United States Eventing Association

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) announced today that US Equestrian (USEF) has changed their classification of the Modified level from USEF Endorsed to USEF Recognized. This change was implemented on December 1, 2019, and new USEF membership requirements will take effect on April 1, 2020.

Each year at the USEA Convention, the Rule Change Open Forum looks to the future to discuss changes to the USEF Rules for Eventing for the upcoming competition season. Convention attendees have the opportunity to hear which changes are coming down the pipeline and have their questions answered.

All the FEI levels from CCI2* to CCI5* will have new dressage tests in 2020. FEI Judge Marilyn Payne discusses the new 2020 FEI dressage tests for 2020, focusing on the key movements in each test. There are several changes and new movements that have not been used before - Payne explains the new figures and what criteria the judges will be basing their scores on.

The third phase of eventing is show jumping, where horses and riders demonstrate their ability to continue with the competition after the grueling cross-country test. A jumping course consisting of colored rails is set and horse and rider must navigate the course without knocking down the fences and incurring penalties.

There are a number of ways to incur penalties on cross-country, from refusals and run-outs to exceeding the optimum time, and they sometimes vary depending on the level of competition. Make sure you're up to date with all the different ways to earn penalties on cross-country before you next step out of the startbox.

Each year, the FEI distributes proposed changes to FEI Eventing Rules to National Federations for review and comment. Proposed changes will be reviewed during the meeting of the FEI General Assembly, November 16-19, 2019, in Moscow, Russia.

There are many rules that dictate the cross-country obstacles, from the height of the roof above a fence to the types of flags that must be used on certain types of jumps. It is important to understand these rules so that, as a competitor, you can be aware of what is and is not permitted on the cross-country course.

The cross-country test is what sets eventing apart as a sport. Horses and riders ride across the country, demonstrating “speed, endurance, and jumping ability” while negotiating obstacles including banks, ditches, and water. Penalties accrued during this phase are added to the penalty score carried forward from dressage.

Dressage tests contain a set of movements to be performed by horse and rider in front of a judge who then gives each movement a mark out of 10. Following the completion of the test, the total number of good marks are divided by the total possible good marks to achieve a percentage, which is then subtracted from 100 to achieve a penalty score.

This week's episode features USEF "S" and FEI Level II eventing judge Valerie Vizcarrondo Pride and FEI and Grand Prix dressage judge Christian Landolt sharing their tips and tricks for how to get the most out of your dressage test, including common mistakes they see and ways to squeeze out a few extra points.