Small Steps in Safety Initiatives Can Support Effective Risk Management

Some great progress is happening in the safety space within equestrian sport.

Despite COVID being disruptive to many of our lives, it has also gifted us some time to review EA national safety processes and documents. It’s about creating great education and resources to support our sport organisers, while also creating more efficient and effective risk management processes.

We all know there is a risk of injury or illness within equestrian sport, regardless of the activities we participate in (handling, riding or driving) our beloved horses. Therefore, EA is dedicated to checking safety processes, consulting with experts, improving safety education, event planning and emergency response.

Areas of focus over the past few months include, but are not limited to, the following:

• A review of existing concussion protocols has been completed, with the development of a fresh training program, documents and reporting for athletes, officials and organising committees. A National Discipline approach will be rolled out from 1st January 2021.
• A review of injury/illness reporting processes at events, including consultation with the Eventing Medical Consultative Group, medical service providers and organising committees. The aim has been to streamline our injury reporting to provide consistency and enable effective data analysis across all Sport Disciplines.
• A critical review of medical support and coverage across all events, regardless of size and budget, is a currently underway. We are focusing on developing improved relationships with our medical service providers, whilst also supporting those who volunteer their expertise. Identifying ways we can work together to fund and support adequate medical care despite our event location, budget and available resources is an important aspect of making our sport safer.

We look forward to sharing these initiatives with you soon.

Meredith Chapman

EA National Safety Manager