United States Eventing Association

Now in its eighth year, the USEA Future Event Horse (FEH) Program has seen substantial growth and spread across the country. Now that the program has matured, the overseeing committee has decided to implement new rules to continue to make these competitions safer, more fair and more competitive for horses, riders, owners and breeders.

Susan Graham White is the co-chair of the USEA Future Event Horse Committee (FEH), along with Robin Walker an FEI International-level Eventing judge, USEF “R” Dressage judge and a USEF “r” Dressage Sport Horse Breeding judge. She has had a major impact on the new rules, which will be implemented this competition year.

“When discussing this competition year, one of our goals was to ensure the competitiveness of the program. We have a couple new rules that we will be introducing this upcoming competition year in the Future Event Horse program, one being that we’re raising the qualifying score for championships to a 70%. This score will be raised slightly every year as we want to continue to keep raising the bar each year”, White described.

A new rule that many are already aware of is the addition of the jumping chute at the West Coast Future Event Horse Championships. All 3-year-olds that qualify will be required to canter and jump through the chute. Carolyn Mackintosh, owner of The Maryland Horse Trials and host of the East Coast Future Event Horse Championships is currently in the process of building a permanent jumping chute at her farm that will be used for the East Coast FEH championships once it is completed. White remarks, “Carolyn has been very supportive of the program and is building a feature that will not only be used during championships, but will provide a schooling and clinic location for horses and handlers on the East Coast to practice if they don’t have the necessary equipment at home.”

The addition of the jumping portion of the championships is a really big link to the program since the goal of the program is to assess how capable these horses will be as eventers. “We need to be able to see these horses natural ability to jump in order for us to confidently say, yes, this horse will shine in this discipline. If done correctly, this is a very useful training tool for these young horses and is essential to the growth of the program.”

White continues, “With the introduction of the jumping chute, we also created the rule that states that all handlers in the ring during the jumping portion must be wearing a helmet for safety reasons. It is highly recommended that handlers wear helmets during the in-hand portion of the competition as well, but not mandatory at this point in time.”

Another safety rule that will be put into effect is that a handler or groom can only be holding one horse at any given time at these competitions. “The younger horses are just a bit more unpredictable and we want to make sure that those individuals in charge of handling these horses are safe. I’ve seen many grooms, especially at championships holding two horses at a time. Where this may be appropriate with a seasoned competitor, the young horses are more impulsive in a competitive, high-energy environment,” White explains.

White continues to watch this program evolve into a competitive environment to showcase the up-and-comers in the United States that will hopefully continue to make a splash in eventing as their career continues.

About the USEA Future Event Horse Series, presented by Priefert

The USEA Future Event Horse Series (FEH) was introduced in 2007 as a precursor to the already popular USEA Young Event Horse Series. The FEH program evaluates the potential of yearlings, two-year-olds, and three-year-olds to become successful upper level event horses. Each age group is judged separately, and genders within the age group are judged separately when the number of entries allows.

The USEA would also like to thank all of the generous FEH Sponsors: Presenting Sponsor: Priefert; Sponsors: Standlee Hay, Merck Animal Health, SmartPak, and Professional’s Choice.

To learn more about Susan Graham White, please visit her website here: www.sgwdressage.com