United States Eventing Association

The 2013 USEA Annual Meeting and Convention is underway in Cincinnati, Ohio. It began Wednesday with the Richard Jeffery Show Jumping Workshop at Chatham Farm about 45 minutes outside the city. While Mr. Jeffery, a top four-star show jumping course designer, discussed the differences of course requirements at varying heights, riders of both the eventing and jumper disciplines demonstrated the skills required of horse and rider based on the challenges presented by the course designer.

Back at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, the Convention continues today with a number of Open Forums as well as Closed Meetings to kick off the official conferences. David O’Connor had his first of several meetings this week that are open only to High Performance Riders. Several Committees also met to discuss important matters, including Strategic Planning, Area Affairs, Eventing Course Designers/Builders, the USEF Event Owner’s Task Force, Eventing Licensed Officials, PRO, and the USEA Executive Committee.

USEF Eventing Technical Committee
The USEF Eventing Technical Committee began the morning with a closed session followed by an open session with great public turnout. It began with a presentation by Jim Wolf, former USEF Director of Sports Programs and Michael Stone of Equestrian Sport Productions. They sought advice and guidance from the Committee on the development of two new equestrian properties in Wellington, Florida and Tryon, North Carolina.

The two facilities are mostly undeveloped, and so the potential for the future is wide open. In Wellington, it would be great to bring eventing closer to big show jumping and dressage competitions, they suggested. “Have the World Equestrian Games concept without the hassle of all eight disciplines,” Wolf said. “Bringing the Olympic disciplines together is great promotion of the sport.” Adding to that, Stone pointed out that they have both show jumping and dressage nations cup in Wellington and they would like to do and eventing Nations Cups the same week.

As for Tryon, the facility is 1,100 acres with nothing but a golf course and housing plots, which sets the facility up to have exceptional footing maintenance. Wolf and Stone want to encourage competitors from all over the country, and the close proximity of several airports is conducive to that possibility. There is significant community support, including from the local foxhunt, which utilizes that land. Additionally, Wolf pointed out that Tryon, North Carolina is in the temperate zone, therefore allowing for a flexible competition calendar. The goal is to host a CIC at both locations, with the first being in 2015 at Tryon.

Wolf said repeatedly that they want to benefit the sport. David O’Connor suggested appointing a group of people to work on these concepts, and Wayne Quarles, Chair of the Technical Committee, stated that the Committee would follow David’s advice.

After the presentation by Wolf and Stone, the Committee moved on to the invigorating Rules portion of the meeting. A number of USEF General Rules proposals are sent down to the different disciplines and the three options are to approve, no action, or disapprove the rule proposal. Most of the General Rules rule change proposals are unrelated to eventing. The General Rules rule change proposals may be viewed on this webpage, and the actions taken by each discipline are available to review.

Another major item presented to the Committee was a request from the USEA to extend the qualification date of the 2014 American Eventing Championships from the closing date of September 9^th, to September 16^th, one week after the closing date. Roger Haller said that the USEF Rules for Eventing state the deadline for qualification is the closing date of entry except for three-days, in which the deadline is two weeks before. This is a specific competition that wants an exception; it is not an exception for all events. There was a motion by the Committee to support this request moving forward. The motion passed, but the change has not, however, become official.

Visit http://useventing.com/programs/convention for more information and stay tuned for additional in depth coverage tonight and all week!