United States Eventing Association

My name is Paige Thompson and I am the President of the University of Louisville Eventing Team. We are a fairly new team, having just gotten started last spring. We currently have eight members who compete at different levels ranging from Beginner Novice up to Preliminary.

We competed in our first Intercollegiate Challenge last September at Jump Start Horse Trials at the Kentucky Horse Park. Our members, Ashely, Mattie, Kaileigh, and myself placed individually in our respective divisions which led to us bringing home first place as a team in the Intercollegiate Challenge!in

Later that fall myself and teammate Alena competed at the Intercollegiate Challenge at River Glen Horse Trials in November. Our team consisted of my two horses, and Alena's horse, and we brought home fifth place.

Our team continues to grow and we have exciting plans for this coming season! On March 24 we hosted a Jumper Derby at a local Louisville stable as a fundraiser for our team. On Saturday, cross-country day, at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event we will have a tailgate where people can come by and learn about our team and come get some free food.

We are currently working hard to fundraise enough money to make our way to our first Intercollegiate Championships at Virginia Horse Trials this May. We are also hosting Intercollegiate Challenges at the Spring Bay Horse Trials in April and Flying Cross in September.

We are super excited to compete more as a team this season and are extremely grateful for the opportunity to continue to pursue eventing while being college students.

All photos courtesy of the University of Louisville Eventing Team.

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. The USEA offers a discount of $25 on annual USEA memberships for current students of universities and colleges registered as Affiliates with the USEA and many events across the country now offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges throughout the year, where collegiate eventers can compete individually as well as on 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. Only the best three individual scores will count towards the team score, so teams of four will have one “drop” score. Click here to learn more about the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

The USEA wants to feature your collegiate eventing team in our Intercollegiate Eventing Spotlight series! Please send your story and photos to Jessica Duffy