United States Eventing Association

The countdown to the “happiest horse trials on earth” is on! This year’s USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships are scheduled for Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17 at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, and for the first time, they will be exclusively offered for program members and alumni.

Entries

The omnibus listing for the 2026 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships is now available. Entries for the event will open on Tuesday, March 31 and will close on Tuesday, April 28. This year’s event will be exclusively offered for three groups of USEA Members:

• Current Intercollegiate Members that are listed on their Intercollegiate affiliates’ roster
• Current IEL Members that are listed on their IEL Club’s roster
• Alumni from Intercollegiate affiliate programs will be eligible for Stable View’s Alumni Cup

Eligibility to participate based on these criteria will be checked as entries are received, and any entrants that are not in compliance with these requirements will be contacted and withdrawn if the issue cannot be rectified. The USEA anticipates significant interest in the Championships, so early entry is highly recommended to ensure your spot.

All Collegiate Teams and IEL Clubs are encouraged to enter to compete. There are no competitive qualification requirements to enter, but teams represented must be registered affiliates of the USEA. Don’t forget to submit your Collegiate Team Applications or IEL Application Form, along with your official rosters, to Jennifer Hardwick, USEA Senior Director of Membership Services, at [email protected] as soon as possible to fulfill this requirement. The USEA is accepting late submissions on a case-by-case basis.

Team Submissions

Tentative team rosters for the Championships will be due to the team coordinators by no later than closing date on April 28, and definite team rosters must be provided by 12:00 p.m. ET on Monday, May 11. Teams may declare alternates with their tentative team roster. Alternates must be entered in the competition as an individual competitor and may serve as a substitute for a team rider in the event of a scratch or withdrawal prior to the naming of definite team rosters. Alternates will not be named to a scramble team until after definite team rosters are declared. Once the definite roster deadline has passed, further changes will not be accepted. For more information, please review the Intercollegiate Eventing Handbook linked here or the IEL Guidelines linked here.

For the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship, please submit your team rosters to Leslie Threlkeld, Chair of the Intercollegiate Eventing Committee, at [email protected], by Tuesday, April 28.

For the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League Championship, please submit your team rosters to Kate Boggan, Chair of the IEL Task Force, at [email protected], by Tuesday, April 28.

The Stable View Alumni Cup will be open to any current Graduate students or alumni of USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program affiliates that would like to join in on the fun. For a list of the current Intercollegiate affiliates, click here. Alumni of former Intercollegiate affiliates that no longer participate in the program will be accepted as well. This challenge is separate from the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships. For more information, please contact Emma Rogers at [email protected].

Schedule of Events

The 2026 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships will return as a three-day competition with team festivities beginning on the evening of Friday, May 15 with the Opening Ceremony and Parade of Teams. After each team gets their moment in the spotlight and our Collegiate seniors are honored, competitors will be invited to a Graze and Gaze party at the Pavilion pub for appetizers, drinks, and mingling with fellow competitors.

The College Fair will return on Saturday, May 16, and allow affiliated schools to promote their programs to the eager IEL members, who are looking ahead to their next chapter in their educational journey. The beloved Hobby Horse Championships will take place in the evening with a two-phase competition over show jumps in the main arena and a miniature cross-country course, before celebrations continue at the Graze and Gaze party.

Finally, the championships will culminate with an unmounted awards ceremony for each program one hour after the completion of the competition on Sunday, May 17. The top eight teams for each championship and the Alumni Cup will be invited to join us in the main arena to celebrate their success! Teams must attend the ceremony to receive their ribbons and prizes. The Spirit Award will be presented for each program as well once the points are tabulated from all components of the competition.

Cross-country course decorator, Diane Bird, would like to remind competitors that all decorations are due to Stable View by Friday, May 1. Please ship decorations to directly to the venue at 117 Stable Dr, Aiken, SC 29801 and attention Diane on the label. Recommended decorations include felt pennants, cloth flags, stuffed mascots, plastic pom-poms or streamers, or vinyl banners. Due to varied weather conditions, no paper products are recommended (signs, cardboard, ribbons, etc.).

Competition Schedule

The Championships will offer divisions from Starter through Preliminary this year, and teams are welcome to field teams of three or four with members from varying levels of competition. The cross-country course will be open for walking on Thursday, May 14 at 3:00 p.m. EST. Training, Modified, and Preliminary are projected to run as a two-day event on Friday and Saturday, completing dressage and show jumping on Friday and cross-country on Saturday.

Starter, Beginner Novice, and Novice will be offered in a two-day format as well, but they will compete on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, all three levels will complete their dressage tests, but Novice will go cross-country, while Starter and Beginner Novice show jump. On Sunday, Novice will show jumping, while Starter and Beginner Novice finish their weekend on the cross-country course.

Travel & Accommodations

For those traveling to Aiken for the event, there are several ways to get to the venue. If you are driving, the easiest way to get to Stable View will be from I-20, where you will take exit #18 for Highway 19 for one mile, then turn left onto Highway 191 (Old Graniteville Rd) for 1.2 miles. Then, turn right onto Springfield Church Rd and Stable View’s entrance will be 1.5 miles ahead on your left. The GPS coordinates are Latitude: 33.6485426 and Longitude: -81.8000836.

For those interested in air travel, the nearest airports are the Augusta Regional Airport (AGS), which is 30 miles away, or the Columbia Metropolitain Airport (CAE), which is 50 miles from the venue. Both airports are services by major airlines like American Airlines, Delta, and United (CAE only).

Stable View has limited accommodations available on-site, including multi-bedroom bungalows, apartments, and single bedroom Hunt Boxes. For those interested in booking housing on-site, please click here or contact the venue directly at [email protected]. Stable View also partners with local hotels like the Carriage House and the Fairfield Inn & Suites Aiken, which offer special rates for competitors. Information on redeeming the discounted rate can be found on the Omnibus listing.

Stay in the Know

If you are planning to compete in the 2026 USEA Intercollegiate and IEL Championships, sign up to join the Stable View WhatsApp group for the Championships. Click here or scan the QR code to the right to join the group. The team at Stable View will post regular updates and share news related to the championships in this group chat, so members will be first to know about all the exciting updates as the event takes shape.

Any questions regarding the Intercollegiate Eventing Program or Interscholastic Eventing League and the upcoming 2026 Championships can be directed to USEA Staff Liaison, Kaleigh Collett, at [email protected].

Helpful Links

• Omnibus Listing
• Stable View Website
• Intercollegiate Eventing Program
  • Collegiate Team Application
  • Intercollegiate Roster Form
  • Intercollegiate Eventing Handbook
  • Intercollegiate Championship Results
• Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL)
  • IEL Application Form
  • IEL Roster Form
  • IEL Guidelines
  • IEL Championship Results

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. Many events across the country offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges where collegiate eventers can compete individually or in 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. The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship is a capstone event for the program, which is held annually in the spring. The 2026 USEA Intercollegiate & IEL Championships will be held at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, on May 15-17. Click here to learn more about the Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, Gallagher’s Water, Horse & Country, Kerrits, PulseVet, Sidelines, U.S. Equestrian, WeRideTogether, World Equestrian Brands, Young Rider Magazine, and 100xEquine for sponsoring the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

About the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL)

In August 2020, the USEA Board of Governors approved the creation of the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) as an official program of the USEA. The mission of IEL is to unite junior riders who are in the 5th—12th grade and provide a supportive community through which students can continue to pursue their riding interests. A group of junior members in the 5th—12th grade who share a common bond, such as the same barn, school, Pony Club, or other connection, can register with the USEA as an IEL Club. The 2026 USEA Intercollegiate & IEL Championships will be held at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, on May 15-17. Click here to learn more about the Interscholastic Eventing League.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, Gallagher’s Water, Horse & Country, Kerrits, PulseVet, Sidelines, U.S. Equestrian, WeRideTogether, World Equestrian Brands, Young Rider Magazine, and 100xEquine for sponsoring the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League.