Spinoff: What does the USEA do to show it's gratitude to landowners and horse show organizers?

[SonnysMom]

@AffirmedHope

I’ve been out of the eventing loop for a long time, what happened with Radnor??? I used to live near there and it was one of the most anticipated equestrian events in the Philadelphia area.

Also what happened with Richland? I saw you mention something with the USEA in the other thread but didn’t see any details.

I was told they were having a tougher and tougher time getting volunteers. If I remember correctly the Boy Scouts did the parking as a community service type deal but getting jump judges, ring stewards, bit checks, jump judges, people to set up and take down rings, scribes etc… was getting hard to do. I volunteered the last year it ran. The volunteer coordinator boarded at the same barn. I wasn’t eventing then and was a bit hobbled as I had ACL surgery in June and Radnor was fall. I got to be ring steward so I didn’t have to move around too much. He was pretty desperate for volunteers.

They do have a horse trial there in October but it appears to only be Novice, Training and Prelim.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

@SonnysMom

I was told they were having a tougher and tougher time getting volunteers. If I remember correctly the Boy Scouts did the parking as a community service type deal but getting jump judges, ring stewards, bit checks, jump judges, people to set up and take down rings, scribes etc… was getting hard to do. I volunteered the last year it ran. The volunteer coordinator boarded at the same barn. I wasn’t eventing then and was a bit hobbled as I had ACL surgery in June and Radnor was fall. I got to be ring steward so I didn’t have to move around too much. He was pretty desperate for volunteers.

They do have a horse trial there in October but it appears to only be Novice, Training and Prelim.

All events struggle to get volunteers. The big international event that was at Radnor lost access to the land it needed to run that level of event and made a conscious decision to scale back. They still do starter trials and a recognized event to Prelim as a well as schooling jumper and dressage shows and limited xc schooling. Several other venues like Essex land was sold (now a golf course)…a new Essex is now running up through Advanced. Events come and go for lots of reasons. I organized a recognized event…it was brutal. So organizer burn out as well as volunteer burn out is often a reason for events to stop running. If we want to keep our sport affordable…we all need to pitch in.

[pegasusmom]

I organized events for a period of about eight years, started with BN through Prelim and eventually did all the levels offered at the time. It is more than brutal. There are so many facets to putting on a good event, and if you don’t have the human infrastructure in place to take things off your plate the burnout comes pretty quickly. After a few years I got really lucky and got the right people in place. I can remember early on I did e everything myself-from setting dressage rings and building SJ courses to flagging and decorating XC. When I came back on board it was as part of a phenomenal organizing team. As an official I’ve yet to see a group that rivaled ours.

The demands are going up, costs are going up and the help just isn’t there. Very happy to have just my combined driving event to put together once a year. It is, quite frankly, much much easier.

[findthedistance]

@bornfreenowexpensive

All events struggle to get volunteers. The big international event that was at Radnor lost access to the land it needed to run that level of event and made a conscious decision to scale back. They still do starter trials and a recognized event to Prelim as a well as schooling jumper and dressage shows and limited xc schooling. Several other venues like Essex land was sold (now a golf course)…a new Essex is now running up through Advanced. Events come and go for lots of reasons. I organized a recognized event…it was brutal. So organizer burn out as well as volunteer burn out is often a reason for events to stop running. If we want to keep our sport affordable…we all need to pitch in.

Side note – An interesting response to COVID is that events (at least in my corner of Area II) have for the first time in forever had excellent response to volunteer recruiting. Plantation had two jump judges at every fence this past weekend and extra gofers running around. Seneca was fully staffed. I was too late to get a volunteer slot at another event I intended to volunteer at earlier in the summer. Some combination of nothing else to do and no other way to get in to spectate has brought people out of the woodwork. Hopefully some of them get hooked and keep coming back when this is all over!

[MorganSercu]

Tangentially related - free food and coffee worked pretty well for getting parents to volunteer at the home marching band competition. Would it increase the turnout of volunteers at events too, or is it already a done thing?

[pegasusmom]

@MorganSercu

Tangentially related - free food and coffee worked pretty well for getting parents to volunteer at the home marching band competition. Would it increase the turnout of volunteers at events too, or is it already a done thing?

The venue I worked for provides breakfast fare, lunches and volunteer vouchers that are redeemable for everything from schooling days to entries at recognized events. The biggest need, in my opinion, is for set up and take down, something any competitor could help out with. Few do.

[MorganSercu]

@pegasusmom

The venue I worked for provides breakfast fare, lunches and volunteer vouchers that are redeemable for everything from schooling days to entries at recognized events. The biggest need, in my opinion, is for set up and take down, something any competitor could help out with. Few do.

Oh gee - that is a shame. How does the saying go? Many hands lighten the work?

[frugalannie]

An additional point about volunteers that I’ve noticed: they’re ageing out. Again thinking about my near and dear event, the majority of volunteers have been coming for years and years. Some got involved when their now grown kids were young, and they just enjoyed it. They brought their friends and everyone had a pleasant day. They form a core of an experienced, capable crew. But as they age out, have surgeries/ illnesses, and I shudder to think what Covid will have done to the ranks, there aren’t a lot of younger volunteers stepping up to learn the ropes and take on the jobs.

I think that there is one coach in the area who requires that his students volunteer at least once a year (venue hosts two unrecognized trials and a combined test in addition to recognized). I don’t know why they all don’t. It would help, and its a great way to see a lot of riders go and learn the rules.

[Wingstem]

I can’t speak to hosting a big international event so I’ll leave that to others. But I can speak as a landowner with a working farm who opens the land to sportsmen, horsemen, and conservationists engaging in field trips and performing research.

1. When I open my land to you, I am basically inviting you into my home. I have a deep emotional attachment to the land and my home. Respect that.

2. If I ask you to sign a release (and I will), do not protest that “I would never sue you”, or act offended. You need to sign the release. If you hunt or fish on my land, I will likewise require you to carry a signed form granting you access. This protects YOU against accusations of poaching if the game warden finds you and cannot confirm you have permission to be there.

3. Clean up after yourself. Think about how you would feel if I came to your home and trashed it.

4. Offer to help me out fixing fences or clearing trails - you know - so you can enjoy riding on them or in my fields. I don’t need the trails. You do. I am your host - not your servant. If you want to build a jump to facilitate access - that’s fine. Work with me and I’ll help you build it - but don’t get pissed off if I prefer you use a gate because I’ve got several Angus crosses who aspire to be show jumpers.

5. Don’t insult me by going on social media and trashing me personally, or my land. If you do, don’t be surprised if you’re not invited back.

6. Stay off seeded fields, stay out of the beans and corn. Yes, it’s a lovely place to gallop but you cost me thousands of dollars of damage when you do that. Unless you are galloping across the beans to save a baby - stay out.

7. If the gate is open, leave it open. If it’s closed, leave it closed.

8. If you damage something or leave ruts - let me know and/or offer to smooth the damaged area. A rut isn’t cosmetic. It damages the soil and my kidneys when my tractor crosses them.

Basically - good manners.

Honestly - good manners and a pleasant cooperative disposition will reap great rewards. A thank you as you leave, or a cheery wave and a smile goes a long way too.

Opening your land up is fraught with liability and worry. Anyone who agrees to do so deserves, at the very least, to be treated respectfully. Remember - to you it’s a venue or fixture. To us - it’s our home.

[B_and_B]

@Wingstem

I can’t speak to hosting a big international event so I’ll leave that to others. But I can speak as a landowner with a working farm who opens the land to sportsmen, horsemen, and conservationists engaging in field trips and performing research.

1. When I open my land to you, I am basically inviting you into my home. I have a deep emotional attachment to the land and my home. Respect that.

2. If I ask you to sign a release (and I will), do not protest that “I would never sue you”, or act offended. You need to sign the release. If you hunt or fish on my land, I will likewise require you to carry a signed form granting you access. This protects YOU against accusations of poaching if the game warden finds you and cannot confirm you have permission to be there.

3. Clean up after yourself. Think about how you would feel if I came to your home and trashed it.

4. Offer to help me out fixing fences or clearing trails - you know - so you can enjoy riding on them or in my fields. I don’t need the trails. You do. I am your host - not your servant. If you want to build a jump to facilitate access - that’s fine. Work with me and I’ll help you build it - but don’t get pissed off if I prefer you use a gate because I’ve got several Angus crosses who aspire to be show jumpers.

5. Don’t insult me by going on social media and trashing me personally, or my land. If you do, don’t be surprised if you’re not invited back.

6. Stay off seeded fields, stay out of the beans and corn. Yes, it’s a lovely place to gallop but you cost me thousands of dollars of damage when you do that. Unless you are galloping across the beans to save a baby - stay out.

7. If the gate is open, leave it open. If it’s closed, leave it closed.

8. If you damage something or leave ruts - let me know and/or offer to smooth the damaged area. A rut isn’t cosmetic. It damages the soil and my kidneys when my tractor crosses them.

Basically - good manners.

Honestly - good manners and a pleasant cooperative disposition will reap great rewards. A thank you as you leave, or a cheery wave and a smile goes a long way too.

Opening your land up is fraught with liability and worry. Anyone who agrees to do so deserves, at the very least, to be treated respectfully. Remember - to you it’s a venue or fixture. To us - it’s our home.

Should be posted and reposted and reposted. Thank you for an eloquent but succinct list. The waiver one is particularly frustrating, I have complaints all the time from volunteers and visitors to the land trust properties. I have to explain to them even I as a board member have to sign the waiver!

[Ajierene]

@MorganSercu

Tangentially related - free food and coffee worked pretty well for getting parents to volunteer at the home marching band competition. Would it increase the turnout of volunteers at events too, or is it already a done thing?

One venueI regularly volunteer at: a Half day gets you 1 free schooling ($50 value) and they have a lot of schooling days. If you are staying over lunch, you get free lunch (except this year with COVID). You get a t-shirt. The volunteer coordinator is SUPER nice and drives around checking on everyone (including xc judges) with water and snacks in her truck (and sandwich at lunch time). This is on top of the water and snacks you can pick up when you arrive and check in. The one time I overslept, she called me and was SUPER nice “hey, I was just checking…” (I thought it was the following weekend…oops…). It is also minutes from my house.

Another venue I volunteered at just once, the volunteer coordinator was rude, left myself and the person with me without a walkie - talkie then forgot us for lunch and we had to walk down and find someone with a walkie-talkie to say we missed lunch and got the last two sandwiches and they weren’t good. The only option was to work the entire day and they wanted us to stay the 30 min protest period in case there were questions (the other venue would just call you). I was videoing my trainer there following this and heard the volunteer coordinator be rude to some young teen while I was near one of the xc jumps - I don’t know the entire story but the coordinator struck me as being out of line.

Another venue I never ended up volunteering at seemed nice enough but I think all you got was a t-shirt (and probably lunch) and it is farther away from the first venue and I can really use those free xc schooling vouchers. This may have changed over the years but I do not know.

[Equibrit]

@MorganSercu

Yes, I read the article. She has been keeping it going with private funds. Hers. It now costs her too much. I didn’t see where she said people treated the property cavalierly or she felt unappreciated. Discretionary spending is just that and you can’t shake donations or entry fees out of unwilling pockets.

Dressage @ Hickstead was a business. The business was run by Dane Rawlins who rented land from the Bunn family on which to run his business. They own Hickstead. Dane is a HE.

[MorganSercu]

@Equibrit

Dressage @ Hickstead was a business. The business was run by Dane Rawlins who rented land from the Bunn family on which to run his business. They own Hickstead. Dane is a HE.

Well, I have a big plate of crow to eat (is mustard permitted?) and it may be time for me to get new glasses because I thought I read Dame Rawlins. Anyway, it’s a business but one that Dane Rawlins kept going out of pocket. I still don’t see that it was stated the participants’ or spectators’ behavior was a problem. There simply weren’t enough of them to get it out of the red.

“However, even with all the continued support, each year there is a large financial shortfall that has to be met by my family and me,” said Dane, known for a strong driving personality that kept Dressage at Hickstead going.

“This at times has been significant and, therefore, I have concluded that economically I can no longer continue to carry that financial burden.”

The international show that was scheduled for this summer was already canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

What a shame.

[MNEventer]

@CindyCRNA

Add Robke’s Run a couple of years ago.

If I remember correctly, part of what led to them cancelling all their events was feeling like they couldn’t get a consistent date on the calendar in order to maximize entries. Area IV has a short window of time where the weather might agree with holding a competition, like 5 months out of the year. So scheduling is admittedly difficult but it sounded they got turned down for their preferred dates because of events in Montana or Canada. Now, the amount of riders that would be seriously torn between competing in Montana vs Minnesota has to be minuscule, like you could count them on one hand minuscule. So why was that an obstacle to giving them their preferred dates? So far, I haven’t been able to find an explanation that makes sense.

It seems like USEA & USEF have the goal to support upper level riders first and foremost, no matter what the costs are to every one else. And I worry that may end up making it disappear altogether.

[gottagrey]

@Janet

There are plenty of HT on private land in Area Ii. Waredaca, Seneca Valley, Hunt Club, Olney, CDCTA-and that is just off the top of my head.

Probably the only places in our area of Area II that are public would be Morven Park and Great Meadow.

Honestly I don’t think USEF or USEA do anything special for landowners. There could be a good opportunity for some landowner “thank you” at Landrover K3DE and if Fairhill/MD 5* takes place next year. How hard would it be to offer up VIP passes to those who hosted recognized events or at least discounted passes. I don’t think they do. I think landowners, show organizers thank you is to not get fined if you don’t get your post event paperwork submitted in time.

They might help with awards or pay for judges for some championship events, but I’m not 100% sure.

[MNEventer]

And of course I saw this after I posted by previous comment, but here’s Karl Cook (high level show jumper and Kaley Cuoco’s husband) talking about the costs that the USEF imposes on both organizers and competitors. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CFmbnaPATcx/?igshid=1sfbjgkzximxu By his estimation, USEF collects somewhere between $50-100,000 per show just in fees. O_O that’s astronomical, and I’m guessing that also makes organizers and landowners less likely to start and/or continue hosting recognized events.

[Manahmanah]

Radnor still has events but just not FEI level anymore. Also, we did get Essex back. It’s not doom and gloom all the time.

[Equibrit]

You need more of these; https://www.britisheventinglife.com/articles/behind-the-beautiful-eventing-locations

[FitzE]

W

@Wingstem

I can’t speak to hosting a big international event so I’ll leave that to others. But I can speak as a landowner with a working farm who opens the land to sportsmen, horsemen, and conservationists engaging in field trips and performing research.

1. When I open my land to you, I am basically inviting you into my home. I have a deep emotional attachment to the land and my home. Respect that.

2. If I ask you to sign a release (and I will), do not protest that “I would never sue you”, or act offended. You need to sign the release. If you hunt or fish on my land, I will likewise require you to carry a signed form granting you access. This protects YOU against accusations of poaching if the game warden finds you and cannot confirm you have permission to be there.

3. Clean up after yourself. Think about how you would feel if I came to your home and trashed it.

4. Offer to help me out fixing fences or clearing trails - you know - so you can enjoy riding on them or in my fields. I don’t need the trails. You do. I am your host - not your servant. If you want to build a jump to facilitate access - that’s fine. Work with me and I’ll help you build it - but don’t get pissed off if I prefer you use a gate because I’ve got several Angus crosses who aspire to be show jumpers.

5. Don’t insult me by going on social media and trashing me personally, or my land. If you do, don’t be surprised if you’re not invited back.

6. Stay off seeded fields, stay out of the beans and corn. Yes, it’s a lovely place to gallop but you cost me thousands of dollars of damage when you do that. Unless you are galloping across the beans to save a baby - stay out.

7. If the gate is open, leave it open. If it’s closed, leave it closed.

8. If you damage something or leave ruts - let me know and/or offer to smooth the damaged area. A rut isn’t cosmetic. It damages the soil and my kidneys when my tractor crosses them.

Basically - good manners.

Honestly - good manners and a pleasant cooperative disposition will reap great rewards. A thank you as you leave, or a cheery wave and a smile goes a long way too.

Opening your land up is fraught with liability and worry. Anyone who agrees to do so deserves, at the very least, to be treated respectfully. Remember - to you it’s a venue or fixture. To us - it’s our home.

What a great list! So well done and important, but also showing humor along with the seriousness. Anyone who would have a problem with this request is not being reasonable.