United States Eventing Association

For over 20 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.

The Woodside Horse Trials are held at the Horse Park at Woodside in Woodside, California (Area VI) in May, August, and October of each year. The event offers Introductory through Advanced levels at their spring event, Intro through Intermediate and USEA Future Event Horse Classes at their summer event, and Intro through Advanced and CCI2*-S, CCI3*-S, and CCI4*-S levels at their fall event.

The USEA is sad to share the news that Dobbin (Lyphelius x Deal Debbie Deal), Corinne Ashton’s chestnut Thoroughbred gelding who was the 2008 USEA Horse of the Year and the 12^th ranked horse on the USEA Historical High Point Horse list with 970 points, passed away over the weekend at the age of 26.

“This horse lacks the refinement you’d generally see in the upper level event horse,” Chris Ryan first observed of this 5-year-old Morgan mare. “This is more of what I’d consider a pleasure type. Remember, conformation does not rely on breed type but is a straight study of physique.”

Sloopy (Two Davids x Nearly Sloopy), an off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding ridden at the four-star (now five-star) level by John Williams, has passed away at the age of 28.

Show of Heart was born on March 19, 1990 at Tim and Nina Gardner’s Welcome Here Farm at its original location in Maryland, a Thoroughbred gelding by It’s Freezing and out of Lovely Duckling. Bred to race, “Smokey” began his career on the track as a 2-year-old, breaking his maiden at Laurel Park after eight starts. Between his 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old year, Smokey had a total of 46 starts on the track, earning just over $44,000.

In the time of COVID-19, now more than ever people are thinking about the importance of biosecurity. What is biosecurity, exactly? Biosecurity is defined as the measures employed to reduce the impact of any infectious disease. For humans, this includes things like hand washing, wearing masks, and maintaining a safe distance from others to slow the spread of pathogens.

The Willow Draw Charity Horse Trials, located in Weatherford, Texas (Area V) is held twice yearly as a one-day event in May and October and offers Starter through Training levels.

Two years ago, Claire Robinson was traveling from her base in Georgia to attend the USEA Young Event Horse Symposium in Ocala, Florida with her 5-year-old Thoroughbred mare. Robinson’s parents were acquainted with Mike and Jennifer Keane through their common interest in Connemaras and arranged for Robinson and her horse to spend the night at the Keane’s farm.

Shared Dreams (General Silver x Notable Miss Iron), a 15.3 hand off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding and Jan Byyny's mount for the 2003 Pan American Games held at Fair Hill, has passed away at the age of 26.