Below you will find the latest draft copy of a document we hope will serve as the universal protocol for all organizations having exposure to runaway or loose driving horses, not just carriage driving horses. It is our hope that the final document can be used by USEF, its affiliates and any other organization with this kind of exposure. We believe the ADS has some obligation to take the lead in this area.
In final form, these protocols will represent the generally accepted best practices for managing runaway and loose driving horses in competition and organized recreational environments. There are many variables such as personnel expertise, participant experience levels and competition venue characteristics that will and should cause details of these protocols to be modified and adjusted by managers to suit local conditions.
You will also find a video from a breed show that illustrates the kinds of behavior of horses and personnel that can be encountered in a runaway situation. There is also an excellent article written by the late Kurt Schneider in 2000 which covers more of the "hands on" aspects of dealing with a down horse. These are included here as background and supporting information for the development of the competition protocol project.
The driving community is the best source of experience for compiling these protocols and we enthusiastically hope you will contribute your expertise in helping to create this document.
Below each section you will find a link for leaving comments. Your comments will help immensely to produce the very soundest protocols. It is our hope to produce a final version for distribution to clubs, associations and their event managers by the end of March.
You may also email your comments directly to me: greenmeads@gmail.com
While you are free to download and copy the document for your own personal use, we would like not to have lots of pre-final documents in general circulation so please recognize this is NOT yet a finished document and we expect further revisions.
Thank you for your help and cooperation,
Jeffrey Morse
American Driving Society Pleasure Driving Committee, Chairman
pd@americandrivingsociety.org
