I’m really surprise anyone would put their horse on a trailer for anything non emergency today, with a hurricane/tropical storm predicted, regardless of what a show was planning to do. I’m just sort of shocked your friends thought that was a risk worth taking for any reason. This wasn’t just a rainy day. It was a major named storm that’s been in the news for days.
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There is absolutely no way for a show organizer to win that. If they cancelled the night before and the weather turned out not to materialize you would have been JUST as pissed that they could have run and didn’t. Its IMPOSSIBLE to organize events where someone doesn’t get their shorts in a knot about how they would have done it differently. One of the reasons I no longer run as many events as I used to. Its not worth the aggravation. So, go ahead and write a negative review of the show for submittal. Don’t be shocked when this show no longer runs at all because it just isn’t worth the hassle.
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THIS!^^^^ It’s always a tough decision and I feel for the people who have to make it!
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I remember I hosted a show a few years back, torrential rain the days before, awful storms, I decided to wait to cancel. Morning of, it was beautiful, didn’t have to cancel, but some riders decided not to show that day because of the potential weather. Understandable, I have been there myself, but they wanted a refund. My shows were no refunds, ever. I advised I can’t refund because they thought it was going to rain.
You really can’t win. As a rider, it our job to decide whether it is safe or worth showing, not the organizers.
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i think also, as a citizen we have a responsibility to be reasonable and responsible. During events where there may be emergency issues, floods and power issues, downed lines, being out unnecessarily is irresponsible
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I’d thank my lucky stars that my reckless and irresponsible decision hadn’t resulted in any injury to my horse :no:
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If someone’s priorities are so skewed that they knew the forecast but went anyway, chasing a score or not wanting to lose entry fees - why are they involved with horses? They should care more for the horse than the “sport” and if they can’t afford to eat an entry fee in the interest of said horse, they may be living beyond their means. Not the show’s fault these friends have skewed priorities. And anyone with logic would expect the show to be cancelled anyway, but also it is sometimes wise to live by the adage - better safe than sorry. And safe should be focused on the horses/people being safe, not the money/scores being secured…
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@SonnysMom Now that it has been a few days are you and your friends feeling better and less angry at the show facility?
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So well said. Apparently, the show organizer should have had more insight than the friends…
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I think I know what show this is. The weather in the morning wasn’t so bad - just rain. Ultimately, it was a good idea to cancel as the weather got really bad a few hours later in the day.
Nevertheless, what they should have done was make the decision earlier in the morning (4am) and call you (not just a group email) if you had a 7am ride time - they could have said “we’re definitely canceling, but we’re still finalizing what we’re going to do for Day 2 and will get back to everyone”. They didn’t need to wait to have all the details before contacting people. The email went out at 6:20am - a little late for the morning ride times.
To give credit to this show, they did allow everyone from Day 1 to show on Day 2 what they were originally going to show on Day 1, so you didn’t lose entry fees and you got another chance for scores.
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I also went to this show. The NJ governor declared a state of emergency early Tuesday morning. That’s when they decided to cancel the show. They were going to try to run it if possible because everyone is chasing scores and qualifiers. Which is why they didn’t cancel Monday night. Weather is rather unpredictable.
The show management went above and beyond by texting, calling, and emailing each individual competitor to see if they needed an additional qualifier. They extended the show into the late hours of Wednesday evening so that people could move their qualifying rides from Tuesday to Wednesday night.
Sending in a negative competition evaluation because a hurricane is simply… absurd. I’ll be sure to send in a positive one myself, and I’m sure my clients would be happy to do the same.
It’s a lovely show run by lovely people and my clients and I participate regularly.
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Yes this was the situation in the morning. One of the friend’s had checked the evening before to verify if they were holding the show even with the hurricane. Yes they were. I am not speaking for my friends on if they are annoyed/pissed/upset etc… They both had early morning rides and yes it was raining but it wasn’t windy yet and the worst of the rain wasn’t there yet. I personally think it should have been called earlier. Neither friend showed the next day so not sure if this was the same show or not. However if somebody is working and has taken Day 1 off they may not be able to take off Day 2. I think that is nice of the show but not always doable for everyone. I don’t think this was the same show as I think this was a one day show but I could be wrong. I also think the state of emergency was declared hours before the show organizers notified the competitors.
I guess I don’t understand why your friends needed the show management to cancel. I personally, after a state of emergency was declared would have canceled on my own.
I see no reason to be pissed. Clearly your friends were hell bent on showing regardless. That’s on them. Not the show. Most people I know would have bagged it at that point.
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My understanding from the OP is that her friends were already on the grounds when the show was canceled. I don’t know when the state of emergency was issued but that should be the trigger to cancel for show management (or decide not to go for riders).
Based on the actual weather for the day, ride times between 7am and 10am (maybe even 11am) would have just gotten wet - no extreme weather, so I could see how the OP’s friends would have thought it was okay to go, especially at 6am. Based solely on the weather on the ground at the time, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had held the morning classes and cancelled the afternoon - only issue is that with COVID, classes are being held out of order, so you might not be able to have everyone in a given class show, which is not fair. A “perfect storm” so to speak.
Regardless, everyone, including show management, is human, and made the choices they thought were best.
Knowing the weather forecast I would never have put my horse on a trailer for anything other than an emergency trip to the vet. High winds cause falling trees. It can block roads where you can’t maneuver out of the situation with a horse trailer and the limbs could also fall on your vehicle or trailer. We had 4 trees come down on the road around our house and had to cut our way out. No way would I have ever risked my horse for that. Some people get so involved in chasing scores and medals they forget about their horses well being
This is how I feel. Weather reports can be wrong and the storm could come early, you could get a flat tire and be stuck out longer than you expect. There is nothing save for a veterinary emergency that would make me put my horse on the trailer the day of a named tropical storm/hurricane/tornado.
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Hurricane Isaias was predicted to hit Wellington/West Palm Beach as a Cat 1. We dutifully secured and brought things in, bought the extra water, filled the cars with gas, made certain we had the weather radio working and… sometime during the night, Isaias wobbled a little and there was some wind shear and not enough things to keep it a hurricane or keep it on course to hit us. That was between 1 am and 6 am. What happened? It was a beautiful day albeit a little windy but not much. If there had been a horse show and they cancelled it the night before, I am sure there would have been many people who were angry.
With weather, horse show managers can’t win. But don’t blame them.
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It doesn’t sound like you have much experience dealing with tropical cyclones. For those who live on the Gulf Coast, this is something we deal with multiple times during every annual hurricane season. These storm systems are difficult to predict when it comes to exact conditions in a highly specific geographical area until maybe 5-6 hours ahead of time.
The horse show managers were going to anger someone no matter what decision they made. They’re not clairvoyant. It sounds like they did the best the could.
The situation wasn’t ideal but no one was hurt. Some people were inconvenienced. To put this in to perspective, at least 90 people died trying to evacuate from Houston before Hurricane Rita made landfall. Then Rita turned away from Houston and hit the TX/LA border instead.
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I put my horses’ safety and my safety first. I have been wrong at times when the weather turned out to be fine, but then I wasn’t the only one not to have shown up on those days. I’ve seen things go sideways where porta potties and trailers were overturned during a pop up storm, and I it was very frightening. I would not have gotten on the road. Let it go.
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My understanding from the OP is that her friends were already on the grounds when the show was canceled. I don’t know when the state of emergency was issued but that should be the trigger to cancel for show management (or decide not to go for riders).
Based on the actual weather for the day, ride times between 7am and 10am (maybe even 11am) would have just gotten wet - no extreme weather, so I could see how the OP’s friends would have thought it was okay to go, especially at 6am. Based solely on the weather on the ground at the time, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had held the morning classes and cancelled the afternoon - only issue is that with COVID, classes are being held out of order, so you might not be able to have everyone in a given class show, which is not fair. A “perfect storm” so to speak.
Regardless, everyone, including show management, is human, and made the choices they thought were best.
