Success from careful planning

So, here it is in early January and I'm writing a blog about preparing for an event that takes place in the first week of May. It may seem like overkill, but when preparing for any three-day event, you have to start planning months in advance. In my case, my horse hasn't gone training yet, so I've had to carefully plan out my season in order to give us the maximum number of runs over training level courses while keeping in mind that some courses are going to be better preparation than others. His first training needs to be a good move up course, and then gradually I want to run over courses that our more like max training courses. As we get closer to the three day, I've chosen an event that still has a formidable training course, but may not be maxed out for the level. I want his last run before the three-day to simply be confidence building. By our last event before the three day, my plan is to not be introducing anything new, or be trying to work through any issues, but to be solid at the level so that his last run is fun and confidence building.

This first image is my tentative schedule for the spring. It's a best case scenario schedule that I hope we'll be able to stick to. It also includes a few schooling shows and cross country schoolings that will be a "prep" for our spring season. I've also included clinics that I know I'll be attending or hope to attend. While I will try to stick to this schedule, chances are it will change as the year progresses. Fortunately, we're only about 5 1/2 hours from Aiken which makes a few weekend trips there this winter possible.

In addition to having a long term schedule, a short term schedule can also be very beneficial. The main point of the short term schedule is to work backwards from events and have a solid plan for fitness. If you were training for a half marathon, you wouldn't just haphazardly start running with no plan; you'd - ideally - look at how much time you had to prepare and gradually increase the length of your runs while perhaps throwing in some cross training to keep other muscles in your body strong. Furthermore, you'd have to pay attention to how you felt and maybe even monitor your heart rate and respiratory rate to make sure that you were gaining fitness, but not overworking. At the same time, you wouldn't want to take it too easy on yourself and not make satisfactory progress.  My point here is - you don't want to go say "We have to be fit enough to do the T3D by May" and have no plan. It's best to work backwards and set small goals along the way. For example, by March I know that I want to be doi

ng 2x15 trot sets. By April, 2x20.  This photo over here to the right is an image of my calendar for January. Again, it's tentative, but I do try to follow it as closely as possible.

Depending on where you're wintering and what kind of facility you have access to, you may find that the weather puts a kink in your plans. Keep in mind that you can do your fitness work anywhere. Yes, hills are better and it's much more pleasant to do trot sets in a big open field than go around your dressage arena 30 times. That being said, when you need to get it done - do it.  If it snows and you can't trot, don't underestimate the power of a good, long hack.

Basically, the first step of planning for a Training 3-day is working backwards, both on a day-to-day basis as well as a long term schedule. 

A Quick Introduction

I'm absolutely thrilled to be starting this blog about my and my horse's journey to the Heart of The Carolinas Training Three-Day held in May of 2016. I just want to start out by introducing both of us.

About Me
My name is Huxley Greer and I'm an event and dressage rider based out of Wirtz, Virginia. I did a long format CCI* at Morven Park in 2008. In 2009, I was a member of the gold winning NAJYRC CCI* team. My one star mount retired in 2011 and I started over with two lovely horses. Both of those two horses ended up being dressage ponies. One of which I still have, "Vesuvian," who had a successful year at third level in 2015 and will be coming out in the spring of 2016 at fourth level.

 My adventures into dressage land have given me the opportunity to earn my USDF Bronze Medal and I hope to have my USDF Silver Medal in 2016. I've trained - from scratch - 4 horses to third level. I'ive brought several horses up through novice and Vesuvian and I competed at the Waredaca Training Three-Day in 2014. I've competed around 30 prelims and have prepared for 2 CCI*s and 1 training 3-day. The CCI* long format I did in 2008 gave me invaluable experience. You can find out more about my program at http://www.huxleygreer.com

About My Horse 
Marked Ruler, aka, "Marcus," is a 10-year-old, 17hh Thoroughbred Gelding. He came off the track and was given a solid start into the eventing world by friend and student Julia Bulkeley who competed him at beginner novice before I bought him this fall.

He's spent the year at novice and will move up to training in February of this year. He's a fairly fancy mover and loves cross country. This year our weakest phase has been show jumping. In the barn, Marcus is a total character. He's a hard worker that loves to please! I'm really excited about our partnership together, and am hoping that the Heart of the Carolina's T3D is just our first of many adventures together.

What This Blog is Going to be About
My goals for this blog are to post frequently about our journey of preparing for the training three-day in May. But, more than that, I want other riders who are preparing for perhaps their first three-day

to get some helpful insight from my posts. When I was preparing for my first three-day in 2008 I was so nervous about everything. I was terrified that I was going to get the big TE in some stupid, preventable way. I had a ton of irrational fears (I asked my trainer about five times what I should do if I have a stop on steeplechase...) and on top of nerves about just even participating in something so exciting, it can be extremely daunting to do something you've never done before that has a lot of rules and takes an abundance of preparation. My hope is that I can provide enough details about my journey to the training three-day that others can benefit from it.