How to get into British Eventing
How to get into British Eventing
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This year DVR ambassador Liberty has taken the plunge and decided to start British Eventing for the first time! As the season begins, we talk to Liberty about the process of joining and how she found her first event!
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How did you find the process of joining British Eventing?
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The process was quite easy but it’s not cheap! There are two options for becoming a member. You can pay a full year fee and attend any events, or you can get a day pass membership (A good idea if you aren’t planning on doing too many. If you are doing quite a few it’s worth doing the full year’s fee). It costed £15 for the day pass membership compared to £135 for the full year membership but you then you have to pay a day pass for every event you do which is £25. Entry fees on top of this are about £80!
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Liberty’s first event was Borde Hill in May.
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How did you find your first event and would you do it again?
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I’m so pleased with George, dressage didn’t go to plan! But we got double clear in our show-jumping and cross-country which I was really happy with. The day just all blew his brains a bit! But yes, I’d definitely do it again, it was a brilliant day out!
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Give us one thing you learned from eventing for the first time?
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So many little things to learn! Like I didn’t know for the XC the optimum time was in the secretary’s tent and everyone wears stopwatches to try and get the perfect time.
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How did you find the timings through the day? Was there a lot of waiting around?
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Each of my times had about an hour between so I thought I’d have time to untack and plod about between, but by the time you finish each you have about 20/30 minutes till the next. It goes so fast!
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Did anything go wrong?
Dressage! But when I messed up my test the judge was lovely and just told me to pick up from where I went wrong.
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General thoughts on the management and running of the day?
It was all run so well and everyone was really friendly.
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What did you think about the cost?
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It’s expensive but worth it. So much fun! And if you break it up how much you’d spend going out to do each discipline individually the price is easier to justify in your head!
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What would you do differently next time?
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Looking back at how stressed I was before, I’d say you’re not going to get everything perfect straight away so learn from it and enjoy it. You may not be lucky enough to get the chance again.
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Turn nerves into excitement, everyone’s in the same boat and is feeling the same!
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