Eventing: dressage, show jumping and cross country

What eventing is

Eventing combines dressage, show jumping and cross country in one competition, ridden by the same horse and rider. British Eventing (BE), the sport's national governing body in Great Britain, points out that it's one of the few sports in which men and women go head to head on equal terms.

The season runs from March to October, from introductory level to the top international level. Winter competitions in the off season are a good introduction to the sport, or a chance to sharpen up for the season ahead.

How the scoring works

Penalties are collected in all three phases and added together. The lowest score wins.

Dressage

Judges mark each movement out of 10. The marks are added up and converted into a penalty score, so a better test means fewer penalties. Going the wrong way ("error of course") costs 2 penalties the first time and 4 the second; a third error means elimination. See Dressage for how tests work.

Show jumping

Falling off, starting before the bell, or collecting more than 24 penalties in the round all mean elimination. See Show jumping.

Cross country

The cross-country phase is ridden against an optimum time.

Falling off, missing a fence or jumping fences in the wrong order means elimination, and so do four refusals in total at BE105 and below, or three at Novice and above.

An example

BE's own worked example: 28 penalties in the dressage, plus two fences down in the show jumping (8), plus two refusals at one cross-country fence (20 + 40) gives a final score of 96 penalties.

The levels

There are also bridging classes between these, such as BE100 Plus and Intermediate Novice. Advanced is the top national level. International classes are marked CCI with a star rating, from CCI1*-Intro (fences up to 1.05 m) to CCI5*-L (1.30 m) for the most advanced horses and riders. "S" and "L" mean a short or long cross-country course.

Grades and moving up

Horses earn grading points for placings, and for double clears, from Novice upwards; their grade then decides which classes they can enter. At BE80, BE90 and BE100, horses earn foundation points instead, which record their experience but don't change their grade. There's no obligation to move up from BE80, BE90 or BE100.

To step up a level, horse and rider need qualifying results (minimum eligibility requirements, or MERs). At national level, a qualifying result is:

• no more than 45 penalties in the dressage
• no more than 16 jumping penalties in the show jumping
• no jumping penalties on the cross country, and no more than 30 time penalties

Who can take part

From BE's eligibility rules:

• Horses must be five or older for most classes (with a limited exception for four-year-olds at BE80 and BE90 from 1 July), and at least 132 cm for BE80 and BE90, or 142 cm from BE100 upwards.
• Young riders: riders in the year of their 12th or 13th birthday need two qualifying results at BE90, as a combination, before riding BE100. Riders in the year of their 14th birthday or younger need an age exemption for Novice.
• Riders must be in the year of their 17th birthday or older to ride at Advanced Intermediate and Advanced.

These are summaries: BE's rules and members' handbook have the full requirements.

Getting started

BE runs ways to try the sport before committing:

• Anyone Can Event (ACE): 60 cm to 1 m, open to anyone aged 10 or over, including non-members.
• Arena Eventing: 80 cm to 1 m, open to anyone aged 12 or over, including non-members.
• GO BE classes let you ride in a BE-affiliated competition without BE membership and without a published record of the results.

There are also classes for under-18s, under-21s and under-25s, and pony classes.