I’m comfortable enough right now to show. If I felt sick, I’d stay home and I’d expect others to do the same.
I’d volunteer, too, no hesitation!
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finding scribes might be even more difficult. …
FOr those who have not seen it, here is the USEF Required and Recommended procedures for Recognized shows. It came to me in an email from USEF. https://www.usef.org/forms-pubs/XhKGVYiiwTA/usef-covid-19-action-plan-for-operating?fbclid=IwAR0nusWdA3aqyu63Z29mSOiVt3hCuD4OZjF1XUKPfA1stqBa0Gye-e4ijB0
I was going to start showing this year, but I think I’ll wait, I don’t want to be wearing a mask all day. Also I usually volunteer but wont be doing that, again i dont want to wear a mask. Its too hot and humid here.
The bathrooms are main my concern.
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Hadn’t really thought of feeling unsafe at a horse show.
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Our only state show series officially cancelled their 2020 dates. Showing would require interstate travel to states with larger outbreaks/#of cases and deaths.
Being comfortable will have little to do with no shows being offered. I think USEF is a bit wishful thinking.
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They are allowing but based on state regulations. I think most states will not meet the threshold needed to hold large competitions.
This is the main reason I don’t feel safe showing right now, as well as doing many other things.
Yes, it should be fairly simple to adapt our practices at shows to make it safe, but based on the behavior I’ve been seeing from my fellow horse people, I have very little faith that my fellow competitors and trainers/staff will do their part. It’s very sad. I know I am doing all I can to protect those around me, but I can’t trust my fellow humans to be doing the same in return.
For me, it will likely take widespread testing and vaccinations. There is a chance I might wind up feeling comfortable enough to trailer in to some local shows or clinics for the day this year, but as of right now, I don’t think it’ll happen.
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I’m skipping this year entirely. Not worried about it… see how things look next year.
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Yep, there is a large contingent of “the rules don’t apply to me” folk in the horse world. They already put others at risk with their lose dogs and their “only person in the ring” approach to warm up. No way I’m going to trust them to behave wrt the virus. So I’ll be staying home for the foreseeable future until I find out which shows are actually going to enforce their rules, even against the trainer who brought in 25% of the entries.
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@AltersAreUs it stinks, because I really want to support the shows. But I totally agree - we see that mentality all the time, even when things are going well.
I’ve been really paying attention to which businesses (equine and otherwise) are taking precautions and truly trying to be safe, and spending my money accordingly. But I just feel right now like I can’t trust my fellow horsepeople in a horse show setting. 
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I wasn’t entering shows this Spring anyway due to my horse carefully rehabbing from his surgery in Dec. So all the competition cancelation didn’t apply to me, in that regard.
It did, however, blow my reserved and prepaid L program right out of the 2020 schedule and all the way into 2021. And like others have said, I’m fine with that.
There are too many people unwilling to act responsibly, and others unwilling even to be educated about the pandemic. Gatherings of competitors and volunteers in the numbers we’re used to at shows, for any sporting activity, doesn’t make sense to me despite the new USEF guidelines.
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If my horse were ready now, I would show now. The risk of getting that virus at a horse show is simply too low for me to be too concerned. Besides, if I do get it, I’m betting I will come out of it just fine. The statistics is on my side. I believe I will get it sooner or later anyway. This virus is simply too infectious to avoid. As long as hospitals aren’t overwhelmed, which was the original concern that promoted this shutdown, it is just another nasty bug.
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New Zealand is going into level 2 tomorrow which means facilities are allowed to open for off property schooling and shows are allowed to start up again. So far nothing has actually been organised but one big facility that usually holds weekly shows has had a survey out for expressions of interest in shows and what discipline/level people are interested in as well as things that would make them happier.
Over the past 2 weeks our high has been 3 new cases in one 24hr period with quite a few days of 0 cases, they will be having a limit on people (including spectators/parents/etc) in total and there is a limit on how many people in the warm up at one time but all the numbers keep changing so we are waiting for confirmation. It is also expected people will show common sense by washing their hands, stay home if you are sick even with a cold, and social distance.
I am 100% ready to get back competing and not too worried about about the virus as I assume everyone will use common sense.
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New Zealand has done a sterling job of controlling the virus.
But how to keep the virus at bay indefinitely, without shutting out everyone not on the island – not sure how to do that. Essentially New Zealand is still where the rest of us were on January 1st, even after the NZ shutdown, and will not have been through the initial waves. Can NZ stay at January 1st forever, without resigning themselves to an eternal groundhog day? Hope for the best. And maybe NZ will be a perfect example of what works short-term - and long-term as well?
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Yes I do agree it will be interesting to see if it works long term. I do not expect us to get rid of the virus just from lockdown but I hope that we can keep it at bay while getting back some sense of normalcy until we have a vaccine - in our level two; shops can open with a limit of how many in store, no touching unless you are genuinely interested in buying, cleaning all high contact areas regularly. Everyone can go back to work with social distancing, good hygiene, etc. Parks, beaches, and other public spaces to re open.
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The bolded part–same. My horse had minor surgery in March and is getting back to work but isn’t quite ready to show. If there were shows right now, we would be going but he would be staying home or tagging along just to school off property. If he hadn’t gotten injured and there were shows right now, you bet I’d be there competing.
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I rarely go out of town to show, and I have shown very little for the past couple of years.
However I would have no problem going to a show as soon as they reopen.
I think a schooling horse trial is going on at the end of the month, and I put my name in to volunteer.
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So … heard through the grapevine … and see no cancellation notification …
So could be true that USDF’s first post-shutdown recognized show will go as scheduled on June 8-9th, the Houston Dressage Society show at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center (about 20 miles west of Houston, TX).
https://houstondressagesociety.org/w…list-final.pdf
The grapevine said that USDF considers this a sort of test of their new protocols. Haven’t seen any written protocols (haven’t shown USDF), but I’m sure they are out there.
Great Southwest had a show of some sort a week or two ago, unrecognized of course. Haven’t heard how that went off.
Great Southwest’s website displays a June schedule of horse events - so could be that we are on.
Anyone know more about this?
