Can someone more familiar with the USEA rule book explain what the rules are around starting time if a show is running ahead of schedule?
I thought if they are early you still have the option of waiting to go at your scheduled time. I know this is true for XC but not sure for stadium since that’s an approximate start time.
I scanned the guidebook but couldn’t find the section.
This weekend I was at a schooling show and they were 30 mins ahead of schedule but didn’t communicate it very well. When I started tacking up I heard my name over the intercom and “standby”. Then a couple mins later they were calling me to the arena for my round! I rushed to get to the wam up and quickly jumped each fence once then had to hurry to the arena. The in gate person was threatening to disqualify me if I didn’t hurry. I was so rushed and frazzled that I was too tense in the reins and we ended up having 3 stops so I decided to retire.
In hindsight I’m pretty annoyed at how they handled that especially considering it was a SCHOOLING show and they were allowing all sorts of transgressions like people skipping jumps.
I didn’t expect them to wait until the published time for my round but they could have at least allowed me proper time to get warmed up especially since I was only doing CT and we had done dressage several hours before and needed time to loosen up.