United States Eventing Association

This year’s volunteer of the month, Melissa Rundt, wasn’t always involved in the horse community. She didn’t grow up around horses or even ride as a child. It wasn’t until her son was diagnosed with a mild form of Tourette syndrome at 8 years of age that she decided to start him in therapeutic riding lessons to help with some of his symptoms.

Jessie Quinlan hasn’t always been involved in the eventing community. She grew up a typical horse-obsessed girl and was always asking her parents for riding lessons no matter what special occasion it was. Birthdays? Riding lessons. Christmas presents? Riding lessons. Any way Quinlan could find a way to get back on the horse as a little girl she would.

As of May 13, 2019, a total of 14,461 volunteer hours have already been recorded for 2019. Only five months into the year and over 1,000 volunteers and 110 events have used EventingVolunteers.com. As the 2019 winter and spring season reaches an end, the volunteer leaderboards have several familiar names on top.

Every year thousands and thousands of people converge on the Kentucky Horse Park at the end of April to witness what is the biggest event every year in North America. The Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event brings together people from all walks of life to experience Eventing at the highest level.

Meet Cindi Carrell and Rick Resto, Area VII’s Volunteers of the Year in both 2017 and 2018. Resto and Carrell each logged well in excess of 100 hours of volunteer time each year. I can only imagine how many hours they’ve put in over the years in total!

A life filled with horses, racing motocross, competitive rowing, and volunteering, Vicki Reynolds has stayed on the go. Reynolds was able to clock in 330 volunteer hours and 35 minutes to secure the 2018 USEA Volunteer of the Year title.

This month’s USEA Volunteer of the Month didn’t grow up around horses or riding since she was little. In fact, Margaret Potorski didn’t put a foot in the horse world until her daughter, Faith, decided she wanted to ride as a little girl. It was Faith who brought Margaret into the horse world, and now Margaret can’t imagine life without horses and volunteering!

Joan Mayfield has been a part of the eventing community for longer than the majority of the USEA’s current members have been alive. While she started taking “up-down” lessons as a teenager, she didn’t get her first horse until she graduated from college.

Volunteer Committee member Irene Doo joins us on the USEA Podcast this week to discuss the jump judge instructional videos that were released last fall, and Marcia Kulak is back with a segment on planning your upcoming season.

Suzanne Adams grew up as a self-proclaimed barn rat. While her passion for horses may have been ill-advised by her parents, Adams was not discouraged. She was persistent and would find horses in backyard barns that weren’t being ridden and ask the owners to work for them in exchange for riding.