United States Eventing Association

Events A-Z: Moqui Meadows

A revived addition to the 2021 event season is Area IX's Moqui Meadows, held October 2-3 in Colorado at two separate, but close-by, venues. While this event in its former life was previously held solely at Moqui Meadows in Johnstown, Colorado, in an attempt to accommodate more entries and offer stabling, the decision was made to host the event at split venues. The stabling site, the Tomora Training Venter in Greeley Colorado, is also the competition site for dressage and show jumping on Saturday, October 2nd, with cross-country kicking off on the morning of Sunday, October 3rd at Moqui Meadows.

Moqui Meadows was born when event organizer Erin Contino recognized a need for more horse trials in the Area IX region, especially in Colorado. "Without Moqui Meadows, we are down to only two venues in the state that run recognized horse trials," Contino shared. "We have been running informal cross-country schooling days at Moqui for several years, but there was a massive need to increase the number of recognized events in Area IX. Additionally, our season is quite short, running from early May to mid-September so we were also attempting to extend the season a bit and the front range of Northern Colorado often has gorgeous weather in early October."

Moqui Meadows is a private facility owned by Wendy Chase and everything from the fence posts to the jumps are all a labor of love built by Chase and her late partner, Mike Sutak. Recognized events have been previously run at Moqui for many years, but as the event comes back to life Contino has taken over the organizational efforts so that Chase can direct her attention solely to the cross-country course.

Geographically, the Moqui Meadows Horse Trials is within close proximity to a large contingent of Area IX members. As Moqui Meadows is not currently open to the public for schooling, it is a great opportunity for riders to expose their horses to a venue that they do not get to experience very often.

Contino is most excited about giving Area IX competitors the opportunity to have the Moqui experience. "Since this event has not been run in many, many years we are looking forward to resurrecting it as a recognized event! Wendy has been a very active member of Area IX for a very long time so I am excited that some newer members of Area IX will have a chance to experience Moqui!"

Contino, Chase, and the entire team putting Moqui Meadows together are looking forward to providing a fun and safe event for their competitors this year. Their ultimate goal is to offer more opportunities for Area IX competitors and to hopefully get more people in the Area exposed to the sport of eventing!

Moqui Meadows' entries close on Tuesday, September 14th, and will offer Beginner Novice, Novice, and Training divisions. You can access the USEA Calendar listing for this year's event here.

The USEA profiles the history behind each USEA recognized event in the USEA Events A­-Z series.