Best European countries for eventing as a student abroad?

[abbylee]

I’m a college student starting to think about studying abroad next year or the year after, and I was wondering if anyone knows if it can be an option to ride and compete while studying abroad in a European country? My school is on quarter system so it would be about a 3 month minimum period that I would be there, but I am looking into options for studying abroad for a longer period of time (6-9 months). I would be looking into riding as a client rather than a working student.

If I decide to pursue this, what countries have the best options in terms of being able to lease or take lessons? How are the eventing community and opportunities set up differently from place to place? What are general differences from American (specifically West Coast) eventing that I should be aware of? TIA!

[Scribbler]

I would imagine any of the horse friendly European countries can provide you with riding lessons in jumping or dressage, and probably CC, and perhaps more affordably than North America. Whether this would translate into competing in such a short time frame is another matter especially if you are there in winter.

Two things strike me though.

One is your university would need to be in a less urban area. Another is you might not have time to ride multiple times a week and do your course work. And finally unless you are in Britain you will need conversational fluency in the national language to be able to take riding lessons. I remember a thread from sometime in the last year that mentioned the plight of a school aged kid whose family was posted to Germany. There were excellent riding lessons available but kid didn’t yet have enough German to take lessons.

If you go to England in the autumn you could perhaps fox hunt which strikes me as eventing on steroids and would be the coolest thing in the world for someone with guts and a sticky seat.

[headbrickwall]

In the UK you could certainly find somewhere good to base yourself that would provide good access to University and top event riders.

The Universities of Bath and Bristol have good reputations and are surrounded by the UL Gloucestershire event contingent. It’s also within reasonable striking distance of Talland, one of the riding schools here with a better reputation.

Your problem will be the short time period and finding access to a horse to compete. It doesn’t work like the US where you just seem to pay to lease a horse based at a riders barn. Private leases or loans are available but no private owner is going to do that for an unknown for such a short period.

If you based yourself on an event yard as a working pupil and prove yourself there are yards out there that would support you in finding access to something to compete. But 3-9 months isn’t long enough - you will only just be proving yourself by then, and that is in a working situation anyway.

I don’t know what the situation is in continental Europe but I can’t see it being too different, and they don’t have the same access to the volume and proximity of events that the UK does.

Other options that could work - our universities run sporting teams, one of which is riding (BUCS) - it would be a good way to meet people and potentially compete. You use riding school horses rather than personally owned ones. The standard is hugely variable (riding and quality of horses) and is only combined training (dressage and sj), basic league stuff starts at 80/90cm with an easy dressage test. But the good teams go through to championships where the standards are higher and fences a bit bigger.

If you are a good and experienced rider you might also pick up a ride locally if you advertise your time or are willing to pay - Facebook horse groups are a good place to start. Again, finding a good quality horse might be tricky but not impossible. You could then invest in freelance training, which is far more common in UK and how most normal people do it. Very few (only really aspirational young riders) tend to be based with a trainer

[Blugal]

headbrickwall gives a good overview! I went to University of Glasgow for 9 months 10 years ago. I tried joining the riding team, which was the school horse scenario described above.

In a way, luckily for me, I wasn’t picked but the owner of the school, who evented, asked me if I wanted to ride some of her horses. I would bicycle to the train, then from the train to the yard. I rode 2-3 times a week, 1 to 3 horses. Some were green; the owner benefited from me schooling them.

I wanted to go hunting so this was how I stayed in riding shape. I paid to hunt, to hire the horse etc.

[Eventingjunkie]

Your best option is the UK. Are you bringing your own horse, buying one there or needing to ride school horses. What is your major and are you going as an exchange student? Look into Hartpury University. One year tuition is around $16K.