Let’s say you love to jump, but you also have a penchant for a little dressage. You’ll be happy to know there is a challenging sport where you can do both. Combined training, also known as three-day eventing, is a marathon of sorts that requires horses to display a variety of skills. The first day of the three-day competition is a dressage test; the second, a cross-country jumping trial; and the third, a stadium jumping course. In combined training, you’ll see the very definition of versatility, because the same horses that compete in the graceful, precise dressage tests will be belting around a cross-country course full of formidable fences, ditches, hills, and water obstacles the next day. In the last phase, the horse completes a course of show-jumping fences, from verticals and oxers to occasional liverpools. Eventers are unique horses: They must be manageable enough to complete the elegant dressage phase, bold enough to tackle the scariest of obstacles and athletic enough to shine over technical jumping courses.

Combined Training Links: