In an effort to encourage a continuous educational and competitive upbringing for young event horses in North America, the United States Eventing Association (USEA) introduced the 6- and 7-year-old national leaderboards in 2019. The addition of these two leaderboards ensured the pathway for young event horse development was complete from yearling to 7-year-olds through programs associated with the USEA Future Event Horse (FEH) and USEA Young Event Horse (YEH).
In the announcement made by the USEA introducing the two new national leaderboards in 2019, USEA Young Event Horse Committee co-chair Tim Holekamp, who proposed their creation, was quoted as saying, “The overall goal is to improve the quality of horses entering the eventing horse pipeline in the U.S. [and] to provide better mounts for our very talented cadre of riders. We believe that if we can focus on measuring the quality of domestic sport-specific breeding, the limited amount of resources (both time and money) available to provide horses to our upper riders and rising talents can be better spent on far more prospect horses than using large amounts to buy a few horses in Europe and the U.K. Increasing numbers of entries and attendance at YEH qualifiers, finals, and symposia imply that there is a thirst for improved knowledge and horses. Each time an American home-bred horse wins big, internationally others are encouraged to try to produce similar prospects for the sport.”
The leaderboards are based around the levels at which the 6- and 7-year-old horses are tested at the FEI World Breeding Eventing Championships at Le Lion d’Angers each fall, with the 6-year-old leaderboard focusing on Preliminary and the 7-year-old leaderboard on Intermediate. The leaderboards are created based on a point system with points being earned at USEA recognized competitions throughout the calendar year.
Both past recipients of the 6-Year-Old Horse of the Year Award have been piloted by Allison Springer and are graduates of the USEA Young Event Horse Program. In 2019, Crystal Crescent Moon (Catherston Dazzler x Ebony Moon), Nancy Winter's Connemara/British Sport Horse gelding, took the title. In 2020, the winner was Vandyke (Vancouver x Shannondale Willow), an Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the Rico Syndicate.
The first awarding of the 7-year-old Horse of the Year went to Laurie Cameron’s Miks Master C (Mighty Magic x Qui Luma CBF), ridden by Maya Black. Last year, The Stormwater Group’s 7-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Cooley Stormwater (Camillo VDL x Thornfield Calypso), took home the award.
With North America beginning to return to normal after a year of reduced competition due to the pandemic, we’re seeing a competitive leaderboard for both 6- and 7-year-old horses in 2021. At the top of the 6-year-old leaderboard sits Shanroe Cooley (Dallas X Shanroe Sapphire) ridden by Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp. Double Diamond C (Diacontinus x Lois Lane CBF), ridden by Maya Black, sits in second, followed closely by Olympus (Ferro x Kallisto), ridden by Martin Douzant, and King's Especiale (Connect x Cha Cha Special), piloted by Caroline Martin.
In the 7-year-old leaderboard, Breakin’ All the Rules (Due Date x Lisa) ridden by Ellen Doughty-Hume is presently sitting in the lead, Second place has a three-way tie with Landjaeger (Landkonig x Drink of Die xx), who is a graduate of the USEA Young Event Horse Program and piloted by Katie Malensek, Quality Explosion (Obos Quality) ridden by Tim Bourke, and DHI Showman with Sami Crandell in the saddle.
It’s still too early to tell if the leaderboards will be shaken up as the competitive season continues, but you can keep up-to-date with the 6-year-old leaderboard and 7-year-old leaderboard to find out!
The countdown to the 2024 United States Eventing Association (USEA) American Eventing Championships (AEC) presented by Nutrena Feeds is getting shorter and the tentative schedule is officially set! For the second year in a row, the AEC returns to the iconic Kentucky Horse Park from August 27 through September 1 and will offer 26 divisions, including brand new Starter divisions and all levels of recognized evening up through the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final.
What’s a Hunter Pace? The Sherwood Forest Equestrian Center's Hunter Pace is a cross-country-style course around Sherwood Forest over various natural obstacles/terrain. The course ends with a final treat for riders to take in stunning views of Mt. Hood with a loop through the old Far Hill Farms field. The beginning of the course will first start with a warm-up loop around show jumping obstacles in the outdoor ring at Sherwood Forest and then riders will continue directly onto the course. Sign up as a solo rider, pair, or team.
Claire Allen remembers when she was 11 years old, having just made the switch from the hunter/jumper ring to three-day eventing. She told her new eventing trainer that her goal was to one day compete in the United States Equestrian Federation’s Eventing Young Rider Championships.
As he was finishing tacking up his horse in preparation to navigate the cross-country course at the 2024 Twin Rivers Summer Horse Trials, James Alliston expressed concern about navigating the 101 Freeway. That’s because as soon as he crossed the finish line aboard Intermediate level winner Addyson (Ampere x Nickerbocker) at 10:38 a.m. on Saturday—his fifth cross-country round of the morning with three at Preliminary and two at Intermediate—the West Coast-based five-star rider had to drive 185 miles on the 101 Freeway from Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, California, to San Francisco International Airport to catch a 4:35 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany.