United States Eventing Association

Have you ever wanted to look through the judge’s eyes and see what they see during the conformation portion of a USEA Young or Future Event Horse competition? Now is your chance! Using only a photo and information on age and breed, legendary horseman and prior FEH/YEH Championship judge Chris Ryan is sharing his insights into young horse conformation in our Conformation Critique article series.

The only rider to have won the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials a record six times, Lucinda Green MBE is an eventing hero. A mainstay of the British Eventing Team for 14 years, Green is best known for her stylistic cross-country riding technique and impressive list of career highlights which includes an Olympic silver medal in addition to top placings at over 40 international three-day events.

As the eventing community hunkers down to weather out the pandemic, everyone has been looking for ways to keep busy. FEI Level II and USEF “R” Eventing Judge Amanda Miller was feeling discouraged after three of her next judging gigs had been canceled due to the coronavirus.

As with most things involving horses, not every jumping effort will go as planned. Maynard explained that there are five possible reasons that a horse stops: pain, anticipation of pain, the horse doesn’t understand the question being asked, the rider makes running out seem easier than jumping and finally habit.

In these challenging times, I was asked to share some of my top 10 tips on how to stay mentally and emotionally positive when things are uncertain as well as tips for keeping our farms safe in this age of COVID-19.

For over 15 years the USEA Instructors’ Certification Program (ICP) has been educating all levels of eventing instructors to confirm their knowledge base, both theoretical and practical, upon which they will continue to build throughout their teaching lifetime. The USEA is now shining the spotlight each month on some of the 300 ICP Certified Instructors.

Modern pentathlete turned eventer Tik Maynard has created a recipe for success in the horse training business. His methodology blends high performance with horsemanship to produce innovative training techniques focused on improving communication between horse and rider.

The eventing community is preparing to hunker down with the rest of the world to wait out the COVID-19 pandemic, and that means a lot of us are going to have more free time on our hands than usual. Why not spend it learning something new?

Every body is different, and different fitness regimes work differently for different people. For Canadian Olympic and World Equestrian Games eventer Kelli Temple, her preferred method of cross-training is running – specifically, running marathons.

Like many eventers out there, I don’t have the biggest arena, and I’m often on my own when schooling my horses each day. From a practical standpoint, this exercise is great because you can fit it in most arenas, and it does not involve a lot of changing of fence heights, so there isn’t a lot of getting off and on during your ride. Of course it’s always beneficial to have someone on the ground as an extra set of eyes on your ride.