United States Eventing Association

“This is a real blood individual,” Chris Ryan first observed of this 3-year-old Thoroughbred filly. “She has a lovely big eye and ear. The eye of the horse can tell so much. Vincent O’ Brian, the legendary racehorse trainer who discovered Northern Dancer, in his biography wrote that he spends a lot of his time at the yearling sales at Kentucky, etc., studying the horse’s eye.”

At the risk of stating the obvious, most of us who event do so because we enjoy jumping. But most of us could stand a bit of improvement, whether in the way we ride, in the way our horse goes, or both. Additionally, most of us will at some point be faced with the task of starting a green horse or re-schooling a horse that has devel­oped problems over fences.

While 2020 has been unexpectedly challenging, the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) program found a silver lining and had several positive outcomes and record-breaking results this past year. With high turnout in both the YEH qualifiers and The Dutta Corp. USEA YEH Championships to the extraordinary achievements of the YEH graduates, it was a good year for the YEH program.

This video features Martin Douzant of The Frame Sport Horses explaining his process of backing young horses from start to finish. The video focuses on the backing process of Daedalus WG (Doctor Wendall MF x Blumins Best) a 3-year-old Oldenburg gelding, bred by Eileen Pritchard-Bryan, owned by Will Duhring, and ridden by Meghan O’Donoghue.

Three years after the creation of the USEA Young Event Horse Program (YEH), the USEA Future Event Horse Program (FEH) was born in 2007. Sharing similar goals as YEH, the FEH program evaluates the potential of yearlings, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and 4-year-olds to become successful upper level event horses.

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is pleased to announce the renewed partnership with Etalon Diagnostics. As a Contributing Level Sponsor to the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) and USEA Future Event Horse (FEH) programs, Etalon Diagnostics will provide 10 Minipanel PLUS Tests with Ancestry to be used towards prizes for the USEA YEH and USEA FEH Championships.

“What a stunning photo of a stunning individual,” was Chris Ryan’s first remark when assessing this 2-year-old Thoroughbred gelding. “He typifies the refinement the Thoroughbred brings to the table. Look at the fine outlines. Look at the jugular groove and those beautifully light connections."

Three years after the creation of the USEA Young Event Horse Program (YEH), the USEA Future Event Horse Program (FEH) was born in 2007. Sharing similar goals as YEH, the FEH program evaluates the potential of yearlings, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and 4-year-olds to become successful upper level event horses.

It was a year of firsts for the USEA Young Event Horse Program (YEH) in 2009. It was the first time the USEA YEH East Coast Championships were held at Fair Hill International and it was the first time the West Coast hosted their own USEA YEH Championships at Galway Downs International.

At first look, Chris Ryan called this 5-year-old Holsteiner mare a “good correct sort. She could be a Thoroughbred cross, but might still lack a little refinement to make the times at the upper levels.”