I’m sorry, the way some people behave and treat volunteers is absolutely embarrassing.
When XC got cancelled at our local event hosted by a Pony Club, there was obviously disappointment, but I think most understood and were actually grateful that management made the call. Both for safety of the horses and competitors, but also preservation of the footing of one of the few XC courses in the area that is used for 2 recognized events and multiple schooling opportunities throughout the year.
I would never act such a way, I’m always super thankful and appreciative to volunteers and those who run the show. Anyone who acts like that should be made sit out the next event at that location.
There are people whose entries are not accepted at specific events/unofficially banned, definitely!
They ran Intermediate, and then decided it wasn’t safe enough to keep going. I think the riders were saying that at those speeds, they didn’t have enough time to actually see the jumps 
I have a couple photos somewhere too - I was scribing that day. Who would have thought the fog wouldn’t burn off by at least mid-morning? Poor WOW ends up with the weirdest weather!
Literally every WOW show is bad weather even though its fine everywhere else. Its wild how they are in their own little weather pocket.
Were you there the year of the monsoon? I think that was my first time volunteering there. I was scribing, and the wind and rain was so strong that the dressage rings blew over (even though we were in the valley with the hills protecting us). The stadium course blew over while someone was on course. The person out on XC said she just sort of pointed in the general direction of the next jump and couldn’t actually see it until something like 5 strides out (Ian got some great photos of her though!). They ended up pausing the show and asked everyone to go back to the trailers to wait it out, then went around to see who was still interested in staying and finishing up, or whether they should cancel.
I think we were on hold for 3 hours, but a bunch of people did stay and complete all three phases!
Last fall I showed there for the first time. It was 5 degrees but otherwise not bad. Then a couple weeks later I was schooling at Glenarden in 14 degrees near the end of October!
They really do have the CRAZIEST weather haha I remember the year before that it was hurricane winds with hail blowing and I couldn’t breath looking ahead so I did most of XC with my head to the side or tucked down ahhaa flags were flying everywhere lol
I was show jumping during the sideways rain, it was so bad I couldn’t hear them ringing me to stop LOL. My horse was a saint and kept jumping, but I could hear NOTHING. Thats when the port-o-potties flipped over LOL!!
I think that was what I call the monsoon (see my post above) lol! It was my first time at WOW and they had to hold the show for about 3 hours. I couldn’t leave because there were still people who hadn’t done dressage.
The person who was in my ring was doing their 20m circle at E (maybe second or third movement on the test) and it started off well then went all wonky because neither she nor the horse could see where they were going when they turned into the wind and rain. Then the ring blew over, so she was saved (she got to redo the entire test later on).
Omg they flipped at the Ottawa dressage festival and a poor guy was INSIDE.
Not only is that horrible on its own but the weather was so bad just being outside was terrible, he was stuck in there with the door facing down and the park workers had to come rescue him ahhaha
Yes! I did my free walk in that and my horse was a saint and had his head on the ground practically and I remember being sad he only got a 6 because he clearly deserved a 9 in that weather ahhaha
OMG! LOL!!! HAHAH THATS TERRIBLE! Traumatizing for sure too. EW HAHA!
Definitely deserved a 9 for not losing his S#*t and keeping his head down. Should’ve won that dressage!
I was at Chatt Hills last weekend and my cross country was canceled. I feel really bad for the BN riders who only got to do dressage. They were supposed to have both jumping phases and Sunday. Other divisions got to do stadium on Sunday so I don’t know why BN couldn’t also do stadium.
RAyers - I remember that AEC’s! I was lucky(ish) because our division started a day earlier and we got to do dressage and XC in dry conditions. The next day was stadium and it started pouring that morning—and did_not_stop. We did get to do stadium—I remember we were jumping around with rain coming down so hard I could hardly see. And there was about 1" of water on the surface of the entire ring. But we did get to do all 3 phases. I think after our division jumped—everything after that was canceled for the rest of the competition.
My saddle never recovered from that weekend. I tried to dry it out / oil it / clean it—but it got so soaked through that it would grow mold whenever it sat.
I remember getting to Nebraska before the clothes I was wearing started to dry in the truck.
One time Morven HT had to cancel XC due to terrible weather. They gave everyone free passes to come and school the course the following week. Still a bummer, but a good effort was made.
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