United States Eventing Association

The USEA is saddened to share that the Kent Horse Trials in Kent, Connecticut, will be ending its run after 44 years. This USEA Area I event has been a historical staple in the eventing community since its first event ran in 1980. This decision was not made lightly by the organizing committee, but the team behind the Kent Horse Trials cited various challenges which led to this decision.

It's officially USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship week, and this year's is shaping up to be one for the history books! The USEA is excited to meet up with a record-breaking 150 intercollegiate entries representing 18 schools who will join forces to create 39 teams competing in Aiken, South Carolina, this weekend. For the first time, the Intercollegiate Championship will also be joining forces with the inaugural USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) Championship at Stable View on May 4-5. Festivities are set to kick off this Friday, May 3, with the opening ceremonies.

Will Coleman gets cold calls for horse sales all the time. So when he got an email from agent Sharon Ridgeway who was representing a horse in Australia, it almost went in the bin with the rest of them.

The top three going into show jumping in the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L all have reason to fight extra hard for the bluegrass win today.

In comparison to its little sister, the Cosequin CCI4*-S, the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L was much calmer in terms of shock factor today. There were four pairs who retired on cross-country, two riders who parted ways with their horses, and five pairs finished with jump penalties added to their score.

“He knows Kentucky,” Liz Halliday said with a chuckle when referencing how strong Miks Master C can look on cross-country. “He knows this place. He knows how to run fast here. He was waiting for that 11 and a half minutes.”

“There’s been a lot of learning around this track so far,” said commentator Frankie Thieriot Stutes as riders contested the Cosequin CCI4*-S at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.

It's time to get down to business at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. Across both the CCI4*-S and CCI5*-L divisions riders have echoed two of the same sentiments: this won't be a dressage competition and Derek di Grazia's courses might look easier than they ride this year.

Derek di Grazia’s name is legend at the Kentucky Horse Park as the designer of the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event cross-country course for over a decade, in addition to countless other influential tracks around the world. Now with the inclusion of the Cosequin CCI4*-S division, which runs alongside the famed five-star, riders at both the four- and five-star levels get to experience one of the iconic di Grazia Kentucky tracks while competing in the bluegrass. The USEA caught up with riders of both levels to get their feedback on this year’s courses.

Two riders will share the top spot on the leaderboard in the Cosequin CCI4*-S at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event upon the conclusion of dressage on Friday. Early in the morning, Great Britain’s Lucienne Bellissimo found herself launching up the scoreboard after a beautiful test with Dyri earned them a score of 26.0. While no other pair could top their performance, one team did match it perfectly near the end of the day– Liz Halliday (USA) and her 2023 Pan American Games silver medal mount Miks Master C.