Vet support at Hunter Trials

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BBP

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Does anyone know if there are any sort of guidelines on how big (in numbers or height of fences) a competition should be before it is deemed necessary for a vet to be present on site throughout the competition? Is it normal to just use a local on call vet? I appreciate that some events, like trecs I have been to, have low entries and so cannot afford a vet to be present, I just wondered if there was any sort of standard set?

I ask as I recently attended a small hunter trial, set up for novices so the fence heights were teeny tiny but I would say there were several hundred entries. However, at one point there were two horses requiring medical attention at the same time, one had collapsed at the end of the course and one who had bolted (minus rider) off site for several miles and was caught bleeding heavily from some deep cuts. It was over an hour and a half from when it was apparent the horses needed medical attention to when the vet was supposed to arrive - assuming he didn't get called out to any other emergencies elsewhere that day. Is this normal and acceptable? Is it ok to insist that people pay a contribution towards first aid cover for people, but nothing for the horses? What would it cost on average to have a vet on site all day? Personally I would rather pay higher entries if I knew my horse would be seen to asap but I don't organise events so I don't know what is normal, I'm certainly not having a pop at the organisers.
 
Of course it's acceptable .
There's no vet when you jump at home or do a bit of xc schooling or following when you go hacking .
 
I would happily pay some extra money to have a vet present, I used to do a lot of team chasing, the kennel man would always be there which I found reasuring, at least a fatally injured horse would be dealt with quickly.
I was at a hunter trail once which had a vet on call, my horse was quite badly injured so I went to the secretary to ask them call the vet out asap, (this was before we all had mobiles) asking them to come to the lorry with an arrival time. It was a long time before somebody came to us to say that they'd forgotten to tell the vet he was on call & he wouldn't be there for some time as he was out with an emergency.
We decided to go home & ring our vet from a call box on the way home.
SO even having a vet on call doesn't mean that a vet is actually on call.
 
My pony broke a leg badly hunter trialling when I was 12. A vet was on site, and my pony was pts within 10 minutes of the accident happening. Definitely worth a £1-2 surcharge per entry. I wonder what the pony club/riding club guidelines are?
 
Goldenstar said:
Of course it's acceptable .
There's no vet when you jump at home or do a bit of xc schooling or following when you go hacking .
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I understand that, I suppose I was thinking that with 300 horses in the same field and all competing the stakes were a bit different. Why have a vet at BE and not at a hunter trial with a lot more entries, other than differences in entry fees? I don't have a first aider following me out hacking either but there is always one at a hunter trial. That's why I wondered if there were guidelines. I appreciate its each owners choice as to whether they participate without a vet being present.
 
Britestar said:
You'd probably be looking at £3-400 a day for a vet to be there, so quite a big add on to entry fees.
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With over 300 entries at this event (at a guess) it wouldn't be that much extra. Smaller events with less entries would be prohibitively expensive I guess.
 
KatPT said:
I understand that, I suppose I was thinking that with 300 horses in the same field and all competing the stakes were a bit different. Why have a vet at BE and not at a hunter trial with a lot more entries, other than differences in entry fees? I don't have a first aider following me out hacking either but there is always one at a hunter trial. That's why I wondered if there were guidelines. I appreciate its each owners choice as to whether they participate without a vet being present.
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BE have their own set rules, an unaff event or hunter trial has no rules in place regarding vets, their insurance will insist on human first aid care but most will just have a vet on call for emergencies and possibly the local hunt for something that needs to be pts immediately.
 
KatPT said:
With over 300 entries at this event (at a guess) it wouldn't be that much extra. Smaller events with less entries would be prohibitively expensive I guess.
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A BE entry is £80+ and a local hunter trial is £20... see the difference?!

And even on 300 entries you'd have to add £10 per entry on top (at least) to cover £3/£4000 which people just won't pay
 
I've never been to one with a vet, as RC committee we once had a horse drop dead in the SJ ring, after that we did always make sure we had both vet and local dead stock person on call.

Mostly running anything can be very fine margins wise, in part because so much depends on the weather so you cannot guarantee that number of entries. Some years the annual summer show (so field rent only) could make £1-2k which meant you didnt need to worry so much the rest of the year, particularly if a 'big hire' arena event was quiet. On a bad year it could make a loss.
 
LouisCat said:
A BE entry is £80+ and a local hunter trial is £20... see the difference?!

And even on 300 entries you'd have to add £10 per entry on top (at least) to cover £3/£4000 which people just won't pay
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Wow wish I could find a hunter trial for £20 - no chance around here (Gloucestershire)! Those were the days....
 
KittyH said:
I think quoted price was £3-400 so more like £1-2 per entry.
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But that'd be £1 - £2 per horse then (like with rider first aid). I dont know of many XC / ODE's in my area that have 400 individual horses entered. I think its a great idea to have a vet at these of course, but then again I figure a horse could get hurt show jumping for example as well not just XC, I also think the cost would just be too expensive on top of entry fees which are already crazy high compared to what I used to pay.
 
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