United States Eventing Association

The USEA Youth Mentorship Program gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run and officiate an international event, helps Young Riders and Intercollegiate athletes experience competition from the inside as a part of the officiating and management teams, encourages furthering sport education, and helps youth athletes seek and identify career paths and job opportunities, network, communicate, and seek new experiences within the eventing.

This year, eight young riders participated in the program at the Maryland International in July and at the USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds at Galway Downs in August.

Each participant wrote about their experience in the program, and we are sharing them here. To learn more about the USEA Youth Mentorship Program, click here.

This year, during the 2025 USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships at Loch Moy Farm, I was granted the immense honor of being a part of the USEA Mentorship Program. The program allows young riders from all over the country to go behind the scenes and follow FEI officials at the event.

Along with two other Area I young riders, I traveled down to Loch Moy on Wednesday. We all arrived at the venue and met Holly Covey, who manages and oversees the program and its running over the weekend. She gave us our shirts and FEI credentials, both of which we would need for the coming days.

Thursday was when the mentorship began. Promptly at 8:30 a.m., an official course walk was held with all members of the ground jury for the one-star and three-star levels. Later, on Friday, the two-star and four-star course walks were done with their respective presidents. Being able to go on these course walks was incredibly informative, and really set our expectations for the weekend high.

As a rider myself with goals of doing FEIs in the future, it was really good to hear exactly what goes into creating a cross-country course, no matter the level. From the placement of a flower pot, to where they expect horses to land from fences, no detail is missed. These course walks really have given me so much appreciation for all those involved in the course’s design and build process. Thursday was also when we were all assigned a judge to sit in with for dressage day, and I would be with Sara Miller Leary, who judged the CCI2*-S and CCI4*-S tests in the morning with Peter Gray.

Dressage started bright and early Friday morning, and continued until mid-afternoon with the same energy as it started. I loved being able to hear the scores given to movements in real time, and I learned so much about what exactly judges are looking for in a test.

After dressage, we had lunch during the event’s Fiesta, and then all of the mentorship students and I went back out on cross country for a young rider course walk with the designer Andrew Heffernan, who went over each fence and how to ride each one correctly. After the course walk, we all met at the finish with Max Corcoran, who went over all the rules and what she would expect to see in terms of cooling down horses the next day.

As a fairly new working student at an FEI barn and an aspiring upper level rider, it was really informative and interesting to hear from such a well respected industry professional how she cooled out horses after cross-country, and I was able to take away a lot of very good knowledge that I’ve implemented just for myself to make a mental checklist when going to the vet box.

After a jam-packed Friday, I thought it couldn’t get any more chaotic and exciting, but it did! Saturday was cross-country day, and it was incredible. We started the day with our mentors, and I went out with Sara to watch and be ground jury for the four-star out on course. She explained what her job was when not in the control booth, and it was such a cool perspective of cross-country day I’ve never experienced before. She was the president of ground jury for the two-star so while she went into the control center to make sure everything went smoothly, I headed over to the vet box to help a friend of mine cool her horse out, as well as just take in everything and further my education.

The vet box was one of my favorite places to be, as there is always so much happening, and while it’s hectic and stressful to make sure each horse was properly taken care of, it was also electric, full of all the best emotions. Everywhere you looked, there were people willing to help out, smiling faces, and officials ready to facilitate any problems that may come up.

I went back out on cross-country with Holly and Rumsey Keefe as well, just to get more viewpoints on everyone’s role on cross country day at a big event, and we watched the young rider CCI1*-S run. When the day was over, we had a show jumping course walk to attend to with designer Chris Barnard.

Then came the final day of competition, Sunday. Another early start, me and the other mentorship recipients went down to the young rider barn and got an up close view of the final horse inspection, where we got to watch each horse competing in the Young Rider Championships jog in front of the ground jury.

From there, it was off the show jumping so we could get our bearings and make sure we were all ready to watch and learn for the day! While show jumping was underway, I was able to go down to the bit and boot check for a little while, and this was a really cool experience, because prior to this, I wasn’t very clear on the boot and bit rules for an FEI competition. The vets and officials were more than happy to explain every step of their process to me (like everyone else that weekend), and after just an hour shadowing them, I felt I had gained so much knowledge to carry forward.

When it came time for the young rider CCI2*-S, the Area I team got together so we could all watch our rider, Lyman Ordway competing on her horse. This was really exciting, because she ended up with individual silver, and it was so much fun to cheer her and Folie on with my Area members!

To wrap up the weekend, all three of us mentees wrote thank you letters to all of our mentors, who really put in so much effort for us to have an incredible weekend. Right before we were set to leave, each of us scouted out our mentors to hand deliver the cards, a small sign of gratitude in comparison to the lifelong knowledge and memories they gave us in return.

Overall, my weekend at the 2025 USEF Young Rider Championships as a part of the USEA Mentorship Program was like nothing I’d ever done before. It truy was the experience of a lifetime, and I highly urge anyone interested to take a look and get involved for next year!