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.

My name is Avery Zupan, one of the participants of the USEA Youth Mentorship Program. I was extremely happy to be accepted into the program, as I have never competed nor spectated at a championship so it was exciting to hear I can be in the behind the scenes of these kinds of events.

On Thursday at the AEC, I got to shadow dressage judge Debbie Adams, and it was very educational watching all the Advanced and Intermediate rides, as well as listening to Debbie and her scribe on how they score horses and riders. For Friday, I was with TD Wendy Wergeles, which I had lots of fun with and gave me so much information on what she does as a huge role in a championship.

Wendy even let me help her with some of the situations she had to deal with and asked me questions like, “What do you do in this situation?” and, “If you’re unsure check..." She introduced me to all the Safety Officers and what the relationship is between these two roles. We also went around to all the dressage judges, the show jumping judge, and all the volunteers on cross-country if everything was set and if they were comfortable.

Saturday, all of us in the program had a complete show jumping day. We switched pairs between show jump warmup and next to the judge’s stand. I started in the judge’s stand and got to participate scribing for Malcom Hook in the Novice division and watch how they scored for the show jumping rounds. When we switched, I was in the warmup arena shadowing the volunteer and how they worked with the Intermediate division. She handed me the clipboard and radio, and got to be the one who organized everyone coming in and out of the arena and handling the riders.

That afternoon, we got to shadow show jumping course designer William Robertson as he was building the course for the Intermediate and Advanced riders. We walked the course with the President of Ground Jury, Robyn Fisher, and TD Sharyn Antico. We discussed about what is and isn’t permitted on a show jumping course, as well as why it should or shouldn’t have changes made for the safety of the rider and horse.

In conclusion, I had a very educational and fun time flying out to Galway Downs for a great opportunity like this!