Ultimate guide to BE’s withdrawal, abandonment and refund policy

If disaster strikes and you find yourself with an injured horse, a sudden lack of transport or dreadful weather conditions that can all put paid to a day of eventing you had entered, one of the questions you will ask yourself is; “will I get my entry fee back?”

Well, to try and de-mystify any queries you might have and to let you know where you stand in such situations, here’s a quick and complete guide to British Eventing‘s (BE) various refund policies.

Withdrawal policy

Refund policies may vary between events but they must follow at least the terms set out in the the British Eventing rule book. Organisers are allowed to offer terms more beneficial to competitors if they wish to do so and each event’s specific refund policies can be found on their respective schedules.

How the minimum refund policy works

• If you withdraw your entry before the ballot date, you will get a full refund including the abandonment premium
• If you withdraw after the ballot date, once your entry has been accepted, and where another competitor who was waitlisted can fill your entry space, you will be refunded your entry fee and the abandonment premium minus a £13 admin fee, plus VAT
• Entries made after the ballot date will not be refunded if you withdraw

Waitlisted entries who withdraw from the waitlist before their entry is accepted will receive a full refund, inluding the abandonment insurance premium. Waitlisted entries, once accepted, are subject to the same withdrawal rules as accepted entries.

If you are accepted from the waitlist within 48 hours of your dressage start time, but by this stage you are unable to compete, you may withdraw your entry and recieve a full refund, including the abandonment insurance premium fee.

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Abandonment policy

When you enter an event, part of your entry fee will include and abandonment insurance premium. This insurance cost which pays for the refund of entry fees in the event of cancellation or abandonment, is a mandatory element of the entry cost.

• If an event is forced to abandon for reasons covered under the abandonment insurance, you will be refunded your entry fee minus the abandonment premium.
• If an event is forced to abandon for reasons that the organiser or landowner is responisble for, the organiser must repay entrants their entry fee and the abandonment premium
• If an event if forced to abandon for reasons that the landwoner nor organiser are responisble for, but for which the abandonment insurance policy does not cover, entry fees and the amandonment premium will only be refunded if recovered from a responsible third party
• If any section of an event is cancelled or abandoned, then entry fees for all entries (including withdrawn entries) will be refunded. However, if 15 horses in the section have started cross-country (where this is the final phase), then points and prizes will be awarded to those horses and refunds will be made to the competitors who were not able to start the cross-county
• Refunds of starting, stabling and late entry fees are at the organiser’s discretion

Gemma Redrup

H&H features, racing and point-to-point editor

Gemma is an experienced journalist, having been part of the H&H team since 2014, who is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at in August 2018. Gemma’s reporting talents have taken her to numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.