Safety Initiatives in U.S. Eventing

By on Nov 22, 2017 4:31 am -

This post was originally published on Emma’s blog, OTTBs and Oxers.

Photo courtesy of ERA International.

With all of the back and forth on safety in eventing after the euthanization of Boyd Martin’s Crackerjack at Les Etoiles de Pau, Doug Payne’s Facebook post (a copy of the post by Denis Glaccum) has raised over $1,500 in donations to safety research after laying out the scope of safety efforts in relation to the fatality itself.

But what is the USEA already doing to research safety in eventing before a fall occurs?

In the comments of the post, one USEA member brought up the idea of transparency — how can the association members see what the board and committees see? I brought up the idea of an annual report — which already exists — but the fact that I didn’t even know about it shows that it is not enough in of itself.

Next, Rob Burk, the CEO of the USEA, was brought into the conversation. He linked a series of useful pages — which, again, I didn’t know existed. However, the information on the pages, while explained well, was wordy even to me, a nerdy college student with way too much time on her hands. Of course, I had to be extra and make the infographic I suggested myself.

So, I’ve done the work for you! Below is a series of graphics that pull out the main points from each report in an easy-to-understand way. Obviously, by doing it this way, you lose context and other factors, so I’ve also included the links to the pages themselves in case something strikes your attention.

I believe the USEA is doing a phenomenal job increasing safety in conjunction with the other national and international associations and governing bodies. Do we have a long way to go? Yes. But it’s important to see how far we’ve come and how much we are doing. Many people believe eventers live on the edge all the time (OK, maybe we do), but we also care. We give 110% to make this sport better every, single day.

I hope you find this useful and learn something new!

If you feel inclined to donate to the USEA, there is a donate button at the bottom of Doug’s post.

If you would like to download a PDF version of this infographic, click HERE.

(The links won’t work in the picture, so I’ve copied them below.)

Sources:

Other Good Links:

If you spot a mistake or would like to speak with me about this topic, email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading!

Go Eventing!