I was responding to this post.
That seems quite likely. I know it is USEF who decided we could not have group trainings. I reached out to SafeSport because the initial version was extremely data heavy and we had a large number of members without high speed internet access. We wanted to set up a group training for those members. SafeSport was good with it, USEF was not. I didnât do the training for something like another year and a half or two years, in which time they made it at least as easy to take as watching shows on HULU. Previously, it took more bandwidth than streaming movies which was insanity. More of our members now have high speed internet as well (I got mine in March 2019, when it first became available where I live), and I wasnât the only one who sought out high speed internet and couldnât get it to go even then. It was bad at the initial go, and I think I gave up after 6 hours of trying to get it to run. Iâm really glad that has improved, Iâm really annoyed that USEF wonât allow organizations to do training for their areas when SafeSport has a standard procedure for that.
I think the training is faulty, but do think the general idea of us taking it is good. We should be improving it, instead of just leaving it as a waste of our time checklist item. I agree with the poster who said if it helps 1 child be safe, itâs worthwhile.
They have to do background checks as noted, and have to do training which is far more rigorous than SafeSport, at least here. My dad coaches high school baseball and it takes a lot of training and time for all approvals to go through.
That isnât the case for all youth programs, though, which is frightening knowing all the abuse out there.
Then clearly SOME do these things.
I asked two coworkers who coach high school and travel sports, different sports.
Neither have had to do those things.
Different districts, different sports.
Which was the point I was trying to make, why I got so confused about this whole topic.
Just checking in to say that I did my safe sport training yesterday and it was the short version. I think it took barely 20 minutes. I believe I did the long version last year, so it must just be a question of where you are in your rotation on the courses.
Same, I just did Refresher 1: Recognizing and Reporting Misconduct and felt it was the totally appropriate level and amount of time for a refresher. No need to set aside an entire morning to get it done!
I think last year must have been the 4th anniversary since it began so those of us who had been non stop members all hit that one. This year was back to normal. I think it took me 7 minutes
I ended up with the long one this time. Took two hours.
My 2 cents on this is that yes itâs a pain but if it keeps one kid safe? Because some random adult who did a training noticed something amiss at some show and spoke up? And its not just that one kid that gets noticed - that predator probably has multiple targets and they too will be protected by that personâs removal from sport. Worth my 90 minutes.
A warning about the cycle being when you take the test, not a calendar year or your membership. I nearly had to miss a show b/c my safesport expired on the Friday of the start of the show so when I went to pick up my packet it was flagged as out of date and wasnât allowed to compete until Iâd done it. I had to go find a wifi signal (in rural Vermont) and take the test on my phone on Friday afternoon at 4pm. Fortunately it was the shorter refresher. I was really lucky I remembered my log in because I donât know that I could have gotten any help getting logged in, that late in the day.
I am trying to figure out if I can take this year in January to reset that cycle.

I am trying to figure out if I can take this year in January to reset that cycle.
I believe you can take it whenever you like, although Iâve never tried that approach.
Iâve been taking Safe Sport training each year since it was first required by USEF. One thing I appreciate with the Safe Sport training modules is the examples given are very concrete. And yeah, a lot of it is indeed common sense, and it probably takes too long to do the training. On the other hand, I am a pk-12 education law attorney, and I still learned something from this training. My barn has a decent number of juniors in it. And itâs now cemented in my brain to look at situations and ask myself âWas the interaction between child and adult both observable and interruptible?â For me, the actual content of the training is worth it, because it made me better able to think through whether interactions seemed appropriate. However, yes I think the content of the training could be trimmed to make it less burdensome.
Remember the AHSA/USEF governing body war? Since hunters, though non Olympic, share a governing body with the Olympic sports, theyâre subject to the rules.
Iâm guessing Congress has some powers and responsibilities regarding Olympic sports they donât have over non Olympic ones, so I imagine they are doing what they can. Just because Congress doesnât mandate trainings for daycares and dodgeball leagues doesnât mean folks involved in those shouldnât learn more about recognizing abuse and bullying.
I havenât been competing in recent years, but I renew my usef fan membership, and Iâve been able to keep up to date on my SafeSport training. So yes, if youâve got friends who would appreciate the training, sign them up for a fan membership to watch whatever cool competition, and then they should be able to do the training.
Just completed the latest refresher. If was ârefreshinglyâ short and sweet.

Remember the AHSA/USEF governing body war?
Actually it was AHSA vs USET (United States Equestrian Team). USET dealt JUST with Olympic , and other International Teams, competition, and there was a new rule that you couldnât have one body dealing with Olympic teams, and another body dealing with National competition. So all the competition related functions of USET were combined with the AHSA function, to become a new organization, called variously US Equestrian (USE) and US Equestrian Federation (USEF),
USET remains as just a fundraising organization
It pains me to think how much money was wasted on legal fees during that whole kerfuffle. That lasted for a long time.
I did mine earlier this month while waiting for the wind to stop blowing at Thermal. It was just one module (on reporting), so pretty short. Other people seem to have gotten a long version. I might be a bit behind since there were a few years that I didnât show so had less motivation to complete the training.
Whew, I landed the long version! I was not a member last year, due to back surgery, but this is the right number of years for me to get the long version.
Whew is it long this year.
I support SafeSport and think it is clearly needed, but this long version is definitely very long and tedious.
safe sport takes very little time out of your life and is importantâŠI canât get my allergy meds without a drivers lic and a signature and I donât make illegal drugs. I recently could not find my lic so had to have someone buy for me, what a pain in the ass on a regular basis it is, yet I do it.
The Long version does take 2 hours, and no you canât let it run in the background. Thereâs a lot of clicking.
It doesnât work on my phone or tablet (part of the screen doesnât load so you get stuck) so I watched it on my home computer, I was surprised by that as some people donât have home computers.
Both my current and former jobs had a lot of computer based learning so the style/format is pretty familiar to anyone who has a job that does this type of learning.
I think if you can answer the questions correctly at the beginning, you shouldnât have to sit through the whole thing.