Managing multiple horses at events

[Interstellar]

How do people juggle warm ups and different run times and such since no one else can work the horses at events?

How do people manage the herdbound aspects?

I have one horse who I can ride away in group trail rides on, who I’ve trailered two horses and left one at the trailer and he’s fine riding off, but get him to a show and even a horse from the barn he’s never turned out or next to or trailered up with is suddenly his best friend. He get’s frantic and this doesn’t make for a fun event. I’d rather not have to only compete him for the rest of our career together. I’m guessing the answer is to just go and keep bringing horses and doing it and hoping one day he will just focus because this is usual. I’m careful to never have him turned out with horses that would go to shows with us.

[Saskatoonian]

For juggling, I make a master schedule, starting with each horse’s phase time and working back to include everything that needs to happen. So it usually goes something like this: 8 am groom /tack up; 8:30 on; 9 am D; 11 am groom/tack up - XC; 11:30 on; 11:45 XC . . . Couple of things to remember: know where your stuff is and have it organized - esp XC stuff - before you get to the groom/tack up time. Build in extra time, and add whatever time YOU need to change. once you have a schedule for each horse, integrate them in to the master schedule, and tape it somewhere you won’t lose it. I usually use the back of a packet. Organization is key but having a system gives you something to organize around.

As for the herdbound thing, you have my sympathy. I have the best luck with my guy trailering alone, but you have to experiment with each one. Most do get better.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Often a groom will lunge a horse to help warm them up if times are tight. Having good ground help is critical.

As for dealing with herd bound horses…well there just is no good fix. A bigger trailer and bring a spare horse. But it generally sucks when they get attached like that and I’ve not had luck training it out of them but some do get better.

[betsyk]

When I’ve traveled with a group, it seems like the herdbound thing isn’t quite as bad because they make new bff’s with whoever is stabled beside them as well as the old pals they trailered with. If one leaves, another is usually nearby. The caveat is that in the midwest we usually stay overnight at least a couple nights at most events, so nobody is left standing alone at a trailer. I’d go for the “safety in numbers” approach and bring a friend/family/groom to wrangle the horse who’s left behind.

[GutsNGlory]

It is typically easier for me when the horses are at different levels as events around here usually run T/P on Fri/Sat and BN/N on Sat/Sun. So when I was competing two with one at Novice and the other at Training, I would have only minimal overlap on Saturday during an event. For example, a typical weekend would look like:

Friday: Training Dressage, Training Stadium
Saturday: Novice Dressage, Training XC, Novice XC
Sunday: Novice Stadium

When the Novice horse moved up to Training, that made it a little harder. And like others said, then it is all about good ground support, planning in advance, and keeping yourself to your schedule (for me, that meant staying focused on my own rides and not getting distracted by visiting with friends or watching others ride like I love to do). Sometimes it helped to have them in different divisions (OT and TH), sometimes not. Most secretaries are pretty good about recognizing you have multiple rides and trying to schedule you the best they can.

For me, the biggest issue was actually stabling. My main horse has MAJOR separation issues when traveling to events. I keep my small herd of horses at home, so all get turned out together and I don’t really have any other option on that. I ride each alone and separating at home while riding or doing other tasks has never been a problem. I can also take my main guy to events alone without issue or even pick up a friend along the way and trailer together without fuss. But if I take two horses from home, he turns into a totally different animal. I learned that the key was requesting my horses to be separated by at least one stall (usually asked for a close friend to be between them) if the stalls had full walls or more than one if they could see each other. P.S. It helps tremendously to make friends with the secretary! Then, no stall guards, walked and grazed separately, and I would tack, mount, and leave the barn in opposite directions when riding so they never saw each other from the time we arrived until the time we loaded up to leave. It usually meant an hour or two of screaming and panic before my guy settled (the other horse always settled quicker) but eventually he would chill. It helped if I rode him first after unpacking to get his mind on other things. I ended up selling the other horse, but now have a young guy that is coming along and am starting to run into the same issues. Sigh.

Good luck! The key might be to show/bring three instead of just two… :lol:

[kcmel]

One of my horses does better by himself. When left alone he expresses his displeasure by destroying the trailer. Cribox and Raplast are my friends. One time we were on course at the same time and the course looped back around so that they saw each other. My trainer said as soon as he saw his buddy he started nickering. Yesterday at a schooling show he was nickering at a random paint :lol:.

But he has gotten better. I don’t have the time to go to horse trials every weekend (or every other weekend for that matter), so most of the time I take both of them. I haven’t tried competing both of them by myself though. Not sure I am up to that!

[Highflyer]

Ask in advance (before entering) whether it is manageable for the event, most of them will work with you. And be super organized. My trainer likes to have at least one more person than she does horses, but I have DIYed it by myself with a Novice and a Training at a one day HT and it is doable if they are well behaved and you have a solid routine. I found that I needed ideally an hour and a minimum of 45 minutes between rides. Sometimes I will do things like put saddles/boots on both and reload one in the trailer while I ride the other. My horses aren’t particularly saintly (typical TBs) but they do load/ tie to the trailer/ stand still for studs and boots. I did a small unrecognized HT with two horses once where they both were done all three phases by 10:30 AM, which is something I will never do again!

[bornfreenowexpensive]

If you are just talking riding 2 horses…I have done that myself many times. Bring a friend to help you as that is easier but it is doable by yourself. Just stay organized and write out your schedule. Most shows will give you enough time between horses but I’ve had it be close many times…especially if you have a horse that needs a long warmup. Once I had horses going at Prelim…and now that I’m older and often on lack of sleep…I don’t like doing more than one horse by myself (most of my events are all in one day).

If one horse is super difficult, you may need a person to just help with him.

[North_Dakota]

write out everything, and know how long it actually takes to do things. Don’t only give yourself say 10 minutes to put in studs for horse A if he’s ever been a bit fussy or fidgety while having it done, add in some extra room.

If you’ve got help what has worked for me (and if you have room) is have everything horse A and horse B will wear separated. saddle pads, boots, girths, etc. Then on my list I for 8:00am- tack up horse A dressage- white dressage pad with black trim, ______ brand of girth, bridle rhinestones. I’m sure you get the idea. I found this worked really well when my best friend would come to help me at events, she was amazing at helping and completely self sufficient as long as she knew exactly what each horse (and what I wore) each phase. She didn’t come enough, and I changed things just enough, that she wouldn’t know without instructions the horses tack. This also worked well since she was helping me a lot when I had 2 horses either in the same division, or prelim and int but at one days and fairly small divisions so there was a lot of overlap!

[Guyot]

One thing that has sometimes worked with the attached horses is to have the one going to be left behind leave a couple seconds before you ride off on the other. That horse can be handwalked for a few minutes then come back to an empty trailer and loaded.

Somehow since they left the other horse their stress is reduced and seem to be more like they are if you bring them alone. Doesnt always work but worth a try.

The scheduling thing, not much you can do except stay super organized and bring help if you need it. Best of luck.

[JenJ]

There is an event in Ontario today with 9 entries in Intermediate. One rider has 4 horses in that division. She will literally be hoping off one horse to take the next into the ring. She will ride the Intermediate XC course 4 times in 60 minutes.
She has a couple additional entries in Prelim and Training. It is a one day event so will compete all horses in all phases. in one day and the event is scheduled to run start to end in about 7 hours.

I cannot imagine the stamina this would require.

I have no idea how one warms up each horse in this sort of situation.

[kcmel]

@JenJ

There is an event in Ontario today with 9 entries in Intermediate. One rider has 4 horses in that division. She will literally be hoping off one horse to take the next into the ring. She will ride the Intermediate XC course 4 times in 60 minutes.
She has a couple additional entries in Prelim and Training. It is a one day event so will compete all horses in all phases. in one day and the event is scheduled to run start to end in about 7 hours.

I cannot imagine the stamina this would require.

I have no idea how one warms up each horse in this sort of situation.

That is a really small horse trial with only 3 divisions total, according to EE. Jessica Phoenix is going to have a large support group, so that helps. I imagine there will be a lot of time waiting around for her to warm up horses and jump in the intermediate division. Maybe they account for that in the ride times?

But I agree–that schedule would be exhausting.

[solarflight]

@JenJ

There is an event in Ontario today with 9 entries in Intermediate. One rider has 4 horses in that division. She will literally be hoping off one horse to take the next into the ring. She will ride the Intermediate XC course 4 times in 60 minutes.
She has a couple additional entries in Prelim and Training. It is a one day event so will compete all horses in all phases. in one day and the event is scheduled to run start to end in about 7 hours.

I cannot imagine the stamina this would require.

I have no idea how one warms up each horse in this sort of situation.

Pavarotti and Bogue Sound are being aimed at Great Meadow CICO3* so were withdrawn before XC, which I’m sure makes things much easier for all involved.

[Action42]

I agree with others who have said to make a schedule and bring an extra set of hands if needed to help tack up/hand walk horses if needed.

As for herd bound issues, my horse is the same way. The only way to avoid it is to trailer to events by myself. Even with a stud divider in my trailer, he still instantly bonds to any horse that travels with him. He will do this even if they’ve never met and it’s a 15 min trailer ride. While it would be nice to share the ride with someone, it’s not worth it to me to have to deal with his shenanigans when buddies are involved.

[Interstellar]

Thank you for all the replies guys! I think doing either him only or three horses minimum and not two is a good idea. Someone always for company at the trailer or stall. I will have to start testing this at local events.

And four horses at intermediate is dang impressive!! The stamina and the stress of staying organized and flowing with that many horses is definitely something I admire.