United States Eventing Association

“Horses are so humbling,” says Valerie Vizcarrondo Pride with a wry laugh.

We are speaking a few days after the Land Rover Kentucky Three Day Event. She is on her way to go cross-country schooling with her beautiful black horse Favian, before tackling the CCI4*-L at Jersey Fresh.

Her week wasn’t supposed to pan out like this. She and Favian should have been resting on their laurels after completing their first CCI5* at Kentucky. However, they fell on the cross-country, and ticking that five-star box will have to wait for another day. Luckily, they are unharmed, Favian has already “cruised around some easy stuff” on an earlier cross-country schooling outing, and Vizcarrondo Pride is determined to start righting the ship at Jersey Fresh.

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is pleased to announce the renewed partnership with Nunn Finer for 2021. Nunn Finer is coming back as the official Title Sponsor of the USEA Leaderboard. Year-end leaderboard winners will be awarded during the 2021 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention, taking place on December 9-12 at the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is pleased to announce the renewed partnership of longtime sponsor RevitaVet for 2021. RevitaVet will return as the Title Sponsor of the 2021 USEA Young Rider of the Year Leaderboard.

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is excited to welcome back Standlee Hay Company Inc. as the "Official Forage of the USEA." They will also join as the “Title Sponsor of the USEA Horse of the Year Leaderboard,” “Gold Level Sponsor of the USEA American Eventing Championships,” “Contributing Level Sponsor of the USEA Future Event Horse Program,” and “Contributing Level Sponsor of the USEA Young Event Horse Program.”

The first USEA Pony of the Year award was presented in 2007 to the legendary Theodore O’Connor (Witty Boy x Chelsea’s Melody), a Thoroughbred/Anglo-Arab gelding ridden by Karen O’Connor and owned by the Theodore O’Connor Syndicate. Now, a trophy bearing his name is presented each year to the Pony of the Year.

It’s been a big year for Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp. Not only did she take home the World Equestrian Brands USEA Rider of the Year and Bates USEA Lady Rider of the Year titles, she also piloted Cooley Stormwater (Camillo VDL x Thornfield Calypso), The Stormwater Group’s 7-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, to the title of 2020 USEA 7-Year-Old Horse of the Year.

In 2019, the USEA introduced two new national leaderboards: the 6-year-old horse and 7-year-old horse leaderboards. The 6-year-old horse leaderboard ranks 6-year-old horses at the Preliminary, CCI2*-S, and CCI2*-L levels and the 7-year-old horse leaderboard ranks 7-year-old horses at the Intermediate, CCI3*-S, and CCI3*-L levels.

The USEA has launched a new system for tabulating points for the year-end leaderboards which will begin with the 2021 competition season. Previously, leaderboard points were awarded based on placing and further determined by the number of starters in a division, often giving the focus to the quantity of rides a competitor could complete in a given competition season.

The Linda Moore Trophy was introduced in 1979 and awarded to the leading Young Rider in the country. After a strong showing during the 2020 season, 16-year-old Benjamin Noonan of Ballwin, Missouri was named the 2020 RevitaVet Young Rider of the Year.

The Windfall Trophy has been presented each year since 2015 to the stallion who accumulates the most points on the USEA leaderboard in that year. Halimey Go (Askar AA x Hamamelis Go), Christine Turner’s Trakehner stallion, was the first to win the title in 2015 and took it for a second year in 2016 with Buck Davidson in the irons.