having the goal of a three-day-event helps ensure you work your horse across all phases appropriately. Preparing for months in advance prevents pressurising the horse with last minute fitness work but you must have a programme that allows for flexibility. We all know that small injuries, lost shoes and training days curtailed through poor weather conditions can affect our programme so plan in advance to ensure that you, and your horse, can arrive in peak condition.
2. Pace. A traditional three-day-event demands greater endurance and stamina than a one-day-event and training and preparation should reflect that. Your ability to judge speed and tempo is also vital - can you ride in a rhythm to cover a kilometre every six minutes? For some horses that will mean really generating a working stride which also generates greater purpose into your dressage schooling too! You need to be able to be do this with variability in the gaits – after all, at the competition you’ll want to walk where the ground is unsuitable for anything else, you might be held up by gates or road crossings and you’ll also need to give him a walk breather after a suitable slow canter following the steeplechase. So being able to meet the time without panicking takes some practice
3. Farriery. The mileage clocked up while riding and competing at a three-day-event means you’ll want to compete your horse in the second week of his new shoes, mindful of just how many performances are lost by cast shoes, split horn, overreaches and inappropriate studding.
4. Packing. At a three-day-event, there’s a camaraderie in borrowing equipment and ideas for efficient packing. You’ll want to take everything in your tack room but the process of packing can help streamline your stable yard and horsebox – and chuck out veterinary potions and lotions that are out of date or banned from use.
5. Focus. Stabling away in order to compete in a three-day-event is undeniably fun and many lifelong friendships are forged at these events. But equally it gives you a chance to really focus on your horse without the usual distractions of your life, attending to each phase both individually and recognising the relationship of each phase as part of a whole.
6. The first horse inspection gives you an opportunity to show your horse off to his best – making him gleam with health, vitality and fitness.
7. The dressage day gives you a chance really focus on your horse’s relaxation, making sure that he is mentally and physically supple and that he’s on your side and off your aids.
8. The endurance day gives you and your horse time to bond on the roads and tracks; have that wonderful adrenaline rush on the steeplechase; calm and settle on the second roads and tracks to be ready to tackle the cross-country track. The mixture of elation, pride, joy, and relief at crossing the finishing line, knowing how much your horse has given, endures long after the event is over.
9. The second horse inspection gives you the chance to really feel how his body has adapted to the challenges and learn of the effort he’s put in. Helping him rest, relax, ease his muscles and soothe any stiffness is as rewarding as riding.
10. The final show jumping test is full of pressure – especially if you are at the top – and discovering how to handle that, keep your cool, and ride sensitively given the efforts your horse has made helps make you a complete horseman.
Be confident of the challenge
Aside from the focus on dressage and jumping, ensure you and your horse are generally fit
Three weeks ahead of your three-day-event, simulate the speed and endurance test at a suitable venue where you can ride over good ground. Here, practice a warm up over the Phase A distance and time.
Have a gallop (albeit perhaps without any steeplechase fences) for Phase B completing as close to the optimum time as possible. Note you do not want to expend too much energy here so if you can finish two seconds under the optimum that would be ideal for getting a feel for the speed and rhythm and how still you can be so as not to give your horse extra effort is important.
Use Phase C time and distance to cool down – get used to how long it takes for your horse to recover his breathing after the gallop of Phase B, and then allow him to walk to relax.You need to relax here too, and by getting used to what ground and time you can bank in the canter cool down and then make up by waking him up on the last kilometre, you won’t feel too panicked by the time.Remember you’ll be wanting him to trot the last 100m into the ten-minute box in the competition for the vet to see his action but also with as low a heart rate as possible, so your Phase C is really recovery canter, walk, trot, relaxed canter, walk and a final trot but with little variations to allow for the ground so that you are only cantering and trotting on the better ground/uphill.
For the ten-minute rest and cool down, why not have your helpers practice the wash down and walking, unsaddling and re-saddling before he has the extra adrenaline that comes from being at the competition.You could even simulate you horse’s heart being checked so he too gets used to the vet check.
Finally canter for the period required for your cross-country test, Phase D.Although you aren’t adding fences into this phase challenge, can you change the bend and canter leads; adjust the pace; practice riding tall or folded forward throughout this phase; tackle some undulating terrain and yet keep his and your balance?
If, at three weeks before the competition, you can complete the speed and endurance test – albeit without the jumping challenges which are another factor to train for – then you can taper his fitness accordingly in the final weeks and days so he’s fit and ready to give his best.
Article by Anna Bruce
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