Heya!

Just getting back into the game after being away for a long time. Was curious if anyone else does Eventing? I just got into this sport 3 years ago and have fallen in love. I'm currently eventing only one of my horses.

I own an 18 year old 16.3h Selle Francais mare named Faith (aka Big Momma) whom started her career with me Eventing but due to age I've decided to turn her into my dressage mount. She has a pretty sad past, basically nobody wanted her and she bounced around up and down the Eastern coast of the US until I found her nearly 3 years ago. My goals this summer with her are to start schooling 4th level movement and compete 3rd level in Dressage.

My other horse is a 17 year old OTTB named Regal Caper (Caper). He's competed in Eventing up through Training level until about 2 years ago when he came down with a bad case of lyme. I would like to take him Preliminary before he needs to retire, so this year we are starting out at Novice with a hopeful move-up to Training mid-summer. Our first show for this year will be next weekend at Flora Lea in NJ, we're going to be running Novice.

I'd love to hear about everyone elses horses!!

http://i63.tinypic.com/10gcx34.jpg - Caper and I schooling yesterday

http://i67.tinypic.com/1412wt5.jpg; http://i67.tinypic.com/10ymfbs.jpg - Faith, my jumper turned Dressage pony

i know siib jumps on the bella pony :)

and there are quite a few other jumpers here

I'm a jumper (as we talked about in chat) and I'm not sure who else events. I know we have quite a few hunter/jumpers. I've schooled up to like Prelim/Intermediate fences on Bella but it's been a few years.

Roux does upper level Dressage on her ponies and has schooled up to Grand Prix.

I'm currently in lessons at an Eventing barn. Haven't had a chance to show just yet, but I'm hoping in the near future I will It's so much fun!

I do hunter/jumpers but I've always thought it'd be cool to do some cross-country schooling or a hunter pace out in the field! Cosmo, my lease horse, is really chill about new/interesting jumps so it'd be neat to see how he'd do with some of the more "exotic" xc jumps or with going through water!

I'm an eventer! I'm stuck in hunter/jumper land for the next 3 years though because I live near WEF, but I evented through intermediate in my junior years.

-Noob question- I am not horribly familiar with English disciplines... What is the difference between eventing, cross country and hunter jumper? I just think of jumping when I hear them all, but i know cross country is more like an open outside course, right? I figured eventing and hunter jumper were both arena events? #don'thateme

Cross-country is a part of eventing.

Eventing is a three phase sport that is made up of dressage,cross-country, and showjumping (stadium). Cross-country itself isn't a discipline. (This question gets asked a lot though.)

Hunter/Jumper is supposed to be based off of "fox hunting" but what you see in the show rings these days are basically ALL wrong. (Sorry, not sorry.) The Hunters today focus less on the actual qualities that you'd need on a fox hunt and it's become more about apperances and so on. Not everywhere perhaps but definitely in my area and even at the bigger shows when I watch online I usually find myself sighing. They score on turn out and then within the discipline there's a few different groups that people can ride in. Equitation is about the rider and how you ride, Under Saddle is all about the horse and how they move and basically would the judge want to ride them.

Eventers are far more aggressive when they jump and far more balanced looking a lot of the time in their position on top of the horse, where hunters often times get way up on the horses neck and can cause all sorts of balance issues. But they're also not jumping fences that will bring them down if they screw up so it's less of a concern. Cross-country jumps are solid. Hunter fences are poles that will fall out of the cups. 

Also here's a picture of a professional Eventer vs. a professional Hunter. 

https://assets.eventingnation.com/eventingnation.com/images/2013/01/boyd-xc-plantation1.jpg (Boyd Martin, notice his position on the horse)

http://s3.amazonaws.com/cms-hits/files/photos/852/images/large.jpg?1402432176 (John Frence, check out the difference from centered & balanced Boyd)

Each discipline certainly has their good points and faults, but personally I prefer Eventing over Hunters (although I trained & competed Hunters for years). Not ALL hunters ride like that either, so no Hunters come after me. But that picture of John Frence IS pretty standard these days for how they go around courses, and he's a professional rider so I didn't just pull some no-name up to use as an example. :P

@ Siib, isn't that John French?

Thank you Siib! That was really interesting! I definitely like the sound of eventing more now, and understand it. The more balanced jumping position is what I think of when i am imagining jumping!!

Idk why my computer wouldn't type French? I swear that's what I typed. Haha. 

It's definitely John FRENCH not whatever my autocorrect put. Stupid Mac.

And you're welcome Sangre! I def try to aim to be in that more balanced position as it lends itself to being far more helpful to the horse.

John French owes me like three saddles right now >-> And this is how he's making the brand look? I wanna eat his dumb face off.

 the short time i rode english, while jumping i was always told you should be straight from bit, through rein, through hands and elbows (like the eventing pic) is that correct?

 Phis, there are 2 types of releases. 

With the Crest you move your arms forward withthe horse (and end up losing contact). With the Auto you tend to keep a more sensible line to their mouth and simply allow the reins to slide a little through your fingers with the horses movment without being too exaggerated with your upper body.

The "Crest Release" as demonstrated by John French above, and the "Auto Release" which is what the eventing pic demonstrates, and more of what you're likely to see me, personally, doing. I find that the crest release tends to have people throwig their entire body forward and onto the horses neck/shoulders which makes life harder on the horse. While the auto release keeps you more centered over the horse which in turn lends itself to better balance AND control.

Hunters like the crest release look while jumpers and eventers tend to have more auto release moments. It's a style preference for sure. Also, it's not impossible to have a crest release while staying back and centered, and you do see that in jumpers or eventing in certain moments where a bigger release is needed. Neither one are inherrantly wrong, but I think theres a time and place for each and overall my preference is for an auto.