United States Eventing Association

Saturday's schedule at the USEA Convention was packed with forums, seminars, recaps and the USEA tried to sit on as many meetings as possible to report on the highlights.

Florida H.T. Association: Focusing On Grass Roots Eventing with Carol Ogden

The Florida Horse Trials Association shared information about their association and purpose to attendees of this seminar. The Association was founded in 2003 and focuses on grassroots of eventing. It started with a passionate group of eventers who offer a friendly and affordable introduction to the sport. The group offers low-cost educational activities including: annual spring camp, online calendar for competitions and clinics, a website an facebook for members and an annual awards luncheon. While the group doesn’t put on shows, they sanction shows which are growing each year.

Young Rider Open Forum

Big changes are in store for the North American Junior/Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC) this year with eventing no longer running at the same competition as the other disciplines. The 2017 NAJYRC will take place at the Event at Rebecca Farm. The Championship will run as two divisions (CH-J* and CICY2*) and will offer all of the same excitement as the joint competition of years past. Max Corocoran is working with Sarah Broussard to help the Areas organize travel and make the experience as smooth as possible for the horses, riders and groom.

Following the update to this year’s NAJYRC, Joanie Morris posed a few questions to the audience about the future of the competition. What does NAJYRC mean to eventing? How does it work on the pathway to development of a rider? What would be ideal for eventing in terms of timing and location? Does eventing want to stay an international FEI championship or move to a national championship (still running FEI divisions) which would allow an expansion of age ranges? The responses in the room varied, but the consensus is that NAJYRC is important, and the USEF will do everything in their power to keep it a special championship experience for all young riders.

Adult Riders Open Forum

Representatives from each Area shared ideas about how the Adult Riders Program works in their Area and updates on their past year. Some ideas used by Areas included:

• Voucher Program (reimbursements for attending educational opportunities)
• Encourage local clinics and cross-promote Adult Riders and the clinic
• Classic Series Grant Program
• Virtual Team Challenge (points for entering, competing, results and volunteering)
• Mixed Area Rider and Young Rider Teams
• Social drive with using people’s specific names

Rule Change Open Forum

Each year the Rule Change Open Forum, led by Malcolm Hook, gives Convention goers the opportunity to hear about newly proposed rules and pose questions and concerns of their own.

Rules/Rule Changes discussed:

• Still no mules will be allowed in eventing (their noise scares horses too much)
• Nose nets (going through traditional rule change for 2019 to be discussed by members, David O’Connor thinks it will open a pandora’s box – i.e. everyone will want logos now on the nose)
• Taking senior age out of Appendix 3 because its not listed in 104 participation
• Clarification that we still regard FEI levels one above the national level (Example: if a horse does a one-star that is considered Intermediate, clarifying for decided who is qualified for horse and rider divisions)
• Training Three-Day test (modified for small arena) approved to use for the Modified level dressage test
• Watch list (Created in 2008 to keep an eye on individuals who the officials believed were putting themselves or their horses at risk, however it hasn’t been heavily used)
  • Licensed official, level 4 ICP or someone who rode on a US team could report
  • In reviewing it, USEA/USEF wanted to make sure it was working more – expanded ways to end up on watch list
    • If you get a yellow card for dangerous riding, you go on the watch list and you will be contacted by the FEI
    • They will monitor your competitive performance until you show proficiency at the level
    • Brings it up because a few more people are going to find themselves on this list with this update
    • Remain on the watch list for 6 competitions without further report
• Rule change to better outline Beginner Novice
  • It used to be very detailed in the rules, but because guidelines for each level were introduced, they omitted it from the rules
  • To combat level creep

EquiRatings

The EquiRatings Seminar with Sam Watson and Diarm Byrne was one of the most well-attended meetings of the weekend as U.S. eventers are intrigued to see the work done by this new data analysis company. The Irish duo explained that America is the home of sports data, the second biggest segment of the data market and there is a huge gap in equestrian sports. The data analysis can be used to help with safety, media and high performance. Watson and Byrne focused this presentation on the media aspect and worked through their pre-analysis and day-by-day coverage of the Rio Olympics with a lot of interesting predictions and statistics. It is definitely worth checking out the history of their Twitter feed to see what they can do.

Town Hall and Summit Recap

At the 2015 USEA Convention, the first ever town hall was held and gave an opportunity for eventers from all aspects of the sport to come together to share their questions and concerns. Since then 10 town hall meetings have been held across the country and over 200 unique ideas were recorded and will be continually tracked in a document on the USEA website. While some topics will be addressed quickly, others may take extended periods of time. However, all of the ideas shared over the last year will be reviewed by both the executive committee and strategic planning committee because as past USEA President, Kevin Baumgardner says, “It is important for the members to not feel like you are screaming in the wind.”

After sharing the document with the audience, the floor was opened to attendees and discussion focused on the USEA Convention and how to make it more affordable and accessible to members across the country. Ideas such as more affordable hotels, scholarships, hosting it in “hot-bed” eventing areas and others will be added to the project tracker to be utilized in years to come.

Volunteer Incentive Program Open Forum

Promoting and rewarding volunteerism has been a big focus of the USEA in the past year and EventingVolunteers.com and the smart phone app has been the results of this concerted effort. In the forum USEA CEO, Rob Burk introduced Nick Hinze the creator of the website and app and also explained the formation of the Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP). A pilot program using EventingVolunteers.com was introduced in Area II in 2016, and in 2017, Sunsprite Warmbloods has sponsored the VIP program and will be covering the cost of the program to be rolled out at every USEA event at gratis for all organizers.

EventingVolunteers.com will help organizers efficiently manage volunteers with the online portal. They can easily set up volunteer needs for each events. Volunteers will be asked to make an account and sign up online for their desired positions. Organizers can monitor the fill rate of each position with the dashboards and can communicate directly with volunteers and track their hours.

Hinze walked forum attendees through setting up profiles for volunteers while Gina from Loch Moy Farm walked organizers through the system.

Rio Recap

While unfortunately the Rio Olympics Recap was cut short due to William Fox-Pitt’s speech, Phillip Dutton, Lauren Kieffer, Lynn Symansky, Marilyn Payne and Dr. Susan Johns spoke briefly on the experience in Rio and showed some pictures.

When Dutton spoke about his “miraculous save” he said “The backside of the brush showed up at the last stride and Mighty Nice veered. I just reacted. I did look down and saw that I was inside the flag but you never know what the jump judge was going to say. I kept waiting to get pulled up and a few fences away at the keyhole I heard whistles, but it was crowd control. I was very lucky, but sometimes you need a bit of luck don’t you. I wonder if Bruce [Duchossois] helped me stay inside the flags. Maybe he just pushed me over a bit.” Originally Dutton had wanted to take Fernhill Cubalawn to the Olympics because of his reliability in the show jumping, so he thought it was ironic that Mighty Nice came through in the show jumping.

As for Kieffer’s fall she said it was a “knife in the gut and I don’t take it lightly.”

As head of the ground jury, Payne said “It was so exciting because from start to finish you never knew what was going to happen. By far the most exciting competition from start to finish. I rewatched Phillip’s replay over and over. you know he didn’t have a fault, but you had to just keep watching.”

About the USEA Annual Meeting and Convention

The USEA Annual Meeting and Convention takes place each December and brings together a large group of dedicated USEA members and supporters to discuss, learn, and enjoy being surrounded by eventing enthusiasts. The 2016 Annual Meeting and Convention is taking place at the Diplomat Resort & Spa Hollywood in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. December 7-11, 2016.

Thank you to our amazing lineup of sponsors that make this event possible: Merck Animal Health, Standlee Hay Forage, Nutrena, Adequan, Devoucoux, Charles Owen, SmartPak, Rebecca Farm, Mountain Horse, Auburn Laboratories Inc., Broadstone Equine Insurance Agency, Eventing Training Online, Stackhouse Saddles, Point Two Air Jackets, Gallops Saddlery, Professional’s Choice, World Equestrian Brands, Bit of Britain, CWD, H.E. Tex Sutton Forwarding Company, Jump 4 Joy, The Fork at TIEC and more!

Click here for more information on Convention