Event Cancellation Guide

    Overview

    This guide explains what happens when you cancel an event, how cancelling differs from deleting it and from postponing it, and what you're responsible for handling yourself. For the click-by-click steps, see Cancel Events.

    Cancelling and Deleting Are Different Actions

    The Cancel or delete this event panel at the foot of the event's edit page holds two buttons:

    • Cancel event and tell entrants — the event stays on Horsify marked as Cancelled, comes off the public listings, stops taking entries, and everyone who has entered is emailed and sent an in-app notification. It is only offered on a published event.
    • Delete event — the event is removed entirely, along with every entry, payment record and document attached to it, and nobody is told. Deleting a published event first warns you to cancel instead.

    If people have entered, cancel. Delete is for drafts, duplicates and mistakes.

    What Cancelling Does Not Do

    Cancelling marks the event and tells your entrants. It does not:

    • Refund anyone. No money is returned automatically. If entrants have paid, you refund them yourself, one registration at a time. The cancellation email tells riders that any applicable refunds will be processed within 5–7 business days, so issue them promptly. See Cancel Events.
    • Tell everyone. The email goes to confirmed entrants and the in-app notice to entrants with a Horsify account. Riders who are only watching the event, and entrants entered by hand without an email address, hear nothing — contact them yourself.

    Cancel, Delete or Postpone?

    Before cancelling, decide whether the event is really off, or whether you can keep it and change it:

    Cancel the event Delete the event Postpone (edit the event)
    When to use The event isn't happening and people have entered A draft, a duplicate or a mistake nobody has entered The event is going ahead, just on a different date or at a different venue
    What you do Cancel event and tell entrants on the edit page Delete event on the edit page For a new venue, use Change venue. For a new date, use Reschedule — see Edit Events
    Effect on registrations Kept, so you can refund against them; the listing is removed Removed with the event Kept; entrants keep their place
    Are participants told? Yes — confirmed entrants are emailed and notified in the app No Yes — Change venue and Reschedule both tell everyone who has entered; title and description changes on a live event notify entrants and watchers too
    Reversible? The event can be published again from its edit page, but refunds you have issued are not undone No Yes — you can keep editing the event

    If the event will still run in some form, postponing is usually better than cancelling — your entrants keep their registrations and are told about the change automatically.

    A published event's dates are locked on the edit form, because entries, sessions and reminders all hang off them. Use Reschedule beside the date fields instead: it moves the whole timetable with the event — sessions, running-order days, helper shifts, and any ticket sales window or early bird deadline still to come — and tells everyone who has entered. Deadlines that have already passed stay passed, so postponing never reopens early bird pricing. Don't unpublish an event to change its date: that takes it off the public listings and loses you the timetable shift.

    Notifying Participants

    Horsify's cancellation message says the event is cancelled and that any applicable refunds will follow. It doesn't know your circumstances, so:

    • Send your own message through Communications explaining why the event is off and what happens with refunds.
    • Reach the people Horsify can't: watchers, and entrants with no email on their entry.
    • Do it promptly — don't rely on riders noticing the event has disappeared from listings.

    Related Features

    Published:
    Cancel Events - Comprehensive Feature Guide
    Approve/Reject Registrations - Comprehensive Feature Guide