My name is Lucy; I am a full-time teacher, newly-minted wife and amateur eventer with my Irish Sport Horse gelding Bouncer at the preliminary level mostly in Area 2 (but I’m a native Area 1-er!). I’d like to share some thoughts on what it’s like being an amateur eventing at the preliminary level and working a regular, full-time job; recent experiences highlighted my seemingly unique position, and I’m wondering if I’m the only one?
From Lucy:
The other day, I received an email from the USEA to take a survey about the event calendar. I have a strange love of surveys, and having just agonized over the Area 2 fall event schedule, I was feeling motivated to click on. One of the very first steps of the survey after general info was making a choice: Are you an upper-level rider, or a lower-level rider?
Luckily, the USEA eliminated any gray area by defining upper level and lower level; if you compete at prelim or below, you are lower level. If you compete at one-star or above, you are upper level. I selected lower level and continued on through the survey, answering as best I could, but having this nagging feeling in the back of my head that these questions didn’t exactly apply to me, or get at what I experience when it comes to looking at the omnibus and planning any events I want to attend.
Being a curious person, after I finished, I went back through and clicked upper level rider, interested to see what sort of questions were to be found. Some were similar, others wildly different. Again, only a few applied to me; categorizations, MERs and taking students to unrecognized competitions aren’t things I deal with.
I regularly read about amateur riders struggling to balance work, personal life and riding. You don’t have to look too far into the classifieds to see nice horses listed for sale because a rider has a new job, is moving, getting married, having a kid, etc. It isn’t easy trying to fit it all in. I’ve been to one event this entire year, and it was with about two weeks notice and after only a handful of jump schools.
Moving into fall, I was psyched to be able to use my last few weeks of summer to get some real conditioning on my horse, get a jump lesson in, and discuss entering an event or two for the fall with my coach. But, sitting and looking at the omnibus, I get that same exact displaced feeling I had when attempting to take USEA’s survey. How does a busy adult amateur with a full-time job actually compete at prelim or above?
Ignoring factors like the time/cost commitment of boarding, coaching/training, lessons and conditioning, selecting events is incredibly difficult once you get beyond training level. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m whining about my personal circumstances; in fact, I think I have it easier than a lot of other riders; I’ve got a nice, straight-forward horse that requires few runs and lives in my backyard most of the season, and I’m located near excellent instruction and facilities, and I’m in an area that offers many events at prelim and above. I work a job where I get two entire months off when some of the best events occur.
But it’s still hard figuring out where to go, and the assumption that anyone aiming above maybe one or two prelims a year must be a professional is a disheartening one. When horse trials are scheduled with divisions running on Fridays, or involve arriving at stabling for shows at 8 p.m. and walking courses in the dark because I’m running all three phases on Saturday starting at 7:30 a.m. and I can’t leave work until 4 p.m. on Friday.
It is depressing when I look and see that because of a lack of entries at higher levels, my division is shifted to a different day of the week, or becomes a one-day, and I’ve got to figure out how to fit in course walks at ungodly hours. The irony is that because fewer riders are entering at prelim and above, more potential riders get scheduled out of things. I don’t blame organizers for this. They suffer as much as we do, and it saddens me to see wonderful events with excellent courses struggle to gain enough entries or fill divisions.
When I think about how much easier my life would be if I sold my preliminary packer and got something greener, cheaper and less talented to take around beginner novice and novice, it makes me wonder if I’m the only one. And it makes me worry more that we will see fewer and fewer amateurs competing above training level, with prelim, intermediate and advanced populated only by the professionals.
