United States Eventing Association

We Want to Hear from You!

In order to best serve the needs of our members, the USEA is launching a weekly discussion on the USEA blog. This will cover a variety of hot topics including recent and proposed rule changes, USEA programs and activities, membership, marketing and communications, as well as article ideas. We hope you take the time to share your comments with us!

This week’s topic is Amateur divisions at horse trials. Last year, there were a total of 1,193 Open divisions, 4 Amateur divisions, 85 Horse divisions, and 129 Rider divisions offered in the Omnibus (for the entire year’s worth of nationwide competitions).

In actuality, there were 1,660 Open divisions, 32 Amateur divisions, 206 Horse divisions, and 686 Rider divisions held at horse trials last year.

What does this mean? It means that riders indicated their preferences on the entry form, and the organizers decided that the rider requests warranted additions of extra, more specific, divisions. In the eligible section on the USEA event entry forms, riders are encouraged to list their 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd choices next to the division in order of preference – these choices include: Amateur, Rider, Horse, Young Horse, Open, and Championship.

Currently, the rules state that a rider may enter a Rider division if (from the USEF Rules for Eventing, page 67): Appendix 3 – Section 4.5 RIDER (R) – “Levels restricted by rider are limited to those competitors who have not completed more than two Horse Trials at the next highest level or higher in the previous 24 months. e.g. Training Rider - the competitor may not have completed more than two Horse Trials at the Preliminary Level or higher in the previous 24 months.”

Also, just a reminder of the Amateur status criteria (from the USEF General Rules, page 7): GR1306 -“Regardless of one’s equestrian skills and/or accomplishments, a person is an amateur for all competitions conducted under Federation rules who after his/her 18th birthday, as defined in GR101, has not engaged in any of the following activities which would make him/her a professional….” In a nutshell, you cannot accept any money for riding, training, teaching, etc. If you’re unclear about your status, we highly recommend reading the rule in its entirety. Amateurs must also be in possession of a USEF Amateur card, or if they’re not a USEF member (or compete Beginner Novice through Training) they must declare their Amateur Status Eligibility with the USEA – a very simple and quick process that can be done online via the USEA’s Dashboard.

So the questions remains…are riders not asking for the divisions because they aren’t offered in the Omnibus, or are organizers not offering the divisions because the riders aren’t asking for them? As an Amateur, are you making sure that “Amateur” is the number one division you requested, or would you rather be in the “Rider” category? Perhaps the amateur concept is not working for eventing – and maybe the Rider divisions are in higher demand? The biggest issue seems to be whether our members prefer Rider divisions or Amateur divisions.

Please discuss!