United States Eventing Association

In this time of uncertainty, it can be difficult to know what steps to take next. Now that the spring season has been cut short, how do we adjust our goals for the fall season? And in the meantime, how do we manage the anxiety of not knowing what tomorrow will bring?

Shopping for tack and equipment when you’re on a budget can be tricky, especially if you like higher end things. Sometimes you come across exactly the right secondhand saddle, or girth, or bridle, or pair of boots, except that maybe it looks a little too “used” to still be show quality.

In this video, Laura Crump Anderson leads us through five exercises designed to strengthen a rider's position. Anderson begins by demonstrating a wall sit, then moves on to body weight squats. If body weight squats are not challenging enough, she suggests adding a weighted object, like a bucket filled with horse feed, to increase the difficulty of the exercise. Next, Anderson moves on to demonstrating dips, which can be done with the help of a chair. Anderson rounds out the exercise program with push-ups and the plank.

In the early 2000s I took a group of students to watch the USEF Medal Finals at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. In this particular year, judges George Morris and Kip Rosenthal also designed the course, which seemed deceptively simple on paper but proved to be quite challenging throughout the competition.

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.