Starter One Day Event

horseworldire

Hi All After doing some riding club AP One day events (80cm) we have moved up to 90 cm and want to do some Eventing Ireland Intro this year.
Any one know which is the nicest course starting off
We live in mayo so the south east is out - Currently looking at starting March/Apr so Dromiskin, Kedrah or Gurteen look like our options for our first one - Any one been - which is nicer/ easier ( horse will do everything water etc but some where where every fence is not 90 x 90 would be easier for our first day out
Many Thanks
A

elusiveguy

I'm in the same boat. dressage and SJ up since the end of last year but no runs across country yet.

I'm planning on doing Kedrah, its a nice course, flows lovely, there's one big drop that was in the RC event there for inter last year but that was more of a rider frighten-er than the horse, it seemed to ride lovely.

horseworldire

Yeah My friends who do pre novice say that kedrah is lovely - Its the same day the the RC hunter trials and although i love flower hill my fella is a "solo artist" cant do pairs with him as he just goes daft so its a long way to FH for just the indiviual
Will prob get a Hunter Trial or 2 before then but Am thinking Kedrah
Thanks

elusiveguy

Did you do the AIRC Hunter Trials in Gurteen last year?

horseworldire

Yes 4 Hours driving stayed down the night before stabling etc Have to say I was very disappointed with it. It was a lot of logs on the floor...Its a bit of a bug bear of mine but by he end of the year i was pretty pissed off - I think a lot of the courses are very unadventurous when it comes to AP , lots of logs most well under height and poor variety - The best courses I did last year was Glaslough Monaghan - 90% full height ( Shared a few fences with the Inter) and great variety followed closely by Mosstown and Annaharvey.
The first year that i did AP XC about 8 yrs ago it was terrifing but a lot of the fences that were AP then are now Inter - Same Height
A lot of people are very content at AP but I think its a poor prepearation for Inter - Its more than a 10cm jump its a whole different ball game

I understant the EI courses are pretty to height etc so I suppose Im just being a woos looking for the easiest one !
Was thinking gurteen might be nice either as the Inter looked ok last year

elusiveguy

My OH was killing me all last year because I was always saying the AP was too easy :P

Have to put my money where my mouth is this year and actually jump what I said I wanted to last year :P

I think with the AP, they try to keep it very small and use odd lines instead of height to challenge

Esroh

Being an eventer from Mayo with EI is a path chosen by very few :-)
If you can go round the open Hunter Trials in Slatterys Irishtown or in Joyces in Ballindine or in Dodds in Knockmore then EI intro will not bother you. I would say that to make the cost of the whole EI experience worth it you would have to be doing these tracks without any problem. Better to be underwhelmed by the tracks when you travel away. The intro/ PN tracks are there for educating you and the Horse
Do not rule out Lisgarvan or Kilmanahan it will be an extra hour but can be worth it (. They are no further than Goresbridge Sales)
Crecora is straight down N18 to Limerick .
Loved my time eventing though its been a few years. You will be surprised how far you will be willing to travel once you get hooked. Keep us updated and enjoy.