competing on your own

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JadeyyBabeyy

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i was at a show yesterday and the rider fell off and an ambulance was called.
now if she had gone to that show on her own what would have happened to the horse?
i understand if its a yard they would probs stable it until she could collect, but what if it was in a field and no option of stabling?
has this ever happened to yu / smeone you know?
 
Thankfully not - but I go to competitions on my own all the time, and often hack there. Sometimes I have friends who come along to support / watch, but thats not always the case.

If the worst happened, there would always be someone there who would sort your horse out for you I'm sure. I had an incident when on a mock hunt a few years ago when my horse got loose and was caught 5 miles away - a local guy kept her in his stables in his garden until I could get my trailer to collect her.
 
not quite the same but.....

as a teenager, maybe 14 or 15? a friend went off to a show in one of our fellow liveries horseboxes - just her horse. The box was parked up and left there for my friend and me when i arrived (my classes were not until later so i was hacking over later on). Anyway, friend got decked in the WH and was rushed to hospital. I was then left with my horse and hers, no mobile (back then they were not very common!) i recall being stood at the side of the box with only 1 leadrope... and having to quickly let one eat grass alone whilst i rushed up the ramp to get another headcollar and leadrope - there was no-one around when i needed to grab an extra pair of hands.
Anyway, i kept on with my classes, had someone i knew from school keep an eye on my mates horse whilst i went in my last class. Then my friends mum turned up to see how we were doing..... no-one had called her! i had to break the news that her daughter had been at hospital for at least 3 hours! now at this point panic set in.... no-one went with her ti hospital... her family hadnt been called - was she that bad that she was out of it and couldnt give her full details etc? i assumed the riding club had given the ambulance the details as i was left at the edge of the ring holding 2 horses.
so friends mum left me with the puppy they had and rushed to hospital.... i now had a horsebox.... (too young to drive)..... 2 horses.... a puppy and no phone!!

i waited, and waited and waited...... thankfully i managed to find someone with a mobile (or should that be brick lol!) and managed to call my mum to ask her to call the yard to arrange for a driver to come and get me and the horses. This was about 6 hours after my friend went to hospital........ i waited some more..... there was then the box i was with and 1 trailer left on the show field !!! The other person kindly waited with me and then my mum arrived with a driver for the box and someone else from my yard to help out (they were not needed as all i had to do was load up!)

It was a very stressful day! friend was thankfully ok and i made it through the day, but it made me realise that you do really need a support network around when out and about. Of course its very different now that everyone has mobile phones !
 
I compete on my own 99% of the time, and ofter hack there.

I do have a support network of friends and contacts who I could call on in an emergency, even if they are not there at the time, in the same way my friends who also compete alone could call on me.

I have 'Emergency' stored as a number in my phone, with three separate numbers, and I let the steward know I am alone and about these numbers, just in case.

Also find that I see a lot of the same people at events, who know I am alone, and will often lend a hand (hold horse while I go to loo) etc. I will buy them a coffee, call their dressage tests and so on in return.

It's not ideal, but if I didn't compete alone, I'd never go anywhere! ;)
 
I compete alone otherwise I wouldn't compete at all, but only BD which is a bit less risky. Usually I know people at the show and would expect them to help out of things went catastrophically wrong!

Years ago when I used to event (unaffiliated) I had helped other people deal with horses when riders were injured so I think everyone mucks in in such situations.
 
I only go places I know if i'm on my own but usually sharer comes and would hack horse home or ask around for lifts if to far to ride. Now we have 3 horses at party standard we have a more fixed arrangement if she comes off I call her mom and get on with the horses. If I come off she calls my oh and gets horses loaded. If none of our friends at the show can drive her she'll ring her dad. Parents are non horsey so that's the deal. I'm the horsey supervision while she's under 16 and her dad's our 4th emergency service! Box is insured any driver to help her if this happens.
 
Horsey people can be funny but we tend to help when things go wrong. I was xc schooling with my sis round uk chasers. We knew a couple girls had set off ahead of us. When we caught up 1 had a badly broken leg. The other was waiting for air ambulance with her. We took their horses back to chasers yard riding and leading and borrowed a paddock for them. Don't know them but heard she was ok. Horses were nice.
 
i compete on my own, but i'd only go to dressage comps at two of the centres i use most. I drive my little lorry there, get everything sorted, tacked up and go. If i'm there on my own, i always let the manager/staff know. My OH knows what times my classes are, and i give an estimated time that i'll be back at the yard, so if i'm more than an hour late without letting him know why he knows somethings wrong. He's insured and used to driving my box, but isn't terrribly horse-savvy so he'd need help loading up.

if anything were to happen, i always have my mobile on me, with ICE (in case of emergency numbers) set as speed dial icons on the homepage of my phone, so they dont need to scroll through and pick out a number. Numbers include my OH, my mum, my YM, my vet and also the number for the railway (a bit random and not really relevant when at shows, but where we hack we have to cross over the rheidol railway alot and so if anything were to happen i have a contact number for them if the train needs to be stopped/warned of an incident!!)
theres usually at least two people i know at the same shows as us, and most of the time my YM is at shows with her own horses and she tends to keep an eye out if she knows i'm on my own.

In my experience, people at horse shows are great in an emergency. Recently at one of my local show centres, someone had a bad accident and were on their own. the centre owners took care of the horse, stabled it for a few days for free until other arrangements could be made, locked up her truck and made sure all her tack was safe, and even offered to transport the horse back home for her.

When one of my ponies climbed over the breast bar a few years ago and go wedged, we called out for help and i remember loads of people came running to help get him back over. in any situation like this, most people would be willing to help as you never know when you might need the favour returned.
 
I regularly go to shows on my own, try to get OH to come with me but he finds it very boring. Sometimes I know someone there sometimes I don't. OH knows where i'm going and normally a rough time of when i'll be back, so hopefully if anything did happen my horse would be looked after until someone could collect her.

If I didn't go on my own I wouldn't go anywhere much and I do enjoy competing. :)
 
This why my RC insists that any under 18s competing in our events have a responsible adult with them and that the responsible adult signs to take responsibility. Last year 1 lady who was with her own daughter offered to take responsibility for another girl until I pointed out that if she needed to go in an ambulance with either of them, the other would be left on her own on the showground. She decided it would be better to wait for the other girl's parents to arrive.
I feel very sorry for juniors who do not have the support of family in their horsey activities.
As others have said though, most horsey people would step into the breach and provide temporary care/accommodation for a horse if it was needed.
 
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