I currently have a spot with a stellar coach who is both an upper-level eventer and USDF medalist. The farm is 20 minutes from my house and I’m usually out six days a week. So, of course, because horses, her program is not really set up to offer individual turnout, and my mare has repeatedly demonstrated her inability to play nicely with others.
Given this, after exploring, two different options seem to have come to the top of the heap:
Option A: Dressage program with USDF gold medalist who regularly coaches upper-level eventers on a haul-in basis. 35 minutes from my house, 20 minutes from my current coach (to whom I would continue to haul for jump lessons once or twice a week), both on local roads that would be easy during rush hour. Teaches early and late on weekdays. Conditioning hill available, but less space otherwise than I’m used to. Goes south for the winter. Haven’t worked with her before but I’m generally very coachable and can adapt to a wide range of teaching styles.
Option B: Eventing program with serious BNR (five-star rider and Olympian) who has multiple students going at the upper levels, as I hope to do. An hour and ten minutes from my house in no traffic with highways/bridges/choke points (likely closer to two hours one way in traffic.) Weekday lessons likely not an option due to commute/her schedule, so weekend/holiday only. Huge, gorgeous farm with plenty of room to roam. Stays local in the winter. Hauled to her for weekly lessons when my current coach was south for the winter, had a blast, and made a huge amount of progress.
Assume that care is excellent at both programs and cost is not meaningfully different. What would you pick–A, B, or fill-in-the-blank C?
The drive to Option B sounds untenable. How many days per week would you be driving to the barn? Would someone else ride the horse on days you couldn’t get there?
Is there any possibility of you moving to be closer to where you want to ride?
Good question. I likely wouldn’t be able to manage six days a week with that commute; likely 4-5 instead. There would be folks who could keep her in work, but Mare is better-educated than I am, so that doesn’t help me get better, and I am the limiting factor here. (Also, I like riding my own horse. She’s super nice.)
Another great question, but no (own the house, refinanced in the era of cheap credit, next move will be to a farm to bring Mare home, but that’s still likely a year or two out.) I could potentially change jobs to work reasonably close to Option B and shower at the office, but that still leaves me with the commute; I’ve done that commute for work before and it’s real, real bad.
Definitely Option A; during winters you could either go to Option B’s farm until Option A comes back or haul to current coach and just add in some dressage lessons with them.
I sympathize - my horse also has limited turn out options as she didn’t get along with others, and although my commute is OK in the summer, the farm has no indoor and winter is a real slog.
I don’t suppose you have explored every option with your current set up? Like night turn out, or paying a bit more to get turnout privileges, or offering to do some fencing or electric to hive off a space for your horse?
Excellent question. Without going into too much detail here, talks are ongoing, but I need to decide what my backup plan is (even if not for immediate usage, but to have in my back pocket.)
I appreciate this, and the general consensus/thoughts so far.
To elaborate a bit further: I’m very lucky to have so many excellent options, and I recognize that. Looking at it all written down in black and white, Option A is great and fantastic and an utter delight.
But:
I’ve written elsewhere on this forum about the fact that I’m currently going BN (or once was and will be again, once both Mare and me finish our rehabs), I’m getting pretty close to staring down 40, and I have upper-level aspirations. Once I have a farm, Mare comes home, and I know that I am very unlikely to board her out again because I’m a control freak.
My current coach can absolutely take me where I want to go–but her program is also not replete with people who are as hungry as I am. At Option B, they are hungry, and if you want to kick-start progress, there’s a lot of value in being the worst one on the team/in the room. Ultimately, if I could make it out six days a week (or maybe even four or five, though less sure here), I feel really confident that I’d progress more quickly at Option B than anywhere else I could possibly be.
I wouldn’t have contemplated leaving my current program and I don’t want to. But if I need to leave anyway because of the way the cards are falling, it feels a little like spitting on an opportunity to not go all-in in the year or two between now and getting my farm. Like I’ve been asked “how bad do you want it?” and answered “not enough.”
And I do want it, very badly.
But I also have a job, and a partner, and elderly parents, and a collection of useless (non-equid) animals, and I am, ultimately, human. On the other hand, though, anecdotally, there are a number of people on the forum who also presumably have those things and still choose to drive sixty or ninety or 120 minutes to the program that will fastest get them to their goals.
So. Mixed feelings! And very curious about the consensus here.
I would ask for a copy for her schedule for a one-two month period a look at how many lessons you’ll really be able to have. It sounds like with Option A you were planning on lessoning with your jump trainer 1-2 times a week and potentially also taking dressage lessons? Option B could mean that you only lesson 2-4 times a month versus 2-3 times a week given your commute constraints. It could be a challenge to really kick-start your progress if you are limited in your lessons.
To me this a quality vs quantity question. Is the quality of the lessons / care at place B such that if you took fewer lessons /got out to the barn less would you still have the same benefit that you get at your current barn. There have been times in my riding where I got more out of riding less often in a top quality program then I did going going to a local barn every day.
If I was you I would write down my goals ( like where do you want to be in five years ) and drive out to the place a couple of times . Doing these things should help you decide if the hassle of getting to program be would be worth it .
What about picking A, then going down for a month to Option B for bootcamp? Is that an option for you? I’m always amazed at how much progress I get out of two weeks in a serious program.
I am also a low level eventer who has big aspirations. And I also understand the line of thinking that you need to make sacrifices and commit big in order to move up. But I think that Option B is not going to be sustainable long term. It may be something that you are able to manage short term, for a couple of months or maybe even a year. But I think eventually the commute is going to wear on you and you will find less and less time to ride. So maybe it would be better to “save” Option B (which again is likely only sustainable short term) for when you are looking to move up beyond the lower levels. It sounds likely that your current jump coach and new dressage trainer could get you to Novice, or even Training. But I’ve heard the jump from Training to Prelim is usually the hardest for people, and maybe THAT is the time you commit big and make all the sacrifices etc etc.
I also like the idea of going Option A and then going to BNT during the winter when your main coaches go south. That sounds like best of both worlds without exhausting yourself by having that long drive year round.
The most I think I’d conceivably able to do at Option B would be averaging about 1.5 lessons a week, and that’s an extreme best-case scenario; I think weekly is the best I can realistically hope. I know I can make progress with one lesson a week, but I also know I’ll make more progress with 2-3, at least at this stage in my development.
(And yeah, part of my thinking behind boarding at the dressage barn is that I won’t have to haul out for those lessons but will still have access.)
Certainly not vs. my current program, and certainly not with one lesson a week vs. averaging 2-3. Which is a very useful way of framing–thank you.
There are definitely many local-level instructors where a monthly lesson with someone really good would result in more progress than daily lessons with those people, but both my current coach and Option B are outstanding, and I’m sure that Option A will be as well based on her reputation. Similarly, there are likely many folks who are experienced enough that they don’t get a huge amount of net additional utility out of multiple lessons in a week, but I’m not there yet.
Good advice. I did the drive weekly for three months so I think I have a pretty good handle on it, and my current goal is to do a two-star. (I won’t put a timeline on it, though; ultimately, my thoughts on the division of labor is that I pick the coach and put in the work, and the coach picks the when.)
Ultimately, I think you’re exactly right, and I really appreciate this post specifically as well as the generalized consensus on this point.
I am certain that my current coach alone could easily and safely take me to my current goal of Prelim/a two-star, as well as any combination of the folks mentioned, and my horse can as well.
More broadly, I’ve done a bit of thinking about what happens if I get there and I want to go further. I know some folks are able to go higher than Prelim as one-horse ammies, but I’ve long thought that that’s likely the point at which I take a sabbatical to be a working student for the best program I can find and ride six or eight horses a day for six months. But that sounds like a problem for a future version of me/my horse that have managed to complete an entire season without shipping to VEI for a bone scan!
This general shape of idea is phenomenal and I like it very much, especially since I would be doing the drive regularly over the winter anyway! All y’all are smart.
OP, you have mentioned a couple times you will be buying a farm in the next year or two. When I hear that, I immediately think, “there goes all your time and money”. Everyone I know with a farm, especially at first, finds that between the mortgage payment and the million jobs to do, they are NOT able to focus on riding, competing, and especially, moving up.
Now, I have no idea what geographic area you’re in, so perhaps the farm plan is actually a solution rather than a problem. What I’m getting at is, are you wanting to do a 2-star in the year or two before you buy the farm? Or is it a longer-term goal? Have you ever ridden at 2-star level before - in other words, do you already know from experience how long it takes to train a horse to that level, have you previously developed the skills, do you understand the amount of fitness work, travel to competitions, and financial outlay?
Secondly, you mentioned going to be a working student for a while and “riding 6-8 horses/day”. In my experience of being in and/or seeing many different programs, that is unrealistic. The working students are sometimes allowed lessons on the more advanced horses, but otherwise they are just exercising those horses (e.g. fitness work) or they are riding the young, the green, and the rank, and their own horse. As well as doing the WORK of the “working student” - barn hand and general dogsbody I’ve heard many a trainer say, you’ll be better off working a job and just paying for lessons - which is what you are currently doing.
Nope, there’s absolutely no chance I’m going to go from BN to Prelim in the next two years even if I had a stable of going packers, unlimited money, and no other commitments. I think there’s a small chance that I could go from BN to Prelim in five years, if the horse stays sound and I stay sound and all of my other commitments remain in their current form and I’m able to maintain a consistent training schedule even after buying the farm and and and… but I don’t really expect it, because horses spend all their time trying to die and I’ve already started over once for that reason just since coming back.
So that’s the goal, and that’s also why I won’t put a timeframe on it. All I can control is the inputs–how many lessons, the quality of coaching, my own effort both on and off the horse, etc. The output of getting there is a crapshoot, but it’s definitely not something that’s going to happen in one or two years and it’s definitely something that can and will be delayed by adapting to farm ownership.
Nope, I haven’t. I rode at the very low level my family could afford as a kid (2’6" on school horses once a week plus whatever I could work for) and realized at a young age that, if I wanted to go after my dreams, the first step was getting the money to do so. After I got the money I realized that I also needed the flexibility. After I got the flexibility I needed the coach, and the fitness, and the horse who could take me from BN to Prelim, and the lease to get to the point of being able to ride well enough to buy the new horse who could take me from BN to Prelim after I had to euthanize the first horse.
I do think I have a pretty good idea of the fitness work, travel, and financial wherewithal required, partly from COTH, partly from the works of Wofford and others, partly from my coach and others who have ridden at or above that level, but I might be wrong. I don’t have a good idea of what it takes to make up a horse to that level; I hope someday to learn that skill as well, after I’ve learned what it takes to ride at said level on a horse who already knows.
I appreciate your perspective here and agree broadly with everything you’ve said. In no way was I suggesting that the multiple horses would be packers, made horses, lessons, or anything but the fitness/conditioning work or young-horse education you mention. But ultimately, I’m not sure that there’s any replacement for saddle time once you reach a certain level of competence–when I was conditioning two for a Classic, that fitness work hugely improved my riding. Perhaps that will change! But I have a while before I need to make that decision.
(At this point, at my current level of development, I agree I’m far better off paying for lessons on my own horse given the opportunities [or lack thereof] I’d have in a WS program given my level. I would expect that that would change somewhat if I was established at Prelim, in that riding young ones would be more of an option. That’s a skillset I want as well.)
As always, I appreciate the sage voices of COTH, and that you and others who have actually been there and done that take the time to share.
Just a note on the farm purchase idea - are you planning to/able to hire help? It is almost impossible to maintain any regular competition schedule while operating even the smallest farm unless you have staff to run it. Plus staff to maintain the property itself. Are you planning to purchase and maintain a property with the arena and conditioning hill/gallop space you’d need, or are you planning to haul out for some of that?
My experience is limited to lower level eventing and a ton of H/J, but I can say that it’s feasible to maintain a competitive hunter or jumper on a small property with a ring and a pasture for hacking. That is not true for an event horse, and even hauling 30 minutes turns into half a day once it’s said and done. Now, if you can use the neighbor’s place, hire staff to maintain a bigger property, and don’t work regular hours or have extensive family commitments, it can be done. It sounds like you’re in an area that might make it possible as well.
DIY horsekeeping can be the best thing ever - but it doesn’t always work with high level competition. It can be cheaper and less stressful to board at a place where someone else mows the hill and drags the ring
I agree with everyone that A is going to be the option with the most sustainable and CONSISTENT coaching relationship which is key. Focus on moving up to the next level, not to the longest term goal you have (though keep it in mind).
A commute is HARD on the body. It’s one thing if you HAVE to do it for a job, that’s bad enough, but for a hobby when you have job responsibilities–I would not count on being able to do it. Think of how your body will feel getting out of that car both ways. Will you be your best riding self when you’re ready to mount. It’s one thing to do it for a competition or a clinic, but not as your regular place to lesson. Also, even if it’s a BNT, you won’t necessarily be there enough to really establish a relationship, especially if you’re currently not running at the UL.
I’ve heard many a trainer say, you’ll be better off working a job and just paying for lessons - which is what you are currently doing.