Overview
When an event is full — because registrations have closed, a session has sold out, or a division has filled — riders don't have to miss out. They can add themselves to a waitlist, and the organiser can see everyone who is waiting, in the order they joined, so spots can be offered fairly if they open up.
Waitlists are per queue, not one big list. An event can have a Saturday session capped at 40, a Prep D division capped at 20, and everything else uncapped and still selling. When one of those fills, riders join that queue. There's also a separate whole-event queue, used when registrations have closed or the event's total entry limit is reached. A rider can hold a place in several queues of the same event — one per session, one per division, plus the event-wide one — and the organiser sees each queue listed separately.
This guide covers both sides of the feature:
- Riders — how to join a waitlist, and how to track and cancel your waitlist entries.
- Organisers — how to view your event's waitlist and use it to fill spots.
Good to know: joining a waitlist is free and never charges a rider anything. A rider only pays if a place opens up and they go on to register as normal.
For Riders
When can I join a waitlist?
A Join waitlist option appears wherever Horsify has to turn you away:
- On the event page, once registrations have closed or the event has hit its entry cap. The registration panel shows either "Registrations closed" or "Event full", with a Join waitlist button underneath.
- During registration, if the day or session you're entering is sold out. A Join Waitlist button appears next to the sold-out option.
- During registration, if the whole event is full — the page shows a "This event is full" banner with the same option.
- In your cart, if checkout is blocked because a ticket sold out or the event filled up while you were shopping.
You need to be signed in to join. On the event page the button only appears once you're logged in; from the registration page and the cart you'll be sent to sign in first and returned afterwards.
Joining from the event page
On a sold-out or closed event, open the event and look at the Registration panel. You'll see the closed status and a Join waitlist button, along with a count of how many riders are already waiting.
Click Join waitlist. That's it — you're added straight away, and the panel updates to confirm you're on the list. The waitlist count ticks up to include you.
Joining during registration (sold-out session)
If you start registering and the day or session you want is sold out, a Join waitlist for this session button appears beside it, along with how many riders are already waiting for that session. Selecting it opens a short form naming the session you're joining, where you can add an optional note — for example, "Interested in 2 adult tickets when available". This is passed straight to the organiser so they understand what you're after.
Each sold-out session is its own queue: joining Saturday's waitlist doesn't put you on Sunday's, and you can join both. Once you're on a session's waitlist the button is replaced by a confirmation for that session, while other sold-out sessions still show their own button.
The form also reminds you how contact actually works: if a place opens up, the event organiser emails you at the address on your Horsify account. Horsify doesn't send these offers automatically, so it's worth keeping an eye on your inbox.
Joining during registration (full class)
A class that has reached its entry limit stays on the entry page — it doesn't disappear. It shows a Full badge, its entry count (e.g. 20 / 20 entries), and a greyed-out tick box you can't select, with a Join waitlist for this session button underneath and a count of how many riders are already waiting for it.
The button and the messages around it say session, because a class on this list may be run as a clinic, a show session or a competition division — one neutral word covers all of them.
Classes work the same way ticketed sessions do: each full class is its own queue, joining one says nothing about another, and joining a class waitlist is not an entry — if the organiser offers you a place, you still enter and pay as normal.
Once you confirm, you'll see a message letting you know you've been added.
Tracking your waitlists
All of your active waitlists live in your Rider Dashboard, under My Waitlists.
Each card shows:
- 🕐 The event name
- 📍 What you're waiting for — the session and its start time, the division, or "Any place in this event"
- 📅 When you joined (e.g. "Joined 2 days ago")
- 🏷️ Your status — Waiting while you're in the queue, or Organiser has been in touch once the club has marked that they've contacted you
- 📝 Any note you added
- View Event — jump back to the event page
- Cancel Waitlist — remove yourself from the list
"Organiser has been in touch" doesn't move you off the list. It just means the club has recorded that they emailed you. You keep your place until you register or cancel.
About your place in the queue: the order you join in is preserved — the organiser sees each queue in join order (first come, first served). Riders don't see a numbered position on their own dashboard; if you'd like to know where you stand, contact the event organiser.
Cancelling a waitlist entry
Changed your plans? Open your Rider Dashboard, find the waitlist under My Waitlists, and click Cancel Waitlist. You're taken off the list straight away, and everyone behind you moves up a place in the organiser's view. If you change your mind later, you can re-join — you'll be added to the end of the list.
For Organisers
Opening your event's waitlist
Go to Organiser → Registration Management, choose your event from the event picker, and the Event Actions row will appear with a View Waitlist button.
You can also reach it directly at /organiser/events/{eventId}/waitlist. Because the list includes riders' names and email addresses, access is doubly gated: you need an organiser role to open the page at all, and admin rights on the organising club to see the entries. Without the club admin rights the page loads but reports that it couldn't load the entries.
Reading the waitlist
The waitlist page shows a summary count and then one list per queue: a section for "Any place in this event" first, then one for each session that riders are waiting on in the order those sessions run, then one per full division (headed "Division: …"). Within each section riders appear in FIFO order — first in, first out — numbered from the top of that queue.
This is what makes the list actionable when only part of your event is capped: if a place opens up in Saturday's dressage, you work down Saturday's queue, not a merged list that also contains riders who only want Sunday or who are waiting on one division.
For each rider you can see:
- Position — their place in that queue (1, 2, 3 …), oldest join first
- Name and email — so you can contact them directly
- When they joined — exact date/time plus a friendly "X days ago"
- Status — Waiting, or Contacted once you've marked them off
- Ticket — the ticket type they were trying to buy, when the waitlist was reached from a sold-out ticket
- Rider note — any preference they left when joining
- Email rider — opens your email client with the rider's address and a subject line already filled in
- Mark as contacted — records that you've reached out (see below)
This gives you a clear read on demand for the event and everything you need to offer spots fairly.
Filling a spot when one opens
Offering a spot is a hands-on step you control — Horsify does not send waitlist offers automatically. When a place frees up (a rider cancels, you increase capacity, or you reopen registration), the recommended flow is:
- Open the waitlist and find the queue for the place that opened up — a specific session, a specific division, or "Any place in this event". Work from the top of that queue down.
- Click Email rider on the next entry. This opens your normal email client with their address and a subject line prefilled (including the session or division, when the entry is for one) — you write and send the message yourself, so nothing goes out without you.
- Click Mark as contacted on that entry. The badge flips to Contacted and the page records the date and time, so you can put the list down and pick it back up without losing your place.
- When the rider is ready, they register through the normal flow — or you can enter them yourself from Registration Management → Add Registration.
- Repeat down the list until the spot(s) are filled.
Because you're in control of who you contact and when, you can honour rider notes (e.g. "Saturday only") and skip anyone whose preference no longer fits.
About the "Contacted" mark
Mark as contacted is a bookkeeping note for you — it doesn't send the rider anything. It exists so that a long waitlist worked over several days doesn't turn into guesswork about who you've already emailed.
A few things worth knowing:
- Marked riders stay on the list and keep their position. They're still counted in the "N riders on waitlist" total, and the rider still sees the event in their own My Waitlists.
- The rider sees the mark on their dashboard as "Organiser has been in touch". Only mark someone once you've genuinely contacted them — otherwise you're telling them to check an inbox for an email that isn't coming.
- Got it wrong? Click Mark as not contacted to clear it and return the entry to Waiting.
- There's no timer attached. Marking someone contacted doesn't start a hold or expire their place — whatever deadline you give them is one you communicate and enforce yourself.
Tip: a long waitlist is a strong signal of demand. It's a good prompt to raise capacity, add a session, or plan a larger venue next time.
What isn't automated (yet)
To set expectations clearly, here's what the waitlist does not do today. These are on the roadmap but are not live, so please don't rely on them:
- No automatic "a spot opened" emails. Riders hear from the organiser reaching out, not from the system. Rider-facing copy says so directly — it reads "the organiser will email you if a spot opens", never "we'll notify you".
- No automatic hold or countdown. There's no enforced 48-hour window or auto-expiry — timing is whatever the organiser communicates. Mark as contacted starts no timer.
- No SMS notifications — contact is by email.
- No auto-registration and no automatic promotion to the next rider.
- No rider-facing queue number — only organisers see the numbered order. (Riders do see how many people are waiting for a sold-out session or a full class on the registration page.)
If a rider asks "when will I hear back?", the honest answer is: when the organising club contacts them — so it's worth keeping an eye on email.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a cost to join a waitlist? No. Joining is free. A rider only pays if a spot opens and they choose to register.
How many waitlists can a rider join? As many as they like, including several within one event — but only one entry per queue. A rider can wait for Saturday's session, Sunday's session, two full divisions and a general event place all at once; joining the same queue again won't add a second entry, though it will update their note.
Can a rider join before an event sells out? In the app, no — the Join waitlist option only surfaces once registrations are closed, the event is full, the session/ticket chosen is sold out, or the division chosen is full. While places are available, riders just register normally.
How are riders notified when a spot opens? By the organiser contacting them directly (email), working down the waitlist from the top. Horsify does not send these offers automatically today.
Do riders have to agree to marketing or notifications to join? No. Joining takes an optional note and nothing else. There used to be a mandatory "I agree to receive email notifications" tick-box, which was removed — there's no automatic email channel to consent to, and the organiser reaches riders at the address already on their Horsify account.
Does "Mark as contacted" email the rider? No. It's a tracking mark for the organiser. The rider sees it on their dashboard as "Organiser has been in touch", so only use it after you've actually emailed them.
Does a rider keep their place if they do nothing? Yes — an entry stays on the list in join order until the rider cancels it or the organiser fills the event. Being marked Contacted doesn't remove them or start a clock.
What happens to waitlist entries if the event is merged with another? Waitlist entries move across to the surviving event automatically, so no one loses their place in the queue. If a rider happened to be waiting in the same queue on both events, they keep a single place rather than appearing twice — consistent with the one-entry-per-queue rule above. Entries for different sessions or different divisions are different places and all survive the merge.
Can members or past attendees get priority? Not currently — the list is strictly first-come, first-served. The organiser can, of course, use their judgement when offering spots.
Related
- View Registrations — manage who's entered your event
- Approve / Reject Registrations — handle registrations that need review
- Running an Event, Start to Finish — the full event-day workflow
Waitlists help clubs capture demand and fill last-minute cancellations fairly, and give riders a simple way to register their interest in a full event. Contacting waitlisted riders is a manual step the organiser performs — Horsify gives you the list, the email link and a place to mark off who you've reached, but it never emails riders on your behalf. Automatic notifications are planned for a future update.\n\n---\n\nSource: wiki/features/EVENT_WAITLIST.md \nLast synced: 2026-09-07 11:47:35 UTC