Two friends were going to a rated dressage show today. They got up at 1:45 am. Bathed and braided the horses. Trailered to the show grounds and after they arrived the show cancelled due to the weather. Heavy rain forecast. High winds forecast 50-60 mile an hour wind gusts. Expect power outages etc… This was all forecast last night. Per friend the show sent out an email cancelling at approximately 6:00 am for a show that the first class started at 7 am. Would you be pissed they didn’t cancel sooner? Do you think the show should have cancelled last night? Should they have at least sent an email indicating they will assess in the morning and may cancel?
The area the show was to be held had a projection of wind to 61 MPH and 2.5 inches of rain. Would you have gone or just rolled over and gone back to bed and risk losing your entry if they held it? What about if you were looking for qualifying scores?
My area has a projected rain fall of 4-6 inches.
Would you fill out a show evaluation form? If so, negative, neutral or positive?
Thoughts on the whole situation and what you would think and do?
I think your friends should have cancelled and not wait for the show to do that. I would not want to trailer horses during a serious storm. I wouldn’t risk my horses over some money and a score.
Do you think the show should have cancelled last night? Do you think it fair that they essentially waited until people were on their way or on the grounds when they made the decision to cancel?
This post reads to me like - Please tell us that we are right to be pissed at the show.
Not like you really want answers.
Would I be annoyed that I trucked to something that was then cancelled? Certainly. I doubt anyone would not be annoyed.
Would I be pissed at the show for cancelling? Nope. It sounds like it was the correct decision.
Do I think they should have cancelled the night before? In my part of the world the weather that is predicted the night before is frequently not the same weather that is be predicted the morning of so I personally would not find it weird that they waited to see what a better guess of the days weather would be. Again, annoying for those people like your friends who trailered all the way there, but the thought process does make sense.
Why would I fill out a show evaluation form for a show that was cancelled because of weather?
I mean, this is literally a tropical storm (Hurricane Isaias if you’re not on the east coast), not a typical rainy day, and they’ve been talking about it on the local news nonstop since Friday, so it’s a bit different than the usual chance of showers. I get that no one wants to cancel anything else but it was dumb not to cancel it several days ago and dumb of people to go.
All of eastern PA has been under a storm watch with high winds, a tornado watch and flash flood warnings. What more information was needed? and why wait for the show to cancel ? I would rely on the National Weather Service than some show organizers
A LOT can change with a hurricane in 12, even six, hours, from it’s predicted intensity to its predicted path. I understand the frustration but IMO the show reacted appropriately.
I wouldn’t have gone either way once it was clear the storm was coming, I think it was pretty unrealistic of them to go. Most exhibitors at rated shows stay on grounds so the show probably felt a morning of cancellation wouldn’t change anything and they could wait to see the storm path.
You seem to want validation of your viewpoint. You’re angry that they didn’t cancel ahead of time? I wouldn’t have even left it up to the show committee to make the call. I wouldn’t have gone period. 50-60mph wind gusts and expect to lose power? I wouldn’t have put my horses on the trailer at all.
What if they did cancel ahead of time and the storm dissipated or wasn’t severe like predicted? Would you then be mad that they “made you miss a show?”
I think the show committee was appropriate in waiting. Storms are unpredictable. They can dissolve or strengthen quickly.
At the end of the day (and I say this as a former show organizer), there is no way for show organizers to win with weather cancelations. If they had cancelled yesterday, there would have been people ticked off, they cancelled today, there are people ticked off, if they had run the show, weather be dammed (is this the show in NJ, canceled because the Governor declared a state of emergency?), people would have been ticked off.
So, yeah, if the competitors want to be angry about it, that’s their prerogative. I’d hesitate to take out too much frustration on show organizers. There are few enough reasons for people to run dressage shows to start with, the more you pile on them, the less likely they are to bother in the future.
if it had been me, given the weather forecast, I would have chosen to scratch. Not a good day for trailering, let alone trying to compete.
There is no way in hell I’d put my horse through that for a ribbon. If a show starts at 7 AM and at 2 AM the weather channel is predicting all of this I’d make sure water buckets are full, ponies have hay, and I’d go back to bed. I’m struggling to even begin to understand the logic of braiding, loading up in the pitch black, and intentionally trailering a horse into that environment.
I think your friends can read a weather report as well as any show organizer can. If they thought it would be okay enough that they packed up their trailer and went, it seems completely reasonable that the show organizer read the same report and thought it would be okay to run.
To be fair to the riders, this is dressage, it is highly unlikely that trying to ride today was about a ribbon. Imagine this scenario: rider is on a 22 year old horse, horses last season to compete, they need one score for their bronze medal. Maybe there are no more shows within four hours for the next month. You take a chance because it may be your last chance.
No question, I would have cancelled, even in this scenario. And I don’t think the riders get to be pissy about it. But, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt; they had their reasons, we don’t know what they were.
I don’t see how riding for a medal is any different or more acceptable than riding for a ribbon.
I agree with you that I would have cancel and with poltroon that if the weather forecast was good enough for them to trailer out in the middle of the night, then the show organizer was also justified in waiting until later to make a decision.
It’s unfortunate that this opportunity was lost, but a cancellation due to weather is probably the most normal thing to happen this year.
The level of entitlement that some people seem to feel about showing horses lately has been absolutely shocking to me.
Weather forecasts are imperfect. Storms can change course. Exhibitors can watch the weather as well as show managers can. But to answer your questions:
No, I would not be pissed that the did not cancel sooner. I would recognize that they held off, knowing that everyone could see the forecast, in the hopes that they weather might turn out to be better than anticipated and allow the show to run safely, giving them a chance to accommodate their exhibitors (and perhaps cover the costs they incur whether the show runs or not.)
No, I can understand waiting til the morning to make a decision based on actual weather conditions.
No, I think expecting exhibitors to be able to understand the weather conditions is a reasonable assumption.
I would have accepted that the weather was going to suck, my horses would not have a good experience and I would have bagged the whole thing early. (In fact I have done this, choosing not to show in sh*t conditions even when the show ran and I lost entries, stabling, hotel reservations etc. I like my horses and want them to have good experiences when we show. Qualifying for things doesn’t change that calculus.
I would not fill out a show evaluation form UNLESS I thought a lot of jerks were going to send in negative comments - in which case I would write a positive evaluation lauding the show manager’s willingness to try to hold the show until it became clear that doing so would be unsafe or inappropriate. Just to make sure that the association heard from someone who appreciates the show manager’s effort (and who understands that no one is getting rich putting on the shows we go to, taking on the kind of risk that just kicked this show manager in the teeth financially. )
I’ve had plenty of shows say “the weather is iffy, keep an eye on our web page, we might not run or might delay”, which seems pretty reasonable. I do think making a final call more like 12 hours out (for a localish show) is the right thing, though, and if there’s still a high chance of mayhem in the forecast they should pull the plug then.
If the forecast got way worse overnight, though, what can you do? Sometimes crap happens.
So they got up and prepped that early, knowing that forecast and still trailered out when the forecast had not changed. Apparently they still expected to somehow show in torrential rain and 50 mph gusts!!! IMHO being POed that the show was correctly cancelled (based on that forecast still being accurate that morning) is misplaced and inappropriate…
Get over it. Plenty of shows have been canceled once competitors were on the road and even got to the show grounds only to be turned around because the weather here and the weather there were totally different. Hurricane at the show grounds but sunny at home. Were people pissed? Yes, At Mother Nature.
