May 06, 2024

Farewell & Thanks for the 2024 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships!

By Kaleigh Collett - USEA Staff | Press Release
USEA/Meagan DeLisle photo

The 2024 USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships were an incredible success, marking a new era of partnership for the two programs which aim to encourage the USEA’s junior and young adult members to continue to pursue their passion for eventing throughout their educational years and beyond.

With all-time high entries in the Intercollegiate Championship and a formidable group of spirited middle and high school students who carried the flag as the inaugural IEL Championship competitors, the pathway of participation in the sport through all stages of growth was proudly on display. None of this would have been possible without the generous support of many loyal partners.

Thanks to several corporate partners and event sponsors, the USEA was able to provide competitors on the top-three teams in both championships with thousands of dollars in prizes and in-kind donations. Bates Saddles, “The Official Saddle of the USEA,” provided their signature competition duffels, leather saddle pad bookmarks, saddle pads and hats. Kerrits, “The Official Competition and Training Apparel of the USEA,” gave the top-three teams gift certificates to trade in for breeches and/or a top of their choice from Kerrits’ extensive line of performance apparel. Horse & Country and Sidelines Magazine donated free one-year subscriptions to their services, while Nunn Finer and World Equestrian Brands gave an array of leather goods and protective gear their respective lines of products. WeRideTogether donated saddle pads, hats and socks, and U.S. Equestrian provided commemorative engraved leather lead shanks.

The USEA would also like to thank the organizing committee at Stable View for going above and beyond to make this event special for the championship competitors. Hosts Barry and Cyndy Oliff passionately championed the school-age entrants from the minute Stable View was announced as the venue for the 2024 event, and we thank them for their hospitality in welcoming the nearly 200 competitors and their supporters to the facility. Additional thanks go to Molly Bull, Emma Young, Dave Shapiro, Kena Black, Stephanie ____, and the rest of the Stable View team for always finding a way to accommodate the extra activities that make this the "happiest horse trial on Earth."

Finally, thank you to the cross-country course decorators, led by Diane Bird, for adding to the spirit of the event by decorating jumps for each school and club that competed.

For more information about the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program, please click here. For more information about the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League, click here. Don’t forget to save the date for the 2025 USEA Intercollegiate and Interscholastic Eventing Championships at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina on May 3-4!

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 at universities and colleges registered as Affiliates with the USEA. Many events across the country offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges where collegiate eventers can compete individually or 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. The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship is a capstone event for the program, which is held annually in the spring. The 2024 USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship will be held at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, on May 4-5. Click here to learn more about the Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, Horse & Country, Kerrits, Nunn Finer, Sidelines, U.S. Equestrian, WeRideTogether, and World Equestrian Brands 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 Affiliate. The USEA Board of Governors recently approved an inaugural IEL Championship to kick-off in 2024 at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, which will be held in conjunction with the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships on May 4-5, 2024. Click here to learn more about the Interscholastic Eventing League.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, Horse & Country, Kerrits, Nunn Finer, Sidelines, U.S. Equestrian, WeRideTogether, and World Equestrian Brands for sponsoring the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League.

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That “Forward” State of Mind

We’ve all been there—on the horse who pokes his way around the warm-up ring, needs leg, leg, leg coming into the combination, or brings up the rear on every trail ride. None of us wants each and every ride to be a lower-body squeezefest, nor do we wish to do anything with our crop except maybe wave it at that annoying deerfly. In this excerpt from his book The Sport Horse Problem Solver, former international eventer Eric Smiley explains the essential quality of forwardness and how to prepare the horse to expect you to look for it in all that you do together.

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