United States Eventing Association

Talk with any of the coaches or riders of the eight USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) clubs that make up the 12 IEL teams competing in the inaugural USEA Interscholastic Eventing Championship this weekend and one theme has been constant across the board—camaraderie.

The spirit of eventing was strong during the opening ceremonies on Friday afternoon at the 2024 USEA Intercollegiate and Interscholastic Eventing Championships. Just shy of 200 Intercollegiate and Interscholastic competitors lined up in the main arena at this year's host venue, Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, while chanting fight songs, waving team flags, donning mascot costumes, and more, all in celebration of this year's championships officially getting under way.

Still riding high on the excitement of the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event? So are we! One of the most exciting parts about the event is getting to watch, and sometimes meet, your eventing idols up close and in person. This year, the Kentucky team put together a group of really fun "behind the barn" videos with both four- and five-star competitors to help you get to know them a little bit better.

The USEA is saddened to share that the Kent Horse Trials in Kent, Connecticut, will be ending its run after 44 years. This USEA Area I event has been a historical staple in the eventing community since its first event ran in 1980. This decision was not made lightly by the organizing committee, but the team behind the Kent Horse Trials cited various challenges which led to this decision.

Will Coleman gets cold calls for horse sales all the time. So when he got an email from agent Sharon Ridgeway who was representing a horse in Australia, it almost went in the bin with the rest of them.

The Ground Jury was busy this morning assessing the 40 horses that presented in the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event Cosequin CCI4*-S and the remaining 25 pairs in the CCI5*-L.

The top three going into show jumping in the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L all have reason to fight extra hard for the bluegrass win today.

In comparison to its little sister, the Cosequin CCI4*-S, the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L was much calmer in terms of shock factor today. There were four pairs who retired on cross-country, two riders who parted ways with their horses, and five pairs finished with jump penalties added to their score.

“He knows Kentucky,” Liz Halliday said with a chuckle when referencing how strong Miks Master C can look on cross-country. “He knows this place. He knows how to run fast here. He was waiting for that 11 and a half minutes.”

“There’s been a lot of learning around this track so far,” said commentator Frankie Thieriot Stutes as riders contested the Cosequin CCI4*-S at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.