As the curtains on the 2023 competition season begins to close, the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) is looking back on a successful year of Interscholastic Team Challenges with bright eyes as the inaugural IEL Championship approaches in 2024. The IEL, which will soon be open to USEA Members in the extended age range of 5th through 12th grade, has had a strong summer and fall season of team challenges that brought eventers from across the Areas together to compete and no doubt gave them invaluable experience as they prepare for the first ever program Championship at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, next spring.
Last fall while competing at the Virginia Horse Center Eventing Fall Horse Trials, Mandolin Whitten and her Virginia Tech teammates won the intercollegiate challenge and started to get some exciting ideas. It had been nearly three years since the school had fielded a team at the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship, and this time, they had enough riders to form a team and a half.
After record-breaking participation at this year’s event, the United States Eventing Association, Inc. (USEA) is proud to remind program members that the second annual USEA Intercollegiate and Interscholastic Eventing Championships will take place at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, in 2025. The Stable View Local Charities H.T. on May 3-4 will serve as the host event for both championships, yet again offering a year-end goal for students to strive towards that fosters a pipeline for participation in the sport from grade school through college and beyond.
The USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships wrapped up at the Maryland International with an exciting show jumping finale today. In the end, three mares topped the individual podiums at the one-, two-, and three-star levels, and in the team competition, clear rounds were not easy to come by over Chris Barnard’s courses, making for a nail-biting finish.
Cross-country day always comes with a sense of anticipation, maybe some nerves or maybe excitement, but when you have a team counting on your score, those nerves usually kick into overdrive.
More than 100 horses danced between the boards at Loch Moy Farm despite the heat on the opening day of the Maryland International and USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships.
The Maryland International + Horse Trials in Adamstown, Maryland, is going to be crawling with talented young riders ages 25 and under for the 2024 USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships (YRC). This year’s Championships has been transitioned from a fall long-format event to a summer short-format event to encourage participation and will offer CCI1*-S, CCI2*-S, and CCI3*-S Championship divisions.
2024 has already been a pivotal year for the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) with the introduction of the USEA IEL Championship, which saw 42 competitors join forces to create 12 teams that went head-to-head at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, early last month.
The USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) got a major boost on the West Coast last weekend when the Spokane Sport Horse Spring H.T. hosted a total of 43 fifth through 12th grader competitors in their first ever IEL Team Challenge at the venue in Spokane, Washington. Eleven teams made up of junior USEA members from Area VII and parts of western Canada went head-to-head competing in the Starter through Preliminary levels to contribute to their team’s final rankings.
We are still riding on a bit of a high after the success of the 2024 USEA Intercollegiate and Interscholastic Eventing Championships, so we loved taking the opportunity to chat about this year's event with Stable View's Barry Oliff, member of the winning Intercollegiate team Hayden Wathen, and member of the winning Interscholastic team Collins Zgutowicz. Let the countdown to the 2025 championships begin...
The "happiest horse trial on Earth," the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship, got a whole lot happier this year with the inclusion of the inaugural USEA Interscholastic Eventing Championship. Just shy of 200 entries competed at the 2024 joint championships which took place from May 4-5 at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina. There were pom poms and banners and glitter galore, but team spirit was of the greatest abundance as young riders from the 5th grade through college gathered together to share their pride for their team.