We’ve had Bobby Costello volunteer to jump judge at some of the Horse trials at CHP. I’ve had many pros say thank you to me when I was doing hospitality. But that might also be that i had chocolate on my cart…
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At least one of our local shows already does this for the actual competition - has a trainer award kind of thing at the end of the season - so seems like it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to do something similar for volunteers. They’d just have to sign in with the barn/trainer name when they sign up/show up.
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I wonder if 4-H or FFA has anything similar? Some kind of community engagement/civic kind of requirement?
Good point!
Scribing is NOT easy! Don’t get discouraged or think you suck at it. It takes practice. I am a slow writer too, scribing is challenging for me, so I prefer to be ring steward. 
The real trick is learning shorthand - like “not square”, instead of writing that all out, do “not” and then a little square box. Sometimes you can summarize too but be careful, often times judges want you to put down exactly what they write. Some judges are better at being succinct than others - if you get a judge that cannot deliver succinct feedback, they do scribes no favors.
It is so interesting reading how other areas/regions do it. I can’t think of a single Area 1 event that offers any incentive[s] besides lunch and water. I think the most I got swag-wise in Area 1 was a t-shirt and that was almost 2 decades ago.
I enjoyed volunteering in Area 2. It seemed more common you got some sort of incentive - usually a free XC pass to use by XYZ date. I don’t mind these offers being time-sensitive, but you could always just explain to an organizer your injury situation and I am sure they would let you use it at a later date?
I don’t think it’s tenable for most venues to offer any sort of swag or incentive. They’re already barely scraping by.
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well, if they offered up a scribe clinic, I would definitely do it. But it isn’t fair to the rider or the judge to try ‘on the job’ training. I would love to do it. sigh, but there are other things that need to be done. I shall contend with doing those things.
I am well treated as compared with some of the things I have read here. We are always offered bathroom breaks, and there is a couple that make up a hundred sandwiches, bring the mustard and mayo, chips galore, cookies, lots and lots of water. I wish I could mingle more in the jump judge meetings, which are getting shorter due to recurring people jump judging. And they drive us to the jumps in a golf cart. I did sit in hot sun last month, but only for the first division, but that sadly was only 3 riders. If there had been 10-15 horses, It would have been tricky because even early, it was very hot.
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Sporting Services is always looking for help at their dressage shows. They have them at the Carolina Horse Park and thre Pinehurst Harness Tack. They will give you swag instead of vouchers. Usually it’s really cool t-shirts but I’ve gotten hand painted glassware from them. The Carolina Polocrosse cCub is also alwys looking for scorers and timers. They usually do 1 to 2 tournaments a year and will take what you can give the, You can google both and both have facebook pages.
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I struggle with the volunteer problem. I would love to volunteer at shows I am not attending, but the closest show to me is 4 hours away. Not close enough for a day trip to volunteer. And I only show recognized 1-2 times a year (if that). At 1 day schooling shows, the times are so close I cannot fit a 3 phase & volunteering into the day. Many times I attend alone so I don’t have anyone to fill in for me.
When I lived 1.5 hours from a show grounds, I was there monthly volunteering for either recognized or schooling shows. Typically XC jump judging, but also was assigned finish line jump judge/timer a couple times (since they knew me and could rely on me I guess).
But now that I have moved, it is very difficult to attend a show to volunteer since I don’t have anywhere to stay. I love volunteering and watching XC, but I haven’t quite figured out the most reasonable way to do so now.
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I have been scribing for 10 years at our events in Ontario, including FEI, plus Bromont, Foshay (NB), and Ocala. A couple years ago, I got permission from the organizer and judge at our Ontario FEI event to have a shadow scribe with me to train. The plan was to have the shadow with their own copies of the tests, and they could practice in real time. My copies would be the official ones handed in, and the shadow could compare with mine, try scribing real tests, see how to handle any issues by watching and listening, etc. I posted the offer on our local Facebook groups and my FB page - it was a 2-day event, so I could have one person try 2 days, or 2 people do one day each.
Guess how many people ended up doing it?
ZERO.
One person was interested but was riding in the event herself. I had another person say they were interested but then cancel. Neither followed up to see if they could try it at a different event instead (I’m sure I could have gotten permission from a number of other venues and judges).
I started competing at a few events myself, meaning I wasn’t able to volunteer at those ones. Instead I’ve been trying to find people to replace me, which has been difficult, then makes me feel guilty because they were counting on me being there like every other year. That is not a tenable situation. A few people can’t carry the entire eventing circuit in the province.
I’ve been keeping a list of ideas, and taking notes from threads like this and comments on the COTH FB page, but I haven’t been able to get much traction with anyone who is able to do anything about the situation.
I feel that I may be getting burnt out and I’m starting to resent the number of competitors who can’t be bothered to contribute in any way whatsoever, and expect that the show will just go on. We’ve already lost HTs on our local schooling circuit, who switched to only CTs because they couldn’t get enough volunteers to run XC regularly.
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Well firstly, thank you for being such a dedicated volunteer.
Agreed, though I am sorry to say in my neck of the world that is the case.
What I am noticing is that it’s cultural. When you have a riding club that puts on the event, for instance, the entire riding club is there hands on deck, making sure the event runs smoothly. Maybe the future is equestrian facilities shared by multiple riding organizations, as many places are getting squeezed out by encroaching development.
My Pony Club puts on two shows a year at a public facility that is not owned by them. We are expected to volunteer at both of them. The entire show is run on the backs of several dedicated volunteers. Even with ~20 volunteers it is a massive undertaking.
Maybe it’s time that trainers / instructors push to have their clients volunteer, and lead by example. If there’s no incentive for clients to volunteer, they won’t do it. I understand why - it’s such a HUGE undertaking and is often a full day in a day and age where it’s hard to find any free time.
For a short time, a pro local to me that I rode with required her clients volunteer at one recognized show a year in order for her to be your coach at a show. It was enormously unpopular, especially with the parents - who pointed out their aspiring YRs had other hobbies and couldn’t dedicate a weekend to volunteering.
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One organizer I know rents a house pretty affordably and splits the cost. It ends up being a lot cheaper than a hotel.
But even still, it’s a huge ask for people to travel just to volunteer.
I’ve been traveling to volunteer at some bigger events and it’s worth it for the free spectating, shopping, and whole experience minus the ticket price. But it wouldn’t be worth it to me to travel to a smaller event, and let’s face it, those are the ones truly desperate for volunteers.
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That is a brilliant idea. I cannot believe you got no takers! I would love to do that. But after my one failed attempt, I don’t think I want to try it again. It is a very important job, and although with me as a ‘shadow’ scribe, that would be a great tool, but I don’t think anymore I would be good at that particular job. Since I am not really connected to the pony club or the local eventing club, I have no idea how they are fixed financially, but I doubt if either are rolling in dough. I also know the local Dressage club was recently on FB asking for volunteers to help put on a show. I shamefully didn’t volunteer, as well, I really don’t have an excuse. dressagte just isn’t in my wheelhouse. But I do know the big Kahuna here in Dressageland, and I might just drop her a note about ‘shadow scribing’, and see what she thinks about it!
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I volunteer as often as I can, usually at Loch Moy. They treat their volunteers really well, have great support (everyone gets a radio and can reach help with anything at any time), bathroom breaks, shade umbrellas and coolers for those in the sun, they feed you, you get free merch, and a schooling pass. If other facilities are interested in “upping” their volunteer game, this would be one of the facilities I would try to emulate. I’ve done dressage warm up and jump judging and each time there’s a team meeting in the morning with the TD who goes over what you need to know and what is outside of your scope.
I understand all places might not be able to provide merch or schooling passes, but the rest is pretty darn easy.
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It’s good to find out what you aren’t comfortable with too so still a good learning experience! Please feel free to pass on the idea. I think a lot of people are intimidated by scribing and it is a hard job to just be thrown into with no instruction. I was really hoping I could get a few more people on board to scribe (to be able to replace me when I compete as I mentioned before, and to have some reserves when needed).
I’m not sure if we just have nobody interested regardless of getting training, the date wasn’t going to work, or what. I mean it was the only FEI event in Ontario, sitting with a Senior judge! That venue is no longer hosting events (owners retired) so no more opportunities like this without traveling now 
I have already sent a note to the power that be. but it was thru messages on FB, and since we haven’t spoken in years, she may just delete it. We will see!
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I don’t want swag or vouchers. Just get me some cold water and a container to keep it cold and a decent lunch. If I am driving 2 hours one way that is the least you can do and if you can’t afford that for your workers you need to increase entry fees.
I think the GMO did hold a scribe’s clinic a few years ago. I kind of remember that you had to pay to attend, but I may be wrong. I think getting somebody to pay for a scribe’s clinic is not a smart idea if you need scribes for shows and good experienced ones are in short supply. I did not go and I may be remembering wrong.
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That’s good to know. I am only an hour from Loch Moy and would like to get more involved in local events.
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I agree…you shouldn’t ask people to PAY to get trained so they can DONATE their time to your events. I’m hoping to help scrape together a volunteer orientation clinic after show season (maybe in the spring so it’s closer to next show season so fresh in people’s minds) and will be looking for a venue or 2 to donate their space for a few hours, plus experts to donate their time to train (I’m thinking an experienced scribe, TD, steward/whipper-in, etc). I have lots of contacts from my years of volunteering and we’re a smaller community than in the US, so hopefully this should get off the ground without too much trouble.
I’ve already spoken to the two venues that I’m show secretary for about doing their own year-end volunteer awards instead of waiting for our governing bodies, because they can implement them without delays for debates, details, getting all venues to agree on a plan, etc.
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We should send a COTH contingent. I’m about 2 hours and have considered it.
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I did 4 solid years of volunteering at Carolina Horse Park. My spouse and I were newly posted there from Canada, we knew no one, we both wanted to event and it seemed like the perfect way to learn more about the sport when we weren’t ready to compete.
I loved it for the learning, and for most of the people. Unfortunately, our last year was soured by someone higher up in the management of the park, and in the end, we were competing more too. I didn’t let lack of knowledge stop me from doing any of it-I can’t think of a single volunteer job I didn’t at one point do, with the exception of control and announcer (but if we stayed, we would have done control).
I scribed, I did steward, ring crew and jump crew. Worked at the jogs, bit check, warm up, starter and finish, jump judged sometimes up to 8 or 9 fences when we were short. I did lead up to all the big events and learned how to correctly build courses and set lines. The 25$ vouchers paid for all our schooling and entries. We basically lived there sometimes.
We haven’t done it much since we moved back bc we are trying to establish our farm, work busy jobs and just don’t have as much freedom, but it’s a bit of laziness too. We are barely riding, let alone competing, and it’s harder to figure out how to get out and volunteer in the Ottawa area.
I made lifelong friends volunteering, learned more in the 4 years then I ever could have just taking lessons, and fell deeper in love with the sport. I will say though, one or two people can ruin the entire feeling of it.
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