The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is pleased to announce the future locations for the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship for the next four years.
The USEA requested expressions of interest from venues that would like to bid to be the future host site(s) of the USEA Intercollegiate Championship for its next multi-year rotation. The USEA Intercollegiate Committee along with the USEA Board of Governors selected the joint bid from Chattahoochee Hills’ organizer Hugh Lochore and the Virginia Horse Trials’ organizer Andy Bowles for a four-year rotation between the two sites. This will enable the Championship to move to a southern location in Area III, and then move back up to a more northern location in Area II again.
The Intercollegiate Championship will move to Chattahoochee Hills in Fairburn, Ga. in 2019 and 2020. The Championship will be held one weekend earlier while at the southern location, to run in accordance with the existing Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trials date. Then for 2021-2022, the Championship will move back up to the Virginia Horse Trials in Lexington, Va., running across Memorial Day weekend again both times.
“The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship competitor numbers have grown each and every year since its establishment,” said USEA CEO Rob Burk. “We feel privileged to be able to continue to grow this program at two beautiful facilities with proven organizing teams led by Hugh Lochore [Chattahoochee Hills] and Andy Bowles [Virginia Horse Trials]. We are seeing growing numbers of colleges and universities establish eventing clubs and teams across the country especially in the South, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, and Southwest. The rotation from Georgia to Virginia should enable even more student athletes the opportunity to compete.”
Virginia Horse Trials (VHT) organizer Andy Bowles held the inaugural USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Team Championship in 2016 across Memorial Day weekend. 2018 is their third and final year hosting the Championship on the same weekend in its first cycle, before moving into its next cycle, which includes VHT in the final two years of the negotiated four-year contract.
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 of universities and colleges registered as Affiliates with the USEA and many events across the country now offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges throughout the year, where collegiate eventers can compete individually as well as 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. Click here to learn more about the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program.
The USEA would like to thank the 2018 Intercollegiate Eventing Team Championship Sponsors: World Equestrian Brands, and US Equestrian.
The USEA would also like to thank VHT organizer Andy Bowles for hosting the Championship the last three years, with help from USEA Intercollegiate Committee Chair Leslie Threlkeld. The USEA looks forward to working with each of them and additionally Hugh Lochore in the coming years.
With the start of the New Year just days away, now is the time to consider how your actions can have a positive impact on the sport of eventing in 2025. Each and every member of the eventing community has an important role to play in ensuring the sport continues to grow and thrive. From fostering educational opportunities to supporting grassroots initiatives and participating at all levels of the sport, there are so many ways to get involved.
Ride iQ’s popular “Ask An Expert” series features professional advice and tips from all areas of the horse industry. One of the most-downloaded episodes is an expert session with Peter Gray, an accomplished dressage judge and Olympic eventer. He has recently judged at events like the five-star at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, and he served on the ground jury at the 2022 FEI World Eventing Championships in Pratoni, Italy. His background as a competitor in the Olympic Games riding for Bermuda and as a coach and selector for the Canadian eventing team adds depth to his understanding of the sport.
With a total of 382 volunteer hours in 2024, Catherine “Cathy” Hale not only topped the USEA Area III VIP Volunteer leaderboard, but she also ranked fourth out of all eventing volunteers across the country. Hale (The Villages, Florida) has worked as a travel agent for over 30 years, a career that suits her love of travel nicely. At the time of being interviewed for this article, Hale was passing the equator on a cruise to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia.
The USEA office will close at 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, and will reopen again on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. The USEA staff will return emails and phone calls when the office re-opens on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 or at their earliest convenience.