"One beautiful thing about the long format at training is that you focus on fitness. By creating a schedule, usually months out, it is a commitment unlike any other horse trial. The result is that you spend more time in the saddle, more time on the ground with your horse (the old adage of knowing your horse's legs in the dark) and more time learning good old horsemanship--respiration, heart rate, temperature. I also became really attuned to mpm, in fact hit the exact optimum time on D. The result of all this, as mentioned above, is also two-fold. First the amazing part of a full endurance day with a conditioned horse...the thrill of steeplechase, the forward thinking horse that turns up for D. Second is also seeing your horse transform into a fit, confident, and truly tuned event horse. My horse's confidence soared after his three day, so much that he did his first P with a clean xc shortly thereafter. I learned a great deal, mostly that great preparation gives great results, and I have been better prepared for all my events since then."

Nancy Koch, Area VIII

"I think since the largest jump is between Training and Prelim (speed and jump height, which means major fitness) that going to a long format at Training will help you realize how fit your horse needs to be to upgrade. Personally, I commit to a conditioning schedule long before the HT anyway, I spent my winter doing weekly roadwork and my spring doing weekly gallop sets, and then my horse was basically set for the show season, with a trot set thrown in once a week or so and plenty of long long walk hacks to maintain it. Plus he was running every 2 weeks, sometimes 3. He never stressed at any event all year, and he has heaves. And why do I take this so seriously? Because my coach is circa the 1980's, and takes conditioning very seriously, and in all my years with her, she has taught me in the same way she was, for long formats.

Also, despite the loss of the long format in general, its a great learning tool, for both conditioning and horsemanship. And its like a little history lesson for younger riders that may know nothing of the long format. With people wanting to move up so quickly, it can give those not prepared quite a wake up call in terms of their preparation, the horse's fitness/suitability, or their bond as a team. Also, it gives you a more accurate version of your horse much fitter. They are very different as they get fitter, and it would suck to get to prelim, and find out you have a nutcase on xc that you never you had! Best start that nutcase at Training.

Also, my horse would be a steeplechase machine. He wonders why QHs do flat racing and not hurdles. He doesnt know about them, but he was born to gallop and jump and he wont listen to reason."

Steph Higgins, Ontario, Canada

"On the endurance day, after you have done Phases A, B (steeplechase) and C, the horse that you ride out of the box for phase D (cross country) is a more confident horse and very forward thinking and a blast to ride!!! They finish thinking that they are Superman and nothing can hurt them!! I did the T3D last year with my 5 yr old and he was awarded best conditioned and this year we came out at prelim and have never looked back!! I am hoping to do a long format CCI* next fall!! And can't wait!!!"

Cindy Wood, Area II
Read Cindy's article on the USEA Blog!

"The number one reason to do a training 3 day for me is to learn to ride a different horse on x-c.
Sure, there are tons of other reasons but that does it for me. You don't understand until you've been there that you have a different horse under you at a 3 day. A T3DE teaches you how to cope with that without the hugeness of a * and up."

Lisa  Burnett, Winner of 2005 Waredaca T3DE

"Having done long formats from the 1/2* up to a 3*, I think the best thing the long format teaches you is to have confidence and trust in you and your horse's abilities. When you get to the competition, you know you are ready. You have done the prep work. You have spent all the hours in the saddle bonding with your horse while pushing yourselves further than you have ever been before.

There is not a feeling in the world like galloping out of the start box onto cross country after completing steeplechase. Your horse is tuned in and pumped and you both are running on an adrenaline high. After completing A, B, & C I feel almost bulletproof. I am thinking forward, my horse is thinking forward and we are ready to eat the course alive!

That feeling of confidence and power cannot be duplicated!

My best cross country rides have always been at long format 3-Days. There is a reason the 3-Day had phases A, B & C. Talk about riding a completely different horse than the one that you jogged up on Wed. It changes them forever and for the better. It gives them confidence in themselves and allows them to jump out of stride and go forward. It gives them more "rateability"(yea, I made that word up ).

When you cross the finish line of cross country at a long format, you have to accept the fact that your horse has been permanently changed.

Where else in the horse world can horsemanship actually make you win or lose?

The Training 3-Day is the best learning experience for horse and rider. It allows you to compete while learning the basics of the foundation of our sport. The clinics are fantastic! They allow training level riders and horses to get a "taste" for the traditional (never thought I would have to differentiate) 3-Day. I personally used the T3DE @ Mayfest as a testing ground for my 17 y.o. QH/TRAK gelding to see if he could do the endurance part of a CCI*. I wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it because of his age and breeding. He came into the vet box after XC ready to do it again! He went on to successfully complete a CCI*. Without the T3DE I would have felt apprehensive about "pushing" him to the * as I was worried "it would be too much". I think every horse and rider that wants to do a * should have to do a T3DE!"

Meredith  C. Robin, Area V

"I've attempted 3 [T3DEs] total, completing 2 of them and also did a run (although not a complete) at a CCI* long format. The first 2 T3DEs were at Glen Oro in Ontario (1999, and 2000). This was before the US had such a thing. We withdrew at the first jog at the first one but I stuck around for the clinics and seminars and helped groom (there is ALWAYS a shortage of grooms with first-timers). It did nothing more than make me want to compete in one even more! For us, the goal was the CCI*, but why not do the T3DE first? Where else do you get to compete in a sport that IS difficult, that emphasizes even further the partnership with your horse, and yet be able to make some mistakes and ask questions of the process? Hell, Eventing as a whole is like that - with competitors offering advice or loaning tack... the T3DE is a logical and beautiful extension of that process -- rather than the whole "throw you to the wolves/sink or swim" attitude of other sports. There simply is no greater feeling than to complete a long format 3day."

Tammy Makela, Area VIII

"The learning experience from a long format is absolutely unparalled and simply not reproduceable anywhere else. It teaches horsemanship. The question long formats ask is not can you jump 8 steeplechase fences once a year, but can you produce and maintain the horse throughout all three phases. I think long formats are the link back to the origins of this sport."

Dana  Diemer, Area II, parent of 2008 Virginia long-format CCI* competitor

"I learned an ENORMOUS amount prepping my horse for the T3d -- he was not your typical event horse (big WB transitioning from an all-dressage life) either in his mental approach or in his physical makeup.
By the time we crossed the finish line on [phase] B, he was keener and more forward than he'd ever been in his life, a change that turned out to be permanent. I was whooping like a fool.
By the time we went out on [phase] D, I had proof that he was fitter and stronger than he'd ever been in his life -- his numbers in the box were terrific, despite being a heavy 17.1 hand warmblood.
And, much to my surprise, jumping around clean and sharp on SJ day felt like a true achievement; it wouldn't have happened without all the months of prep we put in.
It was the best thing I've ever done with horses."

Nancy Seybold, Area II

"Phase D-- Cross Country!  Out of the start box straighter, quicker, and more responsive than ever, Gwen took us to the jumps.  Head up, ears pricked, she was keen and wanted to go faster, but she was listening, and all of those hours in the saddle had paid off.  She went where I looked, she was settled and jumping well, and although she kept asking 'Faster?' she was with me completely.  Int he middle of the course was a fence that had made my eyes pop on the course walk.  It was bigger and broader than anything I'd ever jumped before.  I think Gwen felt my nerves as we galloped down the hill because she slowed, flicked her ears back a few times and asked 'What?' but when I put my leg on and clicked she looked ahead and made sure she gave that fence her best effort, because I'd asked her to."

From "A Three Day Debut: My Own Personal Rolex," by Lynn Cronin, Eventing USA March/ April 2005.