For curiosity,
What is your riding plan leading up to a show?
How many days our is your last break? When is your last jump school? How many jump/flat/gallop/off days is there?
I’m sure it depends on the individual horse, but what is your standard?
I only do novice, so my routine isn’t super strenuous, so not sure how helpful this will be. This is my schedule whether we’re showing or not. For shows we haul out Fri afternoon. I don’t ride at showgrounds on Fri, just light lunge or handwalk around property. Shows are usually 1 day on Sat, but some are 2 days with dressage & SJ on Sat and XC on Sun.
Mon: dressage lesson
Tue: work on the previous day’s flat homework
Wed: ride in jump saddle to work on my light seat, 2-pt. while trotting and cantering
Thu: jump school either in arena or in field with our limited XC jumps
Fri: hack or trail ride
Mine is something like this but not necessarilythis organized:
Sunday day off
Monday flatwork followed by a short hack (20 min flat/30 hack)
Tuesday jump lesson (if I were doing Prelim+ or conditioning for a T3D etc. this would be preceded by some trotting and followed by a short gallop)
Wednesday light hack/trail ride with mostly walking
Thursday heavier flatwork school and short hack (30/20)
Friday hack
Saturday compete
If the competition was on Sunday I might still jump Tuesday but give Wednesday off depending on the horse.
I’m going Novice right now and my current routine is conditioning day, dressage, conditioning, dressage, conditioning, jump. My work schedule does not allow for a set day of the week to do each so I rotate through the days and put days off where I can. One conditioning day is spent out in the fields, over hill and dale
The week of the show, the dressage days are spent making sure I won’t get rung out for screwing up the pattern.
The conditioning days closer to the event are in the arena to save her legs a bit - she has some hind end issues that are not bad but I don’t want to add extra strain. The rotation also changes a bit as I always jump the day before the show - just a few jumps, just to remind myself that I can. So the day before is about a 10 minute ride of a quick warm up, 5 jumps of a height slightly higher than the show height and done for the day.
I am going to my first event in about 15 years next weekend (tadpole level 
) and this is my planned schedule for the week before.
Saturday: Jump lesson
Sunday: Trailer out for a hack
Monday: Day off
Tuesday: Dressage
Wednesday: Ground work/lunge
Thursday: Dressage
Friday: Trailering in to the show and we are allowed to do some cross country schooling onsite. It’s tadpole level so will not be very strenuous, but I will take him through the scenery and get his feet wet through the water element.
Saturday: compete!
Been awhile, but when the kids were showing upper level 3-Day, our farm policy was no training or practicing one week before a HT. But having said that, we were doing one every 3 weeks in the summer --10 a year --so horse comes home from a 3-Day (CIC* or Intermediate), he gets a week off (no riding). Then there is work with the trainer on the “weak sister” --Dressage coach if dressage needed work, stadium if that was a problem --we never practiced CC because neither of the two eventers ever missed clean rounds and usually had optimum time. Then horse had week “off” but this time it was doing anything except 3-Day stuff --trail ride, bareback goofing around, halter work, horse games with sisters like broom polo.
I still do pretty much the same --I compete in Mounted Archery. I have two archery horses and alternate them for practice every other day. I just looked at my calendar and realized that Friday is last practice day with the horse I will take (I keep both going so I have a back up) --YIKES. But that week off will be good for both of us. And honestly, we are not going to shoot one bit better with three more hours of practice. We’ve been practicing since April 1, (except when it snows) and we are shooting well. Time to clean tack and make the boy look handsome.
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My riding schedule stays pretty much the same. This is the routine I’ve had for prelim+ TBs for 20 years. Below prelim they won’t gallop on Saturday but everything else is the same.
Monday: hack
Tuesday: flat
Wednesday: flat
Thursday: jump
Friday: trot
Saturday: gallop
Sunday: off
My general principles: I don’t jump and gallop on consecutive days outside of competition (Always a day of flatwork, trot, or hack in between to allow any micro strains to recover or injuries to rear their ugly head). I don’t jump or gallop the day after time off, always hack or very light flatwork first.
For competitions, I want my last ride before the show to be flatwork, practicing test movements. So I will skip Friday’s trot and do flatwork instead. If I’m competing Fri/Sat, I will swap jump day to Wednesday and flatwork on Thursday.
Such as:
Mon hack
Tue flat
Wed jump
Thurs flat
Fri show
Sat show
I almost always give 2 days off after showing, and I won’t jump that week.
Sun show
Mon off
Tue off
Weds hack
Thurs flat
Fri flat or trot
Sat gallop
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I love seeing all these schedules.
I’ve got my first big show in a long while (and first 2 day show in 5+ years). So I was trying to decide if I should jump today or tomorrow. Hahaha. We travel Friday and I plan to hack once we arrive Friday afternoon. Dressage & SJ Saturday, XC Sunday.
I need to make sure I have some jump confidence for the show, but looks like weather is going to dictate if I can jump today (Wednesday) or not, if I can’t then we will jump tomorrow.
There is a good outline of what you need and should be doing in this presentation done for Ontario Eventing.
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Well, I only do schooling shows and show up to BN. Someday I’d like to have the horse, time and money to do more than that. I don’t know how people with full time jobs are managing to ride 5 days a week before a show. But right now:
Sunday: Jump
Monday: Work late enough I don’t have time to ride. Drink wine.
Tuesday: SAME
Wednesday: Leave work like it’s on fire and ride after work. Dressage. Get home at 7:30. Dead on couch by 9.
Thursday: More work.
Friday: Same as Wednesday.
Saturday: A little dressage or a hack then getting ready for show.
Sunday: Show.
My horse is 20 though, and we aren’t doing big shows and never jump much more than 3’. He knows his job. He doesn’t need to be schooled very much. I also like to see my spouse occasionally, so that’s another contributing factor.
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Lol I love the description of your schedule. Just wanted to address that the reason I can ride most days after work is that I keep my horses at home and it really helps not having to add the commute to the barn and back. Plus, obviously my spouse is there too so barn time = spouse time.
I am also amazed how many of you with full time jobs can ride so much, but I also live in southern CA so have to add a lot commuting time on to everything (1 hour to/from home/work, 1.25 hr work to barn, 40 minutes barn to home). I ride after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and don’t get home until 8:30 or 9:00pm) and both days on the weekend. I only jump once a week in a lesson - typically Saturday. Sunday may be a conditioning/hill day depending on time of year, weather, footing, horse needs etc. I basically keep the same schedule leading up to a show but I like to give my horse a day off before an event. Many events here run over 3 days, in which case I try to ride Tuesday and Wednesday evening so he can have Thursday off (or as a travel day with hand walking if it’s too far to haul Friday and still make my dressage time). I’m only showing BN or N right now and my horse lives out 24/7 on hilly fields so he’s not usually particularly fresh and he’s plenty fit on this schedule.
My schedule varies depending on weather, availability of coach and life.
I dabble between Prelim and Training Level.
Horse goes 6 days a week, one day hacking, try to jump 1-2 times a week, 2nd time could be just poles working on my eye. If I have a jump lesson that week, I only jump once, as they are usually harder then what I’d do on my own. Trot sets once a week.
Monday - Flat
Tuesday- Off
Wednesday - Hack/light flat
Thursday - jump or pole work - finish with a hack in the summer
Friday - Flat
Saturday - Jump
Sunday - Trot Sets
I try to stick to a schedule, but I find I am always juggling with fitting in lessons as I have to trailer out for lessons. I can’t afford weekly lessons either, so when I get the opportunity to have one I drop everything.
I am retired now, but when I was working (1.5 hr commute each way) I rode an average of 5 day a week ( 2 weekend days and 3 days in the week). Horses are at home.
I rarely got home before 7 PM, and by the time i groomed, rode, mucked and fed, it was 10PM before I came back into the house.
I regularly competed at Training level.
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My schedule is superfluous and totally depends on weather, the horse I’m riding, and our goals that season. So for this question I don’t have a definitive answer.
For the most part anything below Training I don’t do anything special fitness-wise for the horse, but I do like doing canter sets for MY fitness. I sure get tired halfway around XC and I don’t remember having that issue as a teen! 
For my current guy my last ride before the show (dressage day) is always a hack. I’ve found for him personally he does better if we don’t school dressage days back to back.
My current schedule looks something like this:
Monday - off
Tuesday - long slow distance walk hack (2-3 miles)
Wednesday - flat / dressage
Thursday - hack - either trot sets or light jumping sprinkled in
Friday - flat / dressage
Saturday - mixed bag; sometimes XC, sometimes hack, sometimes interval training.
Sunday - usually hack
I don’t do interval training back to back, or dressage schools back to back.
Some weeks they work 7 days a week, some weeks they work 3.
I don’t jump every week. Some weeks we don’t jump at all, some weeks we do XC schoolings back to back.
When I am legging up for the season I do 3 interval training sessions a week.
My trails have logs and stone piles for the days I want to add jumping to the roster.
I rarely do SJ or XC schooling.
My horses have definitively more miles on hack than in the ring.
I am also someone who works F/T, has 2 hr commutes, and don’t budget for weekly lessons. So my approach is a bit unorthodox and independent of a schedule. I ride when I have time and when the weather allows it. The drawback to this schedule is I could use better XC mileage, but don’t always have the time during the week.
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Wait, does it work like that?? Will you please come tell my husband that my barn time is actually quality time for us? LOL
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I ride EARLY. I’m up at around 4.30, out the door within 20 minutes. 20 minute drive to the horses - so get there about 5.20. Takes about 20 minutes to grab the horse out of the paddock and tack up (I have all my horse stuff in the car so I park next to the paddock and get him ready from there). So on horse about 5.40. I generally ride for about 50 minutes or so, so off horse at about 6.30. Feed him and then get changed and need to leave at around 6.50 for the hour and 5 minute drive to work ready to start at 8am. I’m nuts 
I used to ride after work but I was often tired and made excuses and not go (wasn’t competing at the time so didn’t matter).
I don’t ride the day before an event because I have to wash him in the morning, so get to sleep in til about 5!
We’re only competing EVA60, but was about to move up to EVA80 before abscess issues (He’s been off for 2 months and counting…
Monday - Dressage or day off depending what we did on the weekend.
Tuesday - Conditioning
Wednesday - Dressage
Thursday - Jumping
Friday - Wash,
Saturday & Sunday - Compete.
Oh and he lives out 24/7 so he gets plenty of movement without being ridden the day before.
I’m a little different. I don’t jump any later in the week than Wed but usually Tues.
For Training and under, this is the usual plan:
Monday: day off
Tuesday: light hack and flatwork (in any order)
Wednesday: Jump
Thursday: dressage, or jump if Wednesday didn’t go well
Friday: light dressage or lunge early morning prior to travel, or after we arrive at show
Sat/Sun: compete
Mon/Tues: off, turned out
If I’m aiming for a Training 3 day or up, I adjust based on my gallop schedule (either every 4th or 5th day) and work backwards from XC day. For regular HT, the XC counts as a gallop day. In the lead up to a long format, I taper in the 2 weeks prior to the show, and travel often plays a big role in the schedule too.
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