A day in the life of an Olympic eventer

Training an eventer at any level involves gaining a balance in the skills required for all three phases.

Training for Olympic eventing, and the 2012 Olympics in particular, brings a whole new dimension.

As event horses have to be experts in three very different disciplines, keeping them fit, healthy and able to compete at the highest level becomes a real skill.
 

Every rider and yard has different ways of doing things, but the basic ideas and aims remain the same.
 

The day usually begins with all the horses being checked over to make sure there are no injuries that have either happened overnight or that have shown up after the previous day’s exercise.
 

The horses being exercised in the morning will remain in, and those to be exercised in the afternoon may get turned out or go on the horsewalker if there is one. This will stretch their legs and relieve any stiffness from being stabled overnight.Those horses that were out overnight will be brought in and checked over.
 

The first horses to be exercised will be tacked up by the grooms and the riders will take them for the day’s exercise.
 

Types of exercise used on eventing yards are flat work to focus on dressage moves, hacking to provide variety and to carry out hill work for fittening both horse and rider, jumping and gridwork in an arena, schooling over cross country fences, either in a school, at the yard if fences are available or out at a cross country venue, fast work on a purpose-built gallops, or taking part in hunting.
 

While the work is varied it is all focused on getting the horse prepared for each phase.
 

Those horses that have been worked in the morning will be walked off until they have cooled down, and then returned to the yard where they are checked over and either turned out or put in a stable.
 

In the afternoon the process is repeated with the remaining horses.
 

Of course in between all the exercise there is also the never ending job of mucking out, skipping out and preparing feeds and hay. There are mountains of tack to be cleaned and bandages and saddle cloths to be laundered. There are also the constant comings and goings of vets and farriers for whom horses need to be prepared.
 

Behind every Olympic rider there is a huge team of support.

Picture: Kchurch05