Events are rapidly disappearing in my area so I am having to look outside of my normal range to show. How far is fair to the horse to travel and return the same day?
That would depend on a few factors: Weather conditions & temperature, the level you’re competing (higher levels are physically more demanding), etc. Personally I wouldn’t travel more than 2-3 hours one-way IF my horse is fit and I’m not doing more than Novice. I would also allow plenty of time (couple hours) for the horse to rest after the event before hauling home. I’m sure there are others who would do more than listed above, but I lean very conservative for my horse’s welfare.
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This is just anecdata from one frumpy eventer, YMMV and of course always based on your own personal factors: fitness, stamina, weather, etc… I took my TB to an event 2.5 hours away. We didn’t stable overnight - dressage on Saturday, SJ & XC (back to back) on Sunday. Perfect weather in the low 70s both days. Towards the end of XC he completely faded on me and I actually retired him after a super uncharacteristic stop. In the 10 years I’ve had this horse I’ve never felt that. It was disorienting.
I’ve obsessively replayed the weekend in my head hundreds of times since then. Maybe the 7+ hours of trailering to/from took all his available energy. Maybe if I had come earlier and given him more downtime (2-3 hrs+) between arrival and going to the start box, something would be different. We are used to showing up and rolling out since I mostly do 1-day shows.
We’ve done several events closer to home since then with no issue. Our second event of the season was two months later, over a harder course in god-awful NE weather/muddy conditions. He crossed the finish line hunting for his next fence, so I don’t think it was fitness related.
I read somewhere that 15m of trailering is as much physical exercise as 1 hour ride. I’m with Lusoluv and if I do another long distance show will have a much more generous block of downtime first. As much as I don’t like stalling overnight, it’s probably kinder on the horse than the back/forth of trailering over multiple days.
Now, the westerners are regularly driving 6-8+ hours up. So it’d be interesting to hear their takes too.
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At my age 70+ I draw the line at 1 hour or 50-60 miles from home. Any farther than that I either arrange to overnight or don’t enter.
But remember these days I show alone. I do all the work of showing and all the driving by myself. In the past, when I was younger and showed with my kids (I groomed, they rode), I was more willing to drive more distance. Clearly as they grew old enough to drive the trailer, it was even easier.
Saturday I will hit my barn at 4:00 AM to feed and groom for a ranch horse show 57 miles from my house. I will need to hit the end of my driveway by 5:00 AM to arrive at the show grounds at 6:00 so I can practice in the set-up trail arena until 8:00.
Then I sit around and wait until noon or so when my one or two classes are called. I am riding my back-up horse as Bob has still not recovered totally from his injury --but he’s better every day.
The drive is 100% highway --easy for both horse and me. The “back up plan” is 28 years old, but has enough left, I think, to do a walk, extended trot, regular trot, and a half circle of right lead canter --that’s all he needs to do for the trail class --along with walk over a pole, trot through cones, cross a bridge, stand whilst I rope a cow dummy, canter (right lead) half circle to the gate, open it, then trot out of the ring. Oh, he needs to do a back, and L shaped side pass. He knows the moves --we’ll see if he’ll do them in the show ring.
Worse that can happen is he doesn’t do something right and we don’t place —but that’s always possible.
The “back up plan” in his western tack:
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I’m going to try to find the quote but I remember seeing that an hour in the trailer = an hour of walking?
So essentially you added 7 hours of riding to your weekend, and he just wasn’t prepared. Trailering takes a lot out of them, and I can honestly say I have not accounted for that when scoping out how fit my horse needs to be.
ETA: my threshold is driven more by ME than the horse. I’m doing everything myself, including driving the trailer or driving behind the trailer. More than 1.5 hours driving each way is just too much to get home safely after a long day of physical activity. Especially if I’ve been up since 3 and am driving home in the dark 
. If I have someone to drive and I can sleep, the threshold might expand to 2 hours, but more than that feels unfair to the horse. If I have help and we can haul in the day before or stay the night after, 3 hours becomes doable. 3 is my max for a single overnight though, unless it’s a special event. It just stops being worth the time and gas and exhaustion, especially as someone with limited PTO.
TLDR 1.5 hours is my cutoff for a one day, assuming time for breaks before getting back on the trailer. If overnight accommodations and a helper to drive are available, 3 becomes my max.
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1 mile running equals the physical toll of 1 hour trailering (not the aerobic toll obvs). Also to the extent it impacts fluid intake, it’s estimated that every 1% dehydration equals a 5% reduction in performance, but by the time you see any physical signs (mild tenting of the skin) the horse is already at 5% dehydration, so up to 25% reduction in performance capability.
There’s a really good podcast called Scoop and Scale that is about nutrition, but also takes into consideration how things like heat, travel, cold, etc impact performance. It’s well worth listening to!
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What phases and what level will you and horse be doing at these one day shows?
This particular one is just a two phase @ starter. 2.5 hours one way. Feels like a bit much but really trying to get miles on a mare that is still green in show environment. Been trying to get out all year but everything has gotten canceled due to low entries or weather.
Will probably try it this time but will plan on an overnight if we move on to 3 phases & rest of the venues are probably closer to 3-3.5 hours.
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The furthest I’ve done is 2.5-3 hours at Training and Prelim. It usually meant pulling out at 4 am which was the brutal part since my horses live out and have to be bathed and braided in the dark. I didn’t ever feel like my horses struggled though. I wouldn’t do it two days in a row but I don’t think once is too bad. That said I’m not sure I would do it for a CT especially if you can find a dressage or h/j show closer.
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Definitely. In defense of my TB, we were both fit AF and did regular 2 hour hacks through terrain - but my line of thinking is it’s not linear increments where each 15m = 1 hour. Instead I think it’s probably the 1st 15m is X, and then each additional compounding. My unscientific observation is highway mileage at consistent speeds is morphologically easier on their bodies than slower mileage involving turns or terrain. Unfortunately for my dude the ride was 50/50 highway and then long, long hilly backroads with lots of twists and turns.
I say go and don’t even sweat the distance/ask if it’s the only venue that is reasonable for your situation. Horses work harder in a 3m romp around the paddock than the physical ask at Starter. The important part at this point in your mare’s career is the exposure. Plan enough time to have her graze/chill for an hour before you need to do any tack up or checking in. Always had good luck bringing babies to their first event by letting them graze right off the trailer to the point they think we traveled all that way for just a patch of grass. 
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I think you’re probably fine from a fitness perspective, but since she’s green just keep in mind that the longer trip may not set her up to have as good of an experience once you get to the show. If you’re expecting the show/atmosphere itself to be a problem you may want to hold off for something closer so you can set her up for success for her first few outings. Really depends on the horse, you’ll just have to feel her out. When I started taking my horse to shows he needed to be as fresh as possible going into the ring because shows were a Big Deal for him; I had to manage his triggers carefully so he didn’t hit his threshold too early to benefit from the experience. He’s a pretty sensitive dude, not all of them are going to need that level of coddling so your mare may be totally fine, just keep your expectations low and see what happens.
I’d also think how much experience your horse has trailering also plays in to your decision…
My horses haul almost 2hrs each way for a lesson roughly once a week…so shipping 2-3hrs for a one day show isn’t that different from their weekly lesson. We do tend to skip a lesson the week of a show…or not haul out more than 2x in a week…but at 19yo my oldest OTTB is still hauling to regular lessons and shows just as he has for the past 10+ years
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I’m in an area that’s pretty far away from sanctioned events, so I can empathize with having to travel! I’m jealous of the people who are within an hours drive of all the big events.
The nearest sanctioned one day event is 3 hours away from me, and I’ve made the trip to event there on a few occasions now. My guy also travels really well and doesn’t seem phased wether he’s on the trailer for 1 hour or 3, and we’re just at the lower levels so it’s nothing super strenuous (and they usually run later in the day, so we usually don’t have to leave home until 8-9AM). I also always make sure to get there in good time and give him time to get off the trailer and relax before I ask anything of him. The most recent event was quite hot, but I have a fan in my trailer that helps with air flow, and at the show it wasn’t humid, there was a good breeze and my guy seemed to cope well.
I’ll also trailer 2.5-3 hours one way for a combined test circuit that also offers XC schooling and warmup rounds, so I’m getting a bit more out of my day vs. just going for a dressage test and SJ round. Overall I try and stick to more local dressage/jumper/CT shows, and then once a month (maybe twice) I’ll make a bigger trip to go eventing.
I’m trying to get to some ODE’s that are further away (4-5 hours+ one way) but will likely try and arrange stabling for those days. My horse seems to handle the travel well, but it’s the 8+ hour round trips of driving that are the most brutal.
So for me, I’ll travel 3, maybe 3.5 hours one way max.
I regularly travel 3 hrs both ways to event one day events, and have been doing so for over 20 years.
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This is the same for me. I rarely had a groom, and I worry about my ability to drive the trailer home safely after a long day. As well, I almost always go the day before to walk the XC, especially if it is a course that I am not familiar with and need to walk it twice. So, if the drive is more than 1.5 hours, it is better to ship my horse the day before, she gets a stall, I sleep in my little bumper pull two horse trailer after shoving the poop to the side. I find I get more sleep too bc I then only have to get up around 6 a.m.
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I mostly trailer in for shows - we’ll travel up to about 2 hours one way for a one-day show. I once did a day show that was closer to 2 1/2 - 3 hours (and through Atlanta) but I knew we’d go in the early afternoon so it was neither a super early morning nor a really late night. Similar to some of the other posters, I’m also trailering in about 1 1/2 hours each way for my lessons (depending on where I’m going) so it’s not an abnormal event for my horse to be on the trailer (although current horse is young and still learning this routine). Agree taking the young horse places with good grass is a big help!
I think it also depends on what you need to do at the show - I likely wouldn’t try to trailer in for a 1-day horse trial unless I either was close enough that I could drive over to walk the course the day before without the horse, or it was a venue I was very familiar with and would be comfortable only walking once. Most of the time I like to walk my courses three times, so for horse trials, if I’m not close enough to go walk the day before, I would want to trailer in the day before and stay overnight. Probably most especially with the young horse since I’m typically by myself and leaving him on the trailer by himself while I go course walk, and in the summer heat, isn’t ideal.
I am also in the baby horse needs to go get more miles stage, so I empathize with the attendant challenges!
I’m with the others here, if I’m driving & riding, typically I try to stay the night. The closest event to me is just over 2 hours, hauling typically 2.5 hrs, and that is a struggle for me to drive, ride, and drive home. During the drive home I begin to struggle (more mentally fatigued than physically). So I try to stable for that event if no one is coming with me.
The closest XC schooling is just under 2 hours away, and I do that drive in 1 day, but try to relax some after my ride before loading up and hauling home. So I guess that means my max for 1 day is around 2 hours (if I am hauling by myself, if I have someone else to drive or at least ride and talk with me, I will do the 2.5hr drive as a one day as well).
I’ve done 3 hours away for a one day mini/schooling event. That would probably be my max. Would also depend on the weather, I don’t think I would do that to my horse in the middle of summer in the midwest when it can get brutally hot. We don’t have many one day recognized events around me, but the one in IA in August that I was planning to attend (which was been canceled due to lack of entries 
) is 4 hours away and I was planning to haul up the night before and come home the morning after. So still 2 nights in a stall/hotel, so not really saving any time or money from a regular HT.
That’s what I’ve heard as well.
When I was competing Intermediate and beyond in KY, I regularly traveled 7+ hrs for shows. Some of them were one-day affairs with no stabling on site, like Surefire HT in VA. I would haul up on Friday and spend the night off-site at a friend’s farm. Load up in the morning, haul 20 minutes to the show, compete all 3 phases by noon and be back on the road, arriving home to KY before midnight. It was a LONG day, and not all horses could have handled it, but my TB mare was a road warrior and traveled like a champ. She was fit, not mentally stressed by competing or hauling, and when you can only take 1 day off work (plus one weekend day) that’s what you do. It’s not something I would do with every horse, it depends on the individual. For most other horses, 3 hours up and back would be my limit but even then I’d likely stable the night before, compete and haul home the next day.
Since I’ve been in Ocala for 12 years, I’ve been spoiled and we ship in everywhere, multiple events and XC schooling opportunities within minutes. The farthest drive is Rocking Horse an hour away. You forget that most parts of the country are required to do a lot of travel, and many horses seem to adapt just fine. Like my horses learn to adapt to standing on the trailer ALL DAY when ride times range from 8am to 5pm.
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