Dressage, Jumping, or Eventing?
so, after a year of event training.. i’m trying to make a choice.
i can’t decide if i want to show and train 3 phase eventing, show dressage and train dressage&showjumping, or just focus on dressage
me and my horse enjoy dressage very much, but jumping we fall apart, i haven’t been trained in it, and Beau isn’t very talented (but he LOVES to do it)
i don’t enjoy jumping with beau, but i love cross country…
my question is.. should i stop jumping (jumping Beau scares me) or should i keep trying at it?
we have training level dressage down and could advance, but we can’t show in 2 phases because we are stuck in 18"
I’m sorry if this is confusing!
but any thoughts appreciated..
well stadium i HATE, and cross country is fun, but once again.. we’re not great at it.
basically, as much as i hate to say it, this is a case of "green on green" when it comes to jumping courses. Beau was taught by the good old "point, kick, hold on" type jump method, and i was always training horses on the flat for my trainers.. so i never learned how to jump.
i’ve never learned the motions correctly, so i can’t apply them when Beau is galloping away from a little cross rail.
i can’t decide if i should keep trying with learning to jump, or give up on it for awhile..
There’s nothing more unsettling than jumping a horse that’s not very good at it for competition. Since you don’t seem to really enjoy it much with Beau (do you break out in a cold sweat ?
, focus on advancing with dressage. There’s enough there to keep you and Beau occupied for the rest of your lives! I think it’s perfectly okay to push forward in something you and your horse have a natural aptitude for than to force something neither of you really feels entirely comfortable with. Good Luck!
Edit: It can never hurt to find an instructor with a reliable seasoned jumper who can train you on the proper method. That way you can solely concentrate on learning the ins-and-out of jumping with a horse that knows what he/she’s doing. You may find you love jumping once you’ve had formal instruction. Most importantly you’ll feel better and be more confident that whatever decision you make was made after you gave yourself a fair shot. All riders need training; we’re not born jumpers. Ha! OK maybe a few are
If you really enjoy dressage more, and Beau enjoys dressage as well, then go for it! Personally, I LOVE cross-country and jumping, but it’s all about personal preference…it sounds like you prefer dressage though, and you don’t want to ride a horse over jumps if it intimidates you.
Good luck, and I hope this helps a bit!
ADD: Is it JUST the stadium jumping that you dislike out of the three-day eventing? If so, I would work at it a bit more, since you like 2 out of the 3….
ADD: Hmm…sounds like he could maybe settle down with some training, but that won’t really help since you weren’t able to get training yourself…well, in that case, I think you’d be happier doing just dressage, since you sound like you really enjoy it and are more successful with it.
i think you could give jumping a shot it can only make you and your horses bond stronger
Personally , while Iove dressage, I love jumping also. So I do eventing. I am fairly experienced in jumping so the fact that my mare was terrified to jump a hay bale when we started eventing.
We started at 18" also, but did it for only one show, then moved up.
It depends on how much you enjoy jumping in general – are you scared of jumping just because you both are green or do you not like jumping?
If you are scared of jumping only because you are both green, you might want to work with a trainer and just work slowly on your jumping. Concentrate on dressage and dressage shows this summer. Find a trainer that can help you with your jumping issues and work on it on the side – as kind of a break from dressage.
If you just don’t like jumping, then just work on dressage.
If you aren’t sure if you don’t like jumping or not, then find a trainer and work with them to find out if you enjoy jumping and just don’t like it because you both are green or if you do not like jumping.
If you’d like to progress with jumping, you should probably take a few jumping lessons on an experienced horse, not Beau. Then, if finances permit, have an experienced trainer work with Beau. If not, hopefully you can continue your jumping lessons on Beau after getting the feel of jumping on a more experienced horse.
Only you can make this decision – is it worth it to keep trying, or do you really prefer dressage? In my opinion, I think eventing is the most fun, but I can’t make that decision for you.