As a ride manager you will also play the role as the host to all your ride volunteers and workers. Most of us are so busy attending to the ride details that many times the comforts of our most loyal workers are forgotten until the last minute.

How can we expect our volunteers to return year after year if we neglect them? If this task is one more detail that you are have a hard time in handling properly, then be sure to designate a host to take care of every worker. Sometimes an added host is the best way to handle this situation. We have several people to think about who have needs throughout the day and sometimes night including veterinarians, vet scribes, pulse takers, timers, radio crews and possibly others.

The good:

Ride managers who put their workers at the top of the list are rewarded by having them happy and pleasant throughout the day and promising to return on their next ride to help out again.

Depending on how early you have your help start, you may want to provide a breakfast snack and of course coffee or juice. The workers go to their designated areas and as the day wears on, you become busy as the ride continues. When lunch or dinner arrives be sure and notify all the workers as to where the lunch is located and how you wish them to leave their post in order to have time to eat. Sometimes it may be necessary to fill their position with a substitute until they can eat and return or send them in shifts.

Be sure to place a couple of coolers out with drinks in convenient locations and notify the workers as to where they are located. Take notice if someone hasn't eaten and be sure and ask them if you can get them something. Take care of their immediate needs. Be sincerely concerned for their care.

Have a rest room in a convenient local to the vet check, so that it will be handy for all the workers.

The bad:

The workers shows up at the ride as temperatures soar past 95 degrees, or drop to below freezing, or as the rain begins to fall. Seems many rides can bring out the worst of weather. Never having a minute's rest, the workers are thirsty, hungry and very uncomfortable. The ride manager puts out sandwiches on the picnic table, located some distance away, which only a few were told about--assuming that all the others would somehow automatically know how to find it. They eventually do, but all has been ruined in the heat.

The only drinks are located close to the vets or at the ride manager's camp which only a few were informed of but they don't have time to get over to it, since it is located too far away from the action.

The remote vet checks are the most neglected. First of all, no rest rooms. To spend the entire day out in the boonies and not even have one outhouse is the pits for anyone, especially those who are just helping out of the goodness of their hearts. Then they are forgotten when lunch arrives at base camp. They have run out of water and drinks but no one has given them a second thought.

They stay and wait while the last horse leaves, believing that they have another horse out on the trail and never receiving word that the final horse has been pulled at the last vet check. After waiting a couple of hours they send a messenger back to base camp and finally get word the ride is over.

Often the timers out at the finished line are the forgotten few. They cannot leave their post for many hours but no one thinks to bring them something to eat or drink. No one thinks to send a relief person so that they may take care of personal needs. Is it any wonder that not many volunteer for this job? As you can see, a ride like this is not fun to volunteer for and workers quickly learn to avoid getting involved.

The ugly:

The workers start to disappear around noon as they are starving and dying of thirst. They go back to their trailers, never to return. They have had their fill of volunteering. This ride manager has just lost another volunteer who may have been willing to help at other rides throughout the year if he had just had a good experience. Ride managers have a duty to keep the ride help happy and comfortable and willing to help out on other rides. It is really a disappointment to have perfectly good volunteers soured by one unthinking ride manager.

We have all seen this scenario happen over and over. Even though it may seem so trivial at the time to have to worry about these details, it becomes very important when at your next ride you end up scrambling, begging for help from all your friends and family. The ugly part of this is when you end up working your ride and not having the luxury of overseeing or managing your ride.

Conclusion

Ride managers have many very important jobs--not only to put on a top-notch ride, but to cater to all our help and make it a pleasant experience.

Being a volunteer at a ride can be a very fun and rewarding experience. Many people are willing to jump in and help over and over and they are very much appreciated by the ride managers. We all have a tendency to think everyone will take care of themselves but often times workers are reluctant to ask for something to eat, so be sure and ask them. Giving the volunteers a t-shirt a great idea, plus they will gladly be advertising your ride every time they wear it.

Which category do you fall in as a host/hostess and how would volunteers rate your ride? Good, Bad, or has it already reached the Ugly stage? All ride managers need join in and make volunteering a fun and rewarding experience for our ride help at every ride.