United States Eventing Association

We've got some top-notch speakers coming to this year's USEA Annual Meeting and Convention, held at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas from December 3-7. To whet your appetite, we are previewing some of those speakers over the next few weeks.

The Professional Horseman's Council with Tamra Smith

Tamra Smith is an accomplished equestrian, and ICP level 4 Certified Instructor with over 25 years of industry experience. Specializing in Dressage, Show Jumping and 3-Day Eventing, throughout her career, Tamra offers a well-rounded skill set with proven results. In addition to having ridden Dressage at the Grand Prix level, and earning multiple Show Jumping accolades, Tamra has made a name for herself in the eventing spotlight. With career highlights that include being named to the United States Developing Rider List (a proven training ground of the United States Olympic Team) multiple times, competing at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** event, and developing the 2x West Coast Young Event Horse Champion, Tamra takes great pride in each horse she works with. Additionally, Tamra was listed for the Pan American Games team in 2011, and awarded a US Olympic Grant to compete at the Boekelo CCI3* abroad, where she was a member of the Nations Cup team. She was also a member of the Nations Cup winning team, at the Bromont CCI3* that same year.

Stemming from the belief that every horse can teach us something valuable if we give them a chance, Tamra is known for training and developing difficult horses, helping them to find their purpose and achieve greatness. Her training philosophy is that most often horses and riders are lacking understanding and that a carefully catered training program can take their abilities to new heights. Having added numerous wins at a variety of levels to her resume in 2013 and 2014, Tamra has an exciting group of horses she is campaigning! She looks to continue her winning ways next season and beyond with the help of her talented horses and supporters.

Safety Committee Open Meeting with Sarah Broussard

Sarah lives at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell, Montana and is co-organizer and co-secretary of The Event at Rebecca Farm. She also serves in these roles for numerous local Hunter/Jumper shows held at Rebecca Farm throughout the summer. Sarah’s mother, Becky Broussard, introduced her daughter to eventing on the island of Jamaica when she was a small child. When the family moved to Montana, Sarah continued to event under the guidance of Area VII’s Cindy Burge. Sarah competed through the Intermediate level representing Area VII at the North American Young Riders Championships. As a busy mother of two children, Sarah now enjoys competing mostly at the Novice and Training levels. She is the Vice President, Safety, of the USEA, a member of the USEF Eventing Technical Committee, the USEF Safety Committee, and the USEA Safety Committee.

Adult Rider Open Forum with Cindy Deporter

Cindy has been a member of the USEA since 1977 when she started eventing. She was in college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville at the time. She graduated from UT with a Masters Degree in Social Work and currently works for the State of North Carolina in health care. She got a recent promotion to Assistant Section Chief and supervises 27 staff who inspect nursing homes and home cares agencies. She is a “S” Event Judge and a “S” and FEI Technical Delegate. For the USEA, she is the National Adult Rider Coordinator and serves on the Competitions Committee and the Licensed Officials Committee. She assists in organizing the Heart of Carolina Three Day event and she co-organizes the Adult Rider sponsored Three-Day Event at Waredaca Horse Trials.

Cindy competes her horse Drop the Buck. She and Buck went to the Adult Team Championships at the AEC in Texas this year where she, Buck, and their team All Terrain Chicks were second in Training. She lives on a small farm in North Carolina with Buck, two miniature spotted donkeys, her pet pig Grunt, one cat, and three Jack Russell Terriers.