Interscholastic Eventing League Guidelines

Introduction

The mission of the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) is to bring together riders with a common interest and provide a supportive community through which students can continue to pursue their riding interests. This program will help provide a pathway for those riders who may seek to be part of a collegiate program after high school.

The primary goal of the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League is to increase membership, education, and engagement in riders on a national level who are rising 7th through outgoing 12th grade. The secondary goal is to build organizational awareness and engagement with affiliates who are instructing our members.

IEL Affiliate

An IEL Affiliate can be any group of riders who share a common bond - the same barns, the same school, same pony club, etc. Affiliates of the Interscholastic Eventing League register as USEA Interscholastic Affiliates using a paper form. Riders are only allowed to affiliate themselves with one interscholastic team at one time. The affiliate membership fee will be $75. Each affiliate needs to renew their affiliate membership every year with the USEA ideally prior to February 15th.

Each affiliate shall appoint one affiliate representative to be the point of contact for the USEA. The representative may be a coach, parent, owner, team captain, etc. The USEA requires that every affiliate representative be SafeSport certified and member of the USEA.

For interscholastic affiliates that are associated with a certified USEA ECP instructor, the $75 affiliate fee will be waived. The ECP instructor is only allowed to be associated with one interscholastic affiliate.

Each affiliate should send in their IEL application and initial rosters of riders by February 15 of each year. Please send your rosters to USEA Senior Director or Membership - Jennifer Hardwick at [email protected]. Affiliates should send changes to the initial roster to Membership Services.

IEL Membership

Riders representing an Interscholastic Eventing League must be members with the USEA. There is no additional USEA membership fee for the riders to be part of an IEL team. They may, but do not need to be part of the Young Rider Program. Annually the rider will need to confirm they are associated with an affiliate before the start of their competition season in order to be included on an IEL team at a competition.

Riders are allowed to be affiliated with only one interscholastic affiliate at a time. Riders should make sure their name is on the official roster that is sent into the USEA office. Riders may also modify their IEL Team selection by contacting the USEA Senior Director of Membership – Jennifer Hardwick.

There is no specific age group, but IEL members must be in the grades 7th – 12th. Incoming 7th graders and Outgoing 12th graders may participate for the entire competition year. There is no restriction on the type of school a IEL member attend. They can attend public, private, online, and homeschool.

Interscholastic Team Challenges

Interscholastic Team Challenges are additions to recognized horse trials in the United States. Teams competing in events identified as Interscholastic Team Challenges should self-identify to the competition organizer. Riders will compete in the regular horse trial competition as individuals. Teams consist riders of any level. The three best scores for the team are counted for the team result. Affiliates with less than three riders attending may be scrambled by the organizing committee. Affiliates with more than four riders may choose to send multiple teams to the same competition and riders to be scrambled with other affiliates. Please visitthe USEA website for a current calendar of team challenges.

For additional information on hosting an Interscholastic team challenge, please email the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League staff liaison at [email protected].

Entries

When listing an Interscholastic Team Challenge in the Omnibus, Interscholastic Calendar or elsewhere, organizers should indicate:

• The levels to be offered for the Interscholastic Team Challenge
• The preferred method (online, paper, etc.) for submitting team list(s).

When entering an Interscholastic Team Challenge the riders/affiliates are encouraged to:

• Include the Affiliate name and Team name on the entry form and the stabling form.
• Send a complete team list to via email to the entry secretary or designee for the event by the closing date.
• Make note of the team name on any electronic and/or paper communication.
• Team challenge participants are encouraged to stable together and promote team atmosphere and camaraderie. Banners, gear, etc are encouraged.

Scoring

Though there are no official requirements for scoring individual Interscholastic Team Challenges, the USEA would like to encourage all hosting venues to use the same guidelines that are used in the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program. Teams can be made up of three or four riders. Teams can be made up of riders of different levels. To account for differences in level difficulty, each rider’s score is multiplied by a coefficient appropriate for their level, and then the individual scores are added together to determine the team score. A rider finishing on a letter will be awarded 1000 points as their final score. Only the best three individual scores will count towards the team score, the four score will be “drop” score.

The coefficient system recommend is as follows:

• Starter: 1.1 (at a recognized event)
• Beginner Novice: 1
• Novice: 0.99
• Training: 0.95 or .90 (if no Modified)
• Modified: 0.90
• Preliminary: 0.85
• Intermediate: 0.75
• CCI1*: 0.85
• CCI2*-S: 0.80
• CCI2*-L: 0.75
• CCI3*-S: 0.70

Coefficients for additional levels not listed here will be assigned as necessary.

The USEA has a scoring template in an Excel spreadsheet. Please email the USEA Director of Programs or the Interscholastic Eventing League Committee staff liaison at [email protected] to get a copy of the template.

Awards

The event organizer will choose the awards. Given the nature of IEL Team Challenge being scramble teams, the results are often not known until the end of the event. The affiliate liaison should offer to provide the event a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage for the awards to be mailed.

IEL Championships

In 2024, the inaugural USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) Championship will be hosted in conjunction with the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship at Stable View Farm in Aiken, South Carolina on May 3-4. Click here to learn more. Additional information will be forthcoming as the championships approach, but you can join Stable View's WhatsApp communication group now by clicking here to stay up to date on the latest news regarding the event. Placement points will be doubled for champions.

IEL Leaderboard

At this time, the Interscholastic Eventing League is not tracking a leaderboard at the national level. Some Areas are testing the IEL Year End Awards. A future goal of IEL is to have an Interscholastic Eventing League Leaderboard based on affiliate performance. Point will be awarded as follows:

When an affiliate has more than one team present at a competition, they must declare by 3:00 pm the day prior, which team will account for Leaderboard points. Should an affiliate be scrambled on a team with other affiliate(s), each affiliate of a scramble team’s top three scores - will be awarded the same number of points based on the scramble teams placings.

In the event of a tie on the leaderboard at year end, the affiliate who has attend the “fewest” number of IEL Challenges will be considered the leader. If there is still a tie, the team with the lowest average team score across their competitions will be considered the leader.

Program Contacts

USEA Interscholastic Eventing League Committee:

• Co-Chair: Chris Donovan - [email protected]
• Co-Chair: Molly Pellegrini - [email protected]
• Kate Boggan - [email protected]
• Elizabeth New - [email protected]
• Jerry Schurink - [email protected]
• Leslie Threlkeld - [email protected]

USEA Staff:

• Chief Executive Officer - Rob Burk, [email protected]
• Senior Director of Membership - Jennifer Hardwick, [email protected]
• Senior Director of Competitions - Sharon Gallagher, [email protected]
• Director of Programs and Marketing - Kate Lokey, [email protected]
• Interscholastic Eventing League Staff Liason - Kaleigh Collett, [email protected]

Helpful Links

• USEA Website
• USEA Membership
• Interscholastic Eventing League Application Form
• Interscholastic Eventing League Scoring Spreadsheet

Organizers Guide: Interscholastic Team Challenges

The program is strongly based on a team competition – referred to as an Interscholastic Team Challenge between two or more teams from one or more team affiliates and held at an USEA/USEF recognized Horse Trial. All rules of competition as put forth in the USEA and the USEF Rule Book apply to all interscholastic competitors.

Who may participate?

• Any rider in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. It is the responsibility of the riders and affiliates to be in membership compliance. Incoming 7th and Outgoing 12th may participate for the full competition year.
• A student must be a current individual member of the USEA.
• The affiliate must be a current affiliate member of theUSEA. This is an annual membership, that is currently free.
• The affiliate liaison is expected to be an adult. The liaison is required to complete the SafeSport Training.
• Only riders listed on an Affiliate Organization’s Roster may participate on a team. The Roster can be updated through the USEA Senior Director of Membership – Jennifer Hardwick.

Quick Tips

• An organizer may choose to either 1) host an Interscholastic Team Challenge or 2) accept the request of a team affiliate to host one at their event.
• The Interscholastic Team Challenge may run in conjunction with any other Team Challenge. However, the team challenges must have separate scoring..
• Levels of Competition: Levels to be included in an Interscholastic Team Challenge are offered at the discretion of the organizer. Frequently, Beginner Novice through Preliminary are the levels offered.
• Teams: Teams can consist of either three or four riders. Four-member teams will utilize a “drop score”.
• Individual riders representing their affiliate are encouraged to participate by joining a “scramble” team.
• Fees: No fees are required by the USEA for offering an Interscholastic Team Challenge. An organizer may choose to charge a nominal fee to cover the costs of awards and management of the IEL competition.
• Scoring: The USEA encourages all host venues to utilize the scoring guidelines outlined in this guide.
• Awards: While not required, organizers are encouraged to award team ribbons for the Interscholastic Team Challenge competitors.

Communication

An organizer can expect to have all communications regarding the organization of an Interscholastic Team Challenge with either a rider or its Team Affiliate Representative. The organizer is welcome to contact the USEA office at any time with questions regarding the Interscholastic Eventing League. The current team rosters may be obtained from the USEA Senior Director of Membership – Jennifer Hardwick should they desire to validate Affiliate status of the riders.

**Please read the full Interscholastic Eventing Program Guidelines for a complete understanding of hosting an Interscholastic Team Challenge**

Get the Word Out Early

Once an organizer has determined that they would like to host an Interscholastic Team Challenge at their event, the following promotional steps are recommended:

• List your event on the Interscholastic Team Challenge calendar by emailing event information to Kaleigh Collett at [email protected].
• Add Interscholastic Team Challenge information to the host event’s USEA Omnibus listing by emailing the USEA’s Director of Competitions Sharon Gallagher, [email protected].
• Alert the Affiliates in your Area. Share the announcement on your event’s website and social media pages. An organizer or event representative may also write a brief announcement for inclusion on the Association News section of the USEA website.

Entries

When listing an Interscholastic Team Challenge in the Omnibus, Interscholastic Calendar or elsewhere, organizers should indicate:

• The levels to be offered for the Interscholastic Team Challenge
• The preferred method (online, paper, etc.) for submitting team list(s).

Riders/affiliates when signing up for an Interscholastic Team Challenge are encouraged to:

• Entry forms will include the Affiliate name and Team name on the entry notes and stabling forms.
• Riders shall make a note of the team's name on any electronic and/or paper entry.
• Affiliate shall email the team(s) by the closing date to the event secretary or team coordinator.
• The event will be asked to support creating scramble teams when there are affiliate riders not associated with a team.
• Please try to support the requests to stable Team challenge participants together in order to promote team atmosphere and camaraderie. For one days, enabling parking together is encouraged.

Team Dynamics and Scoring

The USEA encourages all host venues to use the scoring guidelines as outlined. Evententries and Show Connect scoring systems support team scoring with desired coefficient system. There is an excel spreadsheet available should and event need a method to calculate team results. The scoresheet can be found here.

Awards

It is recommended that the organizer post the scores for an Interscholastic Team Challenge on the scoreboard and event’s results page so teams may keep up with the team challenge standings. Organizers may offer team ribbons and/or prizes. Because of the nature of IEL Team Challenges, it becomes necessary to mail ribbons. These awards can go the Affiliate Representative, it is not unreasonable to request a self-addressed envelope and postage fees from the Affiliates.

The USEA requests that final results of the team challenge be submitted to the Association at the conclusion of the competition. Please email the results to [email protected].