How many of you still compete your horses? And at what?

[alicecrail]

I am grumpy because the school is frozen, my horses are getting too fresh from not having enough work and i was hoping to do some dressage with my 2 at the end of feb. I was wondering how many parents still find time to compete and at what? How do you manage with the kids? Do they come with you?

I'm pg and will be waddling round some local shows this spring/early summer as I have a youngster who's never done anything so I'd like him to get a few inhands under his belt. As I'm going to have to stop riding nearer my due date I thought I'd get some work & shows into him then he could sort of be turned away to have it all sink in. That's the theory anyway!

Luckily my dh also has horses so I will be able compete as we'll just take the babe with us. Probably have to be one at a time unless we have a friend along to help.

I can sympathise about the freshness. Mine was a right so and so at the weekend!

Do you have your horses at home? Mine are on diy livery about 10 miles away from our house and it means a lot of the time is spent travelling. My dd does sleep in the afternoons though so she stays in the car while i get things done, which is useful!

I event in the summer, and do dressage and sJ all year, but much less at certain times of the year, mainly due to the dss' rugby commitments. Mine is a tad fresh atm , i'm working full time as well so she's not getting enough work, even though she's out all day in the field. I sometimes take 1 or 2 children with me, i try to avoid taking all four to competitions as i spend more time worrying what they're up too than concentrating on the event.

I'd like to start going to some fun local shows, maybe those within hacking distance at first as unsure how violently he'll object to loading. We took part in a fun show at our own yard, but because I still haven't got to the bottom of how and why he was banned from Pony Club I might lean on someone with a bit more experience first.

Or we might just remain a happy hacking couple, but he loves jumping and x country so much it seems a shame not to give him the opportunity to show off his talents!

just found the horse thread.. cool... i live in brisbane now so no problem with frozen schools but i remeber the drama well. the last school we built in the uk was out of chunky car rubber and was awesome.. we live in yorkshire so often snowed and froze. In my real world ( thats my nice one! otherwise im a registered nurse...) i event and bring on young horses. Studied equine studies in the uk and am a qualified coach. I teach here in brisbane but only people i can be bothered with! and DD has a pony now who is best described as slightly nuts. but she loves him and he is only 3 years old.
I have a couple of freebie ex racehorses coming to spell for a few months then if time allows i will bring them back into work and re school them with some small shows before i sell them! one day hopefully i will get the chance to do it full time again... thats me!

alicecrail, I do keep mine at home now so didn't have to panic about getting to the yard in all this snow, which made a nice change!

We haven't had snow (boo!) so our school is just soggy rather than frozen.

I play polo in the summer and also do the odd hunter trial.
I missed all of last year as i was pg after many years of pretty constant training so it will be interesting to see what state my game is in this summer!

DS is too small yet to come riding with me (can't wait till i can sit him in front of me and see what he thinks) and will still be too little in the summer to watch much so I'm just going to be extra nice to my grooms and hope they might like to look after him as well as sorting the ponies for me. Otherwise I'll have to draw lots with DH to see who is going to compete when.