Weston Lawns - appalling organisation!!!

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wizzi901

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Having never been to Weston Lawns before it looked like a professional venue with lovely arenas etc for the CHNews Champs.

We arrived on Friday night, all seemed well....

On Saturday we had quite a few classes to get through, but nothing like BSJA classes, say 40-50 in a class, several classes with one warm up round then a championship class of A7.

They were so unorganised and slow it was unreal!!!!- are they normally this bad? - they had to scratch the team jumping as they ran so late. Each time you went in the ring you waited 5 minutes for the chappy in the small arena to ring the bell, course changes and walks seemed to take hours......the poor people in the later classes were jumping in the dusk with no lighting!!!

Lovely people, dont get me wrong but people were missed out of drawn orders, drawn orders not displayed where they should have been, in fact Sat night they didnt even put them up for following day.

Toilets disgusting and full, to the point you would rather use your portaloo, running out of rosettes! - not giving prizes and awards out that were sponsored by CHNews! Changing prize money, giving the cheapy rosettes out instead of championship ones!!!

The worst part was NO PARAMEDICS on site!!! - they have two lovely arenas, the competitors there take no prisoners and quite frankly a first aider is not good enough!!! - they hold HOYS qualifiers!!! - but no paramedics!!

One poor girl had a nasty fall, not only was she made to sit up, it then turns out she had to sit for nearly an hour on the arena floor waiting for an ambulance!! (the reason they dont have paramedics apparently is that they are "near to the hospital"!!! - it turns out she shattered a vertabrae and needs plates in her spine etc, so I am praying that they didnt do more damage when they sat her up
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Sorry for the rant but is it normally this bad at this venue?? It just seems odd as it's great facility, loads of hardstanding, stables lovely, although things being nicked left right and centre, but can they be organised usually???
 
Everytime I've been its been great! sorry for your bad experience and I hope the girl will make a full recovery.
 
I've never had a bad time there
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- maybe it would be worth passing on your comments..... if it were my venue I would like to know so I could asses what happened
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I have to say I am surprised by some of your comments, as when I used to go, yes the classes and the car parks were very busy, but then facilities were fine.
Could it be that the "Hiring Organiser" was responsible for some of your points,ie, collecting ring running orders, will you be sending them the same e mail?
Hope things improve for you, this is a super venue, and I know a lot of you support the Central Horse News.
Let us know what replies you get.
JC
 
Sounds very very unlike Weston Lawns, but its not "their" event so i think it must be the "hiring organiser" who has made those decisions. Certainly at the BSJA shows they organise themselves they run very smoothly have first aiders on site and loos are clean!!
 
Have to agree. Weston Lawns is one of the nicer venues I go to for BSJA. Classes always seem to run slickly despite being very busy. Toilets have always been clean.
I think you need to check if this was a weston lawns organised event or someone else who just hired the facilities because it doesn't sound like WL organisation at all.
 
So sorry you found problems at Weston Lawn . They are such lovely people. We had a few problems at their last BD as we were in both tests at the same time and so were a couple of others . They sorted ours but another girl we still due in both arenas at the same time. She managed to swop with someone but had to go from one elem. test straight to the other , I don't know how she remembered them both and she was all by herself.
I don't know what the rules are for first aid and hope the poor girl recovers fully.
Maybe they have changed staff recently , hope they sort things out as Helen is lovely
 
thank you for all your replies. It is very interesting to know, as I couldnt get my head round how such a terrific venue could be so unorganised!!

I spoke to hirers, who actually didnt "run" the event, they were "supporting it", CHN had nothing to do with ordering rossies etc etc, and putting up lists drawn orders etc, the venue was responsible from taking the entries to giving out the prizes, collecting rings the lot, CHN were just supporting with prizes. Felt very sorry for them, and some of it I put down to the slow guy in Ring 2, who seemed to be asleep most of the time!!

Really useful to know its not like that all the time as last night I was NEVER going back lol!!! - I got the feeling that they were a little out of their depth to be honest, but BSJA classes are usually bigger than ours were....lots of kids, maybe could be the reason it ran so slow.....

I dunno, lovely place, but such a LONGGGG weekend!!!

Thanks for comments xx
 
I like Weston Lawns a lot as a venue, and have always found it a well run set up- with lovely toilets!
I had the misfortune of requiring medical help falling there last month and the ambulance arrived within 5 minutes, and the staff were incredibly supportive and helpful. Your experience does not reflect their usual high standards, sorry you had a bad day.
 
We have been to Weston Lawns loads and loads and never ever had any problems with it, I've even seen the Air A land there once after a nasty fall and all sorted very quickly.......

Maybe its worth feeding back to them your feelings. Sorry you had a poor time
 
Our first time here was memorable for all the wrong reasons, the toilets in the main block were kept clean through the whole event but the others in the shower block were terrible and there was only one sink which was also blocked on Sunday. The prizes were not as advertised and this was really disappointing, we have never been to a show where this has happened and felt cheated both for ourselves and all the other competitors particularly some of the children who bust a gut trying to earn points, prizes and money which were not as advertised. Both the organisers and the team from CHN need to put their heads together and put this right because there were a lot of unhappy people at this event who did not get the prizes they won and this was wrong. On a more positive note we found both collecting ring stewards really helpful, well designed courses, lovely food, stabling excellent and the sun came out.
 
I may be a little late on this topic but I was collecting ring steward for the weekend just gone for the CHN championships- and I will for one try my best to do some damage limitation for the weekend. The organiser's of the event have listened to all the feedback that has been recieved and a meeting will be taking place this week so staff members can infact air thier concerns on where we it went wrong, where it went well and what can we do to do better things for other competitions. The staff at weston lawns work endless hours to try to organise the events and when the events occur the centre really hopes that things do in fact run smoothly. I would just like to say I was the first onsite to the girl who suffered a rotaional fall, and as I ran to her, she was sat up holding her horse, as soon as the horse started to roll I had radioed for first aid, to which we have four trained first aiders. Her mother, despite being told otherwise incase of spinal injuries/internal injuries, told her daughter to sit up because she found breathing easier. The ambulance was called and was there within 20 mins, a road closure because of the football prevented the ambulance arriving quicker than it should of taken. I think a paramedic should of been onsite for the championships, especially when people flat out gallop to doubles! The horse was also very lucky to come away unscathed, after jumping the first part of the double he didnt even have chance to pick up for the second, missing a stride and crashing through, a little of topic, and no one deserves to be hurt but the amount of stupid and idiotic riding from some competitors made what should of been a safe event and very dangerous one. As I said, we have listened to the people who have complained and we discuss this, should people feel they have a better idea for the championships, please PM me and Iwill pass all these on to the management. The girl in question for some who would like to know is doing well and has been transfered to a unit in Birmingham. Thank you
 
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