For some, riding is a casual hobby, taken up in childhood and lasting a few years before fading as the demands of “real life” take over. For others, it’s an all-consuming way of life, worth all the tremendous expense and pressure. Eventer Maddy Temkin is wholeheartedly in the second category.
Veterinary pathologist Susan Hart has been trapped in an “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” loop on the USEA Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) Volunteer Leaderboard since 2022. After two years of chipping away at the leaderboard, 2024 was finally her year to proverbially walk down the aisle. With a total of 691 and a half hours, Hart topped the leaderboard to become the 2024 USEA Volunteer of the Year, sponsored by Mrs. Pastures, and win the first gold medal in USEA VIP history, which is awarded for achieving over 2,000 lifetime volunteer hours.
Molly Duda’s 2024 got off to a strong start as she completed her first Advanced event with Disco Traveler, her 2023 USEF Eventing Young Rider Championship gold-medal partner. The pair won the Advanced division at Twin Rivers (Paso Robles, California) in February and followed it up with a second-place finish in their first CCI4*-S at Galway Downs (Temecula, California) in March. But it wasn’t totally smooth sailing on the way to their second consecutive RevitaVet USEA Young Rider of the Year award.
With a total of 382 volunteer hours in 2024, Catherine “Cathy” Hale not only topped the USEA Area III VIP Volunteer leaderboard, but she also ranked fourth out of all eventing volunteers across the country. Hale (The Villages, Florida) has worked as a travel agent for over 30 years, a career that suits her love of travel nicely. At the time of being interviewed for this article, Hale was passing the equator on a cruise to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia.
As 2024 draws to a close, we would be remiss not to recognize the many volunteers who dedicate countless hours of their free time to the success of our sport. There were 72,374 hours logged in the USEA’s Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) this year across the 171 events that utilized the eventingvolunteers.com platform to log volunteer time. This impressive amount of volunteer time was contributed by 4,378 amazing VIP volunteers.
Last month, readers met VIP Volunteer Rebecca Proetto, who volunteered at the MARS Maryland 5 Star horse inspection. This month, the focus turns to husband and wife Ed and Leanne Barnett who introduced Proetto to the art of running an efficient horse inspection at Maryland. Ed and Leanne undertake a 12-hour drive from their home in Indiana to Maryland just to volunteer at the event.
Growing up as a self-proclaimed “free-range child” on her family’s Dragonfire Farm in California, Taylor McFall beelined her way toward horses from the time she could walk. That idyllic childhood helped cement Taylor’s love for horses at an early age.
Just over a year ago, Arielle Aharoni’s world came crashing down when her long-time partner Dutch Times suffered an injury on cross-country at the MARS Maryland 5 Star within sight of the finish flags. Now, with “Dutch” safely on the mend, she has her sights set on a bright future with his full brother, Notorious, and other up-and-comers.
This month’s VIP Volunteers are a mother and daughter duo who have a unique tradition that started over four decades ago: volunteering at the Kentucky Horse Park together. While both Marjorie “Marji” Hines and her daughter, Robinson Regen, have a pleasure riding background, and Hines used to work cattle with her father on the family farm, they knew very little about eventing when they first started volunteering.
What do a cultural anthropologist and an equestrian have in common? One answer would be Dr. Aubrey Graham. Aubrey went from specializing in humanitarian aid in the Congo to mastering the art of re-training off-the-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) to be the best that they can be.
Breathtaking beaches, sparkling water, tropical flowers and Haleakalā National Park: When most people think of Maui, that’s what comes to mind. That’s not the case for Gaby Ruane. For Gaby, Maui is the place where she realized she wanted to become an equestrian professional.