Affiliated vs. Unaffiliated Eventing

What’s the difference?

Let's start simple, what is eventing?

Well eventing is an equestrian sport that is made up of three stages: dressage, showjumping, and cross-country riding. Horse and rider must compete in each discipline, for which they are scored, with a combined score from all three areas used to determine the overall winner. Think like a horsey triathlon, where you need to master a variety of skills. 
 

So what is affiliated?

Affiliated events are run by British Eventing, who are the official body for the sport. They benefit from standardised competition rules and levels, as well as impeccably high criteria for safety and regulation, though you do need to be a British Eventing member to enter them there are a whole range of memberships including a day pass for if you just want to have a go. 
 
What is unaffiliated? 

Unaffiliated events are organised independently and tend to be more focused on local and regional levels of competition. They often adopt British Eventing rules and regulations, but you may also find they have their own individual requirements. Horses and riders often compete at unaffiliated events as an introduction to the sport, to get practice between affiliated events or introduce young horses to eventing. 
 

What should I choose? 

There are obviously pros to both competing through British eventing and unaffiliated. But mostly it comes down to prices, locations and experience. 

I would encourage people to do and support both, maybe create a calendar based across both BE and Unaff to suit your location, when you are available, and if the entry fees are perhaps cheaper at a certain event to another or if there's a cross country course you prefer over a different one.

Cost seems to be the main factor as to why people would choose Unaff over BE, and with BE increasing costs over the last few years they may well, unfortunately, be pushing Grassroot competitors away unless they can offer a prize pot that is worth going out for, or start matching the entry fees of the Unaff events. However they choose to proceed in the future I think we can safely assume there's going to be big changes over the next few years! 

But most importantly, however you choose to compete just have fun and stay safe as that’s what it’s really all about anyway!!