Firn's Blog post # 13

Do's and Don'ts of Your First Event

With Arwen and me fresh from our first event - an amazing, terrifying, and exhilarating experience I will gladly repeat - I am left to look back on a weekend that in many ways went horribly wrong, but as usual under the guidance of the Lord, also went perfectly right. I made plenty of mistakes, so I shall put them together for the world to see and hopefully learn from. Hence, some do's and don'ts for the beginner event rider.

*Do:* have a camera in your horsebox linked to your smartphone so that you can check up on your horse as you travel.

*Don't: *stare at the stupid thing for two hours on a narrow, winding road going up and down hills and make yourself extraordinarily motion sick. It's not nice to do dressage whilst wanting to throw up, although, come to think of it, stressage makes you nervous enough to throw up anyway.

*Do: *plait your horse's mane for dressage.

*Don't: *use elastics instead of stitching it like someone who actually knows what they're doing. Your horse will shake out six of her thirteen huge bobbles (native, natural manes are terrible) five minutes before your test.

*Do: *concentrate in the dressage warmup.

*Don't: *lose track of the craziest thoroughbred there. He will suddenly take off running towards your horse's bottom and you will have to thoroughly boot her in order to make her buck across half the arena instead of landing the savage kick she was aiming at him.

*Do: *leave the arena on a loose rein at a free walk after your test.

*Don't: *nearly fall off when your horse spooks dramatically at an innocent spectator. (Also refrain from getting annoyed with the spectator, especially if he's your dad.)

*Do: *take out your plaits before showjumping if they're annoying your horse.

*Don't: *panic about the fact that her mane now looks like it's been crinkle-cut, then try to brush it flat with a wet dandy brush. This works perfectly and will give you a wonderful flat mane in seconds, but you will look like a complete newbie because nobody else has bothered to do so and the pros all have crinkle-cut manes.

*Do: *show your horse the big scary oxer before your round.

*Don't: *be so relieved about clearing the big scary oxer that you run-out at the pathetic little vertical directly after it.

*Do: *be polite to the other people in the stable block.

*Don't: *let them kick you out of your stable because they want it. You will be forced to move four times before your poor horse finally finds a stable nobody else wants because it's 100 miles away from the camping area.

*Do: *have a kind and friendly horse that won't bite people passing her stable.

*Don't: *have an attention-craving horse that twists her whole head sideways in her best begging attitude whenever anyone goes past, because they will think you and your horse are both total lunatics.

*Do: *hand-walk your horse the next morning to let her stretch her legs and get some grass.

*Don't: *do this where your horse can see the other horses starting cross-country. She will lose her mind, drag you everywhere and snort like a dragon for the rest of the morning because she wants a turn.

*Do: *wear your number.

*Don't: *neglect to bring a bib and end up pinning the number to your body protector with safety pins. It will rip and the corners will fly off at random moments. When you get off to fix it, your horse will rub her face on her leg and break her reins 30 seconds before you're due in the startbox.

*Do: *bring spare reins.

*Don't: *leave them all the way down in the horsebox miles from the startbox. Your longsuffering sister will sprint so fast to get them that she puts her back out.

*Do: *enjoy your event despite all this. It is a wonderful privilege to be flying across country on a horse that loves you, because when it's just you and the horse and God and the wind, you will know what freedom feels like.

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