Is this you? Drive to an event late in the day snacking on whatever is found in the truck without horse hair or mold. Arrive in time to unload, feed and bed the horses only to be too late and too tired to hunt down a good place to eat. You grab fast food and crash.

Event day you are up even before the fast food places are open, plus your stomach is too nervous to hold much down. So you go on with the day, completing dressage, then cross-country. It is mid-day before your first real food of the weekend, which ends up being “show food” of a hot dog and nachos–but you get a water since it is healthy.

You spend the non-riding time grooming and caring for your horse, which includes their carefully measured feed, supplements, water and hay. You feed them religiously on time and the proper amounts, walk them, fret over whether they are drinking enough and which blanket to put on them. Late in the day you check your scores and immediately find cold beer to celebrate or commiserate. After evening feed you end up with friends hunting for a place for dinner, usually too tired to be hungry.

You crash again, hopefully having picked the hotel that is not hosting the local NASCAR club doing laps in the parking lot at 2 a.m. On Sunday, you are up again too early for even the hotel complimentary breakfast that begins at 7 a.m., feeling sluggish and tired but motoring through the day.

By afternoon you are finished in time for maybe another “show food” meal before hitting the road home. If you are lucky and traffic is moving well, you can stop for fast food before getting home to unload, turn out and turn in.

Monday you are wiped out, but since it is a day off for your horse, you say it is all OK.

If this is you, welcome to the vast majority of riders I see from novice through intermediate eventing around the East Coast. I am astounded at the high level of care given by intelligent people to their horses and the equally lacking level of care given to themselves. I see talented riders dropping show jumping rails like rain because of sloppy rounds. Whether it is a two-day or three-day event, many riders are simply too worn out by Sunday to ride well.

A New Plan

You could count my wife and me in this group until I learned to listen to my body and address its needs for sustenance. Over the past 10 years, having completed five mara-thons and more than 30 triathlons in addition to eventing, I noticed that the energy needed to compete was directly proportional to what I did with myself prior to and during the event. I began noticing my energy level over a three-day or two-day event was also proportional to what I did for myself.

What I saw in my earlier life and my wife’s weekends was the failure to plan for the rider. By this I mean no plans for what to eat or drink or when it is necessary to eat and hydrate in order to have the maximum potential in the saddle.

We began some experimenting given the conditions, times and demands of the event world. We noticed the rider burns 8,000 to 10,000 calories on cross-country day, another 4,000 to 6,000 on show jumping days. For a three-day, you can about double cross-country day burn rates. Grooms burn about 75 percent of this rate. Basically, you need to replace what you burn to stay even with your body’s strength, endurance and energy levels. No one we saw was even close to replenishing their burn rate or body needs.

The event world has certain constraints that really limit the ability to rest, eat and hydrate properly. We carefully measure our horses’ feed, supplements, water and hay, but we do nothing for ourselves. The constraints involve the travel days at the front and back end of the event, the lack of high protein-low carbohydrate food at most events and unfamiliarity with an area for finding places to eat. Unless you have living quarters in your trailer, there is no refrigeration or means of conveniently packing your own food.

It is time for the rider to plan his weekend the same way he plans his horses’ weekend. This means planning when you will eat and hydrate in and around the constraints of eventing and the schedule of riding. If you plan for this, you will notice a dramatic improvement in your weekend and your performance.

The fad diets common these days are mostly for sedentary people. Riders at events are athletes and need to become aware of the needs of an athlete as well as to begin treating themselves accordingly with an athlete’s diet.

So here is what we do that has made a huge difference on our events. We begin three days in advance of the event, packing the trailer so the last minute rush does not turn into an exhausting effort. We pack food that does not require refrigeration such as the tuna in the bag (or can), peanut butter, nuts, fruits and vegetables plain, dried or canned.

Organization

Start reading labels on foods, and concentrate on those with higher protein, lower fat and carbs. We are looking for all sorts of protein since this is the item mostly missing and mostly needed in an athlete. Show food has plenty of carbs. We pack plenty of sports drinks and plain old water. Fluid intake should double or triple during an event. If you have a current diet, bring those foods along, but with concentration on how you are going to replenish the 10,000 calories you will burn.

The Wednesday before the event, when you are clicking the website for your ride times, set out how you will treat yourself. If you have early ride times, then you need to plan a better dinner routine the night before. If you have nervous stomach the day of cross-country, then eat more the night before and snack during the day. If you can hold down some peanut butter or cheese in the morning, that is a great start. If you stop for coffee, any place that serves coffee has hot water and a Styrofoam cup. Mix some instant oatmeal and eat that for better glycemic replenishment. You also need to plan for replenishment after riding or between rides.

Normally the breaks between rides are two to four hours. Since it takes time for food to settle, this means planning to eat immediately after dressage in order to have it settled by your next ride. If you plan to take 10 minutes after unsaddling but before taking out braids to eat, it will make a difference later that day and the next day. The same is true after cross-country; eat something, even if it is a snack of protein-filled food.

We do enjoy the social aspect of events, and that beer at the end of the day tastes mighty good. It is important to moderate this, however, making sure you also are snacking or eating when drinking. How you go to bed has a lot to do with how you feel when you wake up. If you want to wake up feeling good, make sure you go to bed full. It is better to get up 15 minutes early to get that morning snack to start the engine than it is to get that 15 minutes of sleep. My wife adamantly disagrees with this, by the way; to her 15 minutes of sleep is coveted, but I can see the degradation over the weekend for not eating properly.

Try this and you will see a difference on Sunday when you are eager to ride and feeling good. It is hard to describe the difference, but it is tangible.

Jim Baker, of Raleigh, N.C., events at the training and preliminary levels, along with his wife Adele Baker and daughter Sarah Baker. While working for a real estate company, The Lundy Group, he also competes in triathlons and marathons, and has played polo, foxhunted and raced over fences.