United States Eventing Association

Eventing 101: The Show Secretary is Your New Best Friend. Here’s How to Keep Them Happy

Familiarizing yourself with the key players at each horse trial is an important step to your success at your next competition. One of those important figures is the show secretary. Think of the show secretary as the mastermind behind most of the organizational efforts related to each horse trial. They manage entries, the show schedule, ride times, stabling, and so much more. Without the hard work of the show secretary and their office staff, a horse trial simply would not be able to operate.

Christina Gray of Gray Area Events has been working in horse show offices since the mid-90s and is a horse show secretary extraordinaire. Her years of experience have made her a master of her craft, but there are a lot of nuances related to what the office staff do in the lead up to and at the events that are directly impacted by you as the competitor.

One of the easiest things you can do to better support the horse show secretary is to get your entry in on time, in completed form.

“Every time we have to touch an entry, it takes time,” said Gray. “I think that’s where a lot of people don’t realize where the change or scratch fees come in. It’s quite a process to review each entry when it is received. We check the coggins, the signatures, the vaccinations, we begin the scheduling, we process payments, and then if they scratch, you have to write out a check and get it in the mail. That old saying, ‘time is money,’ really factors in here!”

Each horse trial has an opening date, the first date when entries are open, and a closing date, the final date that a competitor may enter a show. What some people might not realize, Gray noted, is that your entry has to be received in full by that date without any missing pieces.

“Your entry should be paid, completed, with all online signatures and supporting documents by that Tuesday, two weeks before the competition, which is the closing date. If you are mailing your entry, it does not mean that your entry should be postmarked by that date or the day before. If you are mailing your entry with a check, you really should mail it in seven days before. Sometimes we even get mail 20 days after people have mailed it, which really impacts our work in the leadup to the show!”

The start of the season is often when Gray finds the most inconsistencies in entries. Vaccinations or coggins might be expired, for example, or someone might be entering their first-ever horse trial. Assisting anyone who needs it is one of the primary functions of the horse show secretary, and Gray is always happy to lend a helping hand.

“It’s completely reasonable if this is your first time submitting an entry that you will need a little bit more assistance,” she said. “Our goal is to make each show, from start to finish, a great experience for everyone involved. We are here to have fun! That is the whole point. We want to help you, and we want to keep everything as organized as possible.”

Gray estimates that from opening day to the start of the event, the show staff put in well over 50 hours, at minimum, of prep time in that two week period to get all of the important details lined out before you even arrive, in addition to the 10 hour days they are logging in the office during the competition. One of those details that takes up a lot of their time is working on stabling assignments.

“I always say that working on stabling assignments is like doing a wedding seating chart where you are assessing the personalities of who wants to be beside each other,” joked Gray. “Really, there are so many different things that factor into the stabling—thinking of stallions, or mares that kick, different barn groups, who trains with who, who likes to be with each other because their kids get along, or maybe who doesn’t want to be with each other because their kids don’t get along. You even have to consider the size of the facility and the size of trailer a particular person might haul. We try and accommodate every request as best as possible.”

The FEI regulations around stabling have definitely added to the difficulty factor related to this task.

“One major pain problem is the FEI stabling requirements, which mandate that all FEI horses be kept separate from national horses,” she said. “I think that’s not a common thing that people think about. It’s a real headache, and it’s not something that the riders are directly doing; it's just what the Federation requires, but it turns into quite the ordeal for the secretary when you’ve got three FEI horses, two national horses, and then 10 students, all in one group.”

You can help out your secretary with the stabling headache by being specific, but realistic, in your stabling requests when submitting your entries. You should prioritize things like what group of individuals you want to be with, any specific requests you need for your particular horse (like the consideration of a stallion), if two people will be splitting a tack stall so they can be close, etc., but you should also be understanding that requests along the lines of, “I want to be on the shady side of the barn aisle,” may not be the priority.

Whether it's your entry or if something pops up at the show, being early is always a best practice.

“If you are going to make a change or scratch, letting us know sooner rather than later is definitely helpful," said Gray. "Once we have everything prepped, every change requires us to initiate a different chain of events. We get it, things happen. You wake up, and your horse did something to himself in the stall overnight, but we need time to notify the ring stewards, judges, and announcers and make any other changes.”

Gray describes scheduling a horse show as an art, and the schedule can be significantly impacted by the smallest last-minute change. She doesn’t say that to deter anyone from communicating with the show office, but rather to emphasize the importance of being prompt in your communications if changes need to occur.

“You have to logistically figure out how all these moving pieces fit together. You have to consider professionals who have many different horses or students going in different rings. You have to think about rings being next to one another for watering and dragging, or time spent shortening a dressage arena from a long court to a short court. It all depends on the facility, as well, in terms of how things work best schedule-wise. We think about those little things like how long it takes a water truck to refill and then drive from one spot to another, or how long a lunch break needs to be to get all the dragging done.”

Finally, when you are communicating with the show secretary, two small things go a long way: kindness and clarity.

“It seems silly to say it, because it’s just common courtesy, but being polite to the show staff goes a long way. I think if we could all be a little bit nicer to one another, it could go a long way," she said. "You never know what someone might be dealing with at a given time. Be understanding—if you sent us an email, understand it might take 24 hours to get a response back, and if you haven’t heard from us within 24 hours, please give us a call. Maybe your email went to our spam folder, it has happened before! Also, I figured it up once, and I get like 25,000 emails in a year, so it really helps when you send me a message, when you have all the necessary details with your request. So if you are asking for more shavings, for example, please let us know your name, the show you are competing at, and how many more shavings you might need; otherwise, we have to go back and forth just to get the basics we need to fulfill your request.”

Our friends at Strider recently posted an article about the best ways to communicate with your show staff. Check it out here!

In many areas, the horse show secretaries grow close to each of their riders over the years. Building a close relationship with the secretaries in your area not only helps make the process smoother, but it also helps you grow closer to those who support the sport in the area that you compete in!

Are you new to eventing or just returning to the sport after some time away? Our Eventing 101 series is perfect for you! Check out other articles in this series here to learn more about the behind-the-scenes activities of the sport and better familiarize yourself with important information that can help improve your experience at a competition!