Things I Wish I’d Known About Eventing Before I Started – You Don’t Have To Go Until Your Given Time.

This is one of the areas where Pros gain an advantage over Amateurs, in my experience. 
If someone doesn’t show up for the dressage and the steward asks you to go early, you do NOT have to do so. If you need more time to complete your warm-up until your allotted time, you are perfectly entitled to take it – it is not your fault that other people haven’t turned up. The same applies if they are running early for any phase.
I’ve given in to this more times than I care to remember, being a Universal Pleaser apparently, but you can just say politely that you aren’t quite ready yet, and that you will go at your time (making sure your watch is at the correct time, obviously!) and finish your warm-up, as I have seen Pros do… and they didn’t get any further pressure to go before their time!
Obviously at the very end of the day this doesn’t go down so well, so if you hear pleas over the tannoy that XC is running early, and you have a long gap with nothing to fill it, then heading over early is always much appreciated!