United States Eventing Association

Aiken Awaits: The 2025 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Championships are Almost Here!

The 2025 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships are officially two months away! Collegiate and IEL athletes from across the country are gearing up for what has been coined the “Happiest Horse Trials on Earth,” and the USEA can’t wait for the fun to begin. This year’s championships will again be hosted by Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, and will now be hosted across three days on Friday, May 2 through Sunday, May 4 to give the students even more time to enjoy all that the event has to offer.

Entries

Entries for the 2025 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships at the Stable View Local Charities H.T. open in two weeks on Tuesday, March 18 and will close on Tuesday, April 15. The USEA anticipates significant interest in the Championships and entries are limited to a maximum of 400 competitors, so early entry is highly recommended to ensure your spot. A waitlist will be initiated once the maximum number of competitors is met, and the event cannot guarantee entry after said point.

All Collegiate Teams and IEL Clubs are encouraged to enter to compete. There are no qualification requirements to enter, but teams represented must be registered affiliates of the USEA. Don’t forget to submit your Collegiate Team Applications or IEL Application Form, along with your official rosters, to Jennifer Hardwick, USEA Senior Director of Membership Services, at [email protected] to ensure your members are eligible to compete. The USEA will accept late submissions on a case-by-case basis.

Team Submissions

Tentative team rosters for the Championships are due no later than the closing date on April 15, and definite team rosters must be provided by 12:00 p.m. ET on Monday, April 28. Teams may declare alternates with their tentative team roster. Alternates must be entered in the competition as an individual competitor and may serve as a substitute for a team rider in the event of a scratch or withdrawal prior to the naming of definite team rosters. Alternates will not be named to a scramble team until after definite team rosters are declared. Therefore, alternates are not guaranteed a spot on a scramble team. For more information, please review the Intercollegiate Eventing Handbook linked here. The IEL follows the same rules for alternates and submission deadlines.

Once the definite roster deadline has passed, further changes will not be accepted. For the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship, please submit your team rosters to Leslie Threlkeld, Chair of the Intercollegiate Eventing Committee, at [email protected]. For the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League Championship, please submit your team rosters to Kate Boggan, Chair of the IEL Task Force, at [email protected].

All collegiate athletes must be enrolled as undergraduate students, or with their school’s approval, be no more than 6 months past the completion of their undergraduate education, allowing December graduates to compete in the May championship. Collegiate athletes are also required to hold an active Full or Life Membership and be listed on the roster for their respective college or university. If you attend an accredited university or college that isn’t currently listed on the Intercollegiate Eventing Program List, consider starting a new team by reviewing the program information here and submitting a Collegiate Team Application.

All IEL participants must be enrolled in 5^th through 12^th grade at a public school, private school, online school or homeschool. Unlike the Intercollegiate Eventing Program, IEL Clubs can be made up of any group of junior riders who share a common bond – like riding at the same barn, competing with the same trainer, attending the same school or being a part of the same Pony Club, for example. For a list of the current Interscholastic Eventing Clubs, please click here. If you are interested in starting a new IEL Club, click here to learn more about the program and submit an IEL Application Form today.

Stable View will also be hosting an Alumni Cup for any current Graduate students or college alumni that would like to participate in the fun. Any college alumni are welcome, not just alumni of the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program, and there is no age limit for participation. This challenge is separate from the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships. For more information, please click here or contact Emma Young at [email protected].

Schedule of Events

With the addition of Friday to the competition calendar, the 2025 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships will have a slightly different schedule compared to last year’s event, but the students’ time was strongly considered in the new plan. In this theme, the Opening Ceremony and Parade of Teams will remain on Friday evening after the competition has officially started to minimize disruption. All Intercollegiate teams and IEL Clubs should be prepared to line up at the Covered Arena at 4:30 p.m. ET on May 2 for the parade, which will start promptly at 5:00 p.m. Each program will get their moment in the spotlight, and Collegiate seniors will also be honored. Afterwards, members will be invited to a Graze and Gaze party at the Pavilion pub for appetizers, drinks, and mingling with fellow competitors.

Spirit Award activities will again be hosted on Saturday, May 3, but they have been condensed to ensure a shorter evening before the final day of competition. The Stable View team has taken the coveted Hobby Horse Championships from last year’s event and made them even more entertaining! This year, it will be a two-phase competition, including a show jumping test that is judged on accuracy and time, followed by a cross-country phase made with real Starter-sized fences and a water complex. Start strategizing who your top competitors will be for each phase to represent your team!

Finally, the championships will culminate with an unmounted awards ceremony for each program one hour after the completion of the competition on Sunday, May 4. The top eight teams for each championship will be invited to join us in the main arena to celebrate their win! Teams must attend the ceremony to receive their ribbons and prizes. The Spirit Award will be presented for each program as well once the points are tabulated from the Hobby Horse Combined Trial, stall decorating and cross-country jump decorations.

Competition Schedule

The Stable View Local Charities H.T. will offer divisions from Starter through Advanced, and affiliates are welcome to field teams of three or four with members from varying levels of competition. The cross-country course will be open for walking on Thursday, May 1 at 3:00 p.m. ET. The upper levels, including Modified, Preliminary, Intermediate, and Advanced, are projected to run as a two-day event on Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3. These divisions will complete dressage and show jumping on Friday and cross-country on Saturday.

Starter, Beginner Novice, and Novice will be offered in a two-day format as well, but they will compete on Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4. On Saturday, all the lower levels will complete dressage. Novice will also complete cross-country, while Starter and Beginner Novice tackle show jumping later that day. On Sunday, Starter and Beginner Novice will finish on the cross-country course, and Novice will close out the competition in the show jumping arena.

At this time, the Training level’s schedule is to be determined based on entries. Training may follow a two-day schedule on Friday and Saturday, or they will be spread across all three days with their dressage tests on Friday and one jumping phase per day on Saturday and Sunday. If you plan on competing in the Championships at the Training level, please keep an eye on the omnibus and communications from Stable View regarding the final schedule for your division.

Travel & Accommodations

For those traveling to Aiken for the event, there are several ways to get to the venue. If you are driving, the easiest way to get to Stable View will be from I-20, where you will take exit #18 for Highway 19 for one mile, then turn left onto Highway 191 (Old Graniteville Rd) for 1.2 miles. Then, turn right onto Springfield Church Rd and Stable View’s entrance will be 1.5 miles ahead on your left. The GPS are Latitude: 33.6485426 and Longitude: -81.8000836.

For those interested in air travel, the nearest airports are the Augusta Regional Airport (AGS), which is 30 miles away, or the Columbia Metropolitain Airport (CAE), which is 50 miles from the venue. Both airports are services by major airlines like American Airlines, Delta, and United (CAE only).

Stable View has limited accommodations available on-site, including multi-bedroom bungalows, apartments, and single bedroom Hunt Boxes. For those interested in booking housing on-site, please click here or contact the venue directly at [email protected]. The closest hotels to the venue are the Carriage House, the Fairfield Inn & Suites Aiken, Holiday Inn Express & Suites: Aiken or the Hilton Garden Inn Aiken. AirBnB and VRBO also have several local rental options.

Stay in the Know

If you are planning to compete in the 2025 Intercollegiate and IEL Championships, sign up to join the Stable View WhatsApp group for the Championships. Click here or scan the QR code to the right to join the group. The team at Stable View will post regular updates and share news related to the championships in this group chat, so members will be first to know about all the exciting updates as the event takes shape.

Any questions regarding the Intercollegiate Eventing Program or Interscholastic Eventing League and the upcoming 2025 Championships can be directed to USEA Staff Liaison, Kaleigh Collett, at [email protected].

About the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program

The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program was established in 2014 to provide a framework within which eventing teams and individual competitors could flourish at universities and colleges across the country. Many events across the country offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges where collegiate eventers can compete individually or in teams with their fellow students. In Intercollegiate Team Challenges, each rider’s score is multiplied by a coefficient appropriate for their level to account for differences in level difficulty, and then the individual scores are added together to determine the team score. The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship is a capstone event for the program, which is held annually in the spring. The 2025 USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship will be held at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, on May 2-4. Click here to learn more about the Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, Horse & Country, Kerrits, Nunn Finer, Sidelines, U.S. Equestrian, WeRideTogether, World Equestrian Brands and Young Rider for sponsoring the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

About the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL)

In August 2020, the USEA Board of Governors approved the creation of the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) as an official program of the USEA. The mission of IEL is to unite junior riders who are in the 5th—12th grade and provide a supportive community through which students can continue to pursue their riding interests. A group of junior members in the 5th—12th grade who share a common bond, such as the same barn, school, Pony Club, or other connection, can register with the USEA as an IEL Club. The second annual USEA Interscholastic Eventing Championship will be held alongside the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, on May 2-4, 2025. Click here to learn more about the Interscholastic Eventing League.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, Horse & Country, Kerrits, Nunn Finer, Sidelines, U.S. Equestrian, WeRideTogether, World Equestrian Brands, and Young Rider for sponsoring the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League.