Choosing an eventing horse

Is that dressage score % or penalties? 70 or 80% is good, 70 or 80 penalties is dreadful! (mine was 75.75 which in that particular test translated to roughly 42%)

Try the mare. =D

What Corporal said. The second horse sounds more like what you're looking for in an eventer.

The dressage score was 70-80%. Sounds good, i'll try her. :)

That's awful if it was a phase of 3 day!

Definitely try out as many horses as you can. For beginning eventing, the more level headed the horse, the better. Hot headed + eventing = BAD.

I know. That's a high score for non-eventing dressage. So she should do good for eventing dressage.

bahaha, I worked for a guy for a week who has a VERY hot-headed event horse... that thing was insane, I swear.... but very very talented, a Pre-Nov horse at age 6 (PN is Aus's last eventing level before 1*) and would easily be competing higher if he wasn't such a pest on the flat. He rears, he's cold-backed... he's half-insane to handle on the ground, and he rears in the cross-ties... Not all eventing horses are quiet! Quiet ones ARE usually better for eventing, but it really depends on the rider, what they can handle, and what personality of horse they get along with best.

That being said my horse is an eventer, and he's very quiet - almost TOO dead-headed for me. The most challenge I've had in a long time with him was just yesterday when he got over-excited jumping and threw in a HUGE buck and then took off around the arena... I complain about it but really without the challenges I get bored!

The quiet ones are great for heavily wooded XC courses, though, especially here in Aus where a kangaroo could leap out at any time! Roos don't bother my lad but sideways steps coming into fences are counted as refusals by some jump judges and the last thing you want is for your horse to shy and throw you off your line!

^^ Couldn't agree more. I've seen some wound tight horses in eventing, but they're always held back because they just can't pull off the dressage without some sort of fireworks. Personally, I just wouldn't want to deal with that (and I usually like a challenge) especially on XC. You don't need a horse who is scitterring all over the place, poor people walking the course. Lol.

My horse was listed as a trail horse, he is so used to everything like 4wheelers, dogs, scary looking stuff, that none of the goings on or cars on course bother him. An event is just a big ole fast trailride for him.

The second horse sounds much more appropriate. Don't be afraid to look out of the discipline... a horse with a solid flat foundation will certainly get you through the beginning stages of eventing. What you really want is a quiet sound horse.

^^ this particular horse settles after a bit of a fight, I think it's his cold back... he spends an hour on the walker, saddled, before anybody gets on his back and he's STILL a nightmare for the first 20-30 minutes. Trouble is, by the time he settles, he's lost his pizazz, so he gets decent scores but isn't a world-beater. Jumping wise, he could go to the top easily, and he's amazing over fences. It's the flat that holds him back, because the standard of the dressage work at 1* is quite high so "decent" just isn't enough.