With the new rule changes, it would take 10 Training level events to move up to Prelim, all accomplished as a combination.
Well, as someone from an area where every event but one was a minimum of 4 hours from home and all but one was run over three or more days, I would spend a minimum of $600 per horse trial, and that was sleeping in a tent next to my trailer and eating camping food the whole weekend. I am a teacher, and while some of the events fall in the summer, many do not. Since we do not get traditional vacation days, to attend those dates I would have to take unpaid leave if I could go at all, meaning they cost an additional $250 in lost wages.
I was lucky to do 4 a year, and maybe two schooling events. We had XC jumps (banks, ditch, water, solid obstacles) at home and got regular lessons, but nobody hosted schooling trials that were much closer than the events. We did schooling jumper rounds when we could. I have since moved abroad, though I am still riding and competing in my new home.
So if I were to come back to the US and average my four shows/year, I would need another THREE YEARS, assuming I get a horse and immediately start competing at Training and didn’t lose a season or even an event to medical or life issues or have a bad weekend, to qualify for Prelim. At $600-1000 a pop, that’s a minimum investment of $6000 in competition fees simply to qualify for the level I want, and when gas, lost wages, hotels, etc. are factored in, we are talking about the down payment on a house just to get STARTED.
Neither of my previous horses would have qualified, though with the gelding I had 5 ribbons plus a T3DE with a stupid XC stop but otherwise great, and with the mare before that I had at least five solid finishes with a few ribbons–over the course of several years of competing. I would have no problem doing an event or two to get my feet wet again; in fact, I would require it of myself. But if I went back to the US, my goals would be essentially unattainable with the new rule, and I would have spent a total of over a decade and 3 different horses to get to Prelim. Oh, and for a grand total of 20K or more just in competition fees and expenses.
For comparison: I live in Germany. I have done 1 horse trial here, and it cost 60 Euros. It was one day (Sunday), and it cost maybe another 40 in gas and a snack. I can’t wait for the end of Covid so I can get back out there, and I can actually afford to do it! Membership dues are 60/year for the club (you are required to be a member of a club) and 60 for the association.
How do they make sure you are qualified? You have to have a license to compete. This means you take an intensive clinic over days/weeks, then get tested by external examiners. The clinic was weekends for 6 hours/day for four weekends–theory and practice. Then we had to do everything from an oral exam (association rules, stable management, evaluation of our own rides) to practical demonstrations (presenting a horse in hand, loading, grooming, tacking, dressage test including half without stirrups, BN jump course). All of that still only cost about 300, including all the lessons.
To move up, you can either do another license level or get points via placings in competition. The average jumper show costs 10-20 Euros per class, and most people enter only one or two rounds; they are everywhere, so we typically don’t drive more than a half hour, and we are often at the barn at seven and home by lunch. For the HT, I was at the barn to braid at 7, left at 9, dressage at 11, sj right after, walked the course, XC at 3, and home by 6 with horse and tack cleaned and put away–again, for 100 Euros including snacks and gas.
