United States Eventing Association

“The Clemson Eventing Team does a fantastic job of creating a community of riders,” said collegiate member, Jackson Dillard. In 2021, Dillard competed his two horses, Elmo a 13-year-old Warmblood gelding bred by James Martin, and Layla Q (Loerke x Ayla Q) an 11-year-old Hanoverian mare bred by Suzanne Quarles. With his two horses, he completed six CCI2* events, he moved up to the Intermediate level with Layla Q, and he was on the winning Area II team of the CCI2*-L USEF Youth Team Challenge East Coast Finals at Tryon International – he did this all while attending Clemson University full-time.

The USEA Future Event Horse Program (FEH) was introduced in 2007 to evaluate yearlings, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and 4-year-olds for their suitability for the sport of eventing based on conformation and type. The FEH program also created a pipeline for horses to gain experience competing before attending USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) competitions.

The USEA is pleased to announce that the 2022 Intercollegiate Team Challenge calendar is now available! The USEA is thrilled to have 24 intercollegiate team challenges on the calendar in addition to the 2022 USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships, which will take place on May 21-22 at Chattahoochee Hills H.T. in Fairburn, Georgia.

“The best description I can give of what it was like to compete [Furtive] in the long format is that he made me fearless,” said Beth Perkins. At just 18 years old, the fearless Perkins placed sixth individually at the 1974 Burghley World Championships with Furtive. Since then, Perkins has dedicated her life to the sport of eventing. She’s experienced the highs, the lows, and the changes to the sport. She’s competed at the toughest events in the world and has earned top placings and team medals along the way.

Earning national recognition in the sport is a victory that takes years of hard work, and for some, the hard work started with the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) program. Increasing in popularity since its creation in 2004, the mission of the program is to identify upper-level event horses during their 4- and 5-year-old years. A true testament to the program’s success, this year, two YEH graduate horses represented the U.S. at the Tokyo Olympics, the historic winner of CHIO Aachen was a YEH graduate, the USET Connaught Grant Recipient was a YEH graduate, and almost every national year-end leaderboard has at least one YEH graduate ranked in the top 10.

The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing program has steadily gained popularity since its creation in 2014. In 2016, the USEA intercollegiate national leaderboards were introduced, and every December a new set of nationally ranked riders are named.

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) Board of Governors have voted to enter into contract negotiations with Equestrian Events Inc. (EEI) and Mary Fike to host the 2023 and 2024 USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.

Over 40 horses competed in the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) 5-year-old East and West Coast Championships in 2015. The YEH East Coast Championships were held during the Dutta Corp. Fair Hill International in Elkton, Maryland, while the YEH West Coast Championships took place at Galway Downs in Temecula, California. Following 2015’s YEH finale, many of the graduating class of the 2015 USEA Young Event Horse Championships have gone on to make their mark on the upper levels of eventing.

What better way to draw the competition season to a close than with a win in a USEA Classic Series division? Three competitors did just that on the weekend of November 17-18 at the Fresno Horse Park in Fresno, California.

The last of the Area Championships took place this past weekend in Tucson, Arizona at the Southern Arizona Fall Horse Trials & Area X Championships. Riders from Area X came from all over in hopes of snagging the coveted champion title, but four riders rode to the top of their fields. The USEA caught up with each champion to relive their performances in Tucson.