The land on which the Tomora Training Center in Greeley, Colorado, was built was purchased by the Roach family in 1969, and three generations later it is still in the family being run by the dynamic duo sister-pair of Natalie Ellis and Nicole Roach-Reinsvold.
Eventing is on an upswing in Area IX with the addition of Mile High Horse Ranch Horse Trials in Parker, Colorado. The inaugural event will run from July 6-7 this summer. Started and organized by Mile High Horse Ranch owner Vanda Werner, the event will feature Starter through Training levels.
The Colorado Horse Park (CHP) in Parker, Colorado, has deep roots in the sport of eventing. Originally known as High Prairie Farms, owner Helen Krieble purchased the property in the early 1990s with one dream: hosting horse trials. That dream took off and for many years High Prairie Farm was host to many eventing competitions. Krieble later donated the ground to Douglas County with the agreement that the land would be used for equestrian sport and the CHP was born.
Daina Kaugars and her fiancé, James Kersey, have embraced the challenges of what goes into running a USEA-recognized horse trial on their farm in Fort Collins, Colorado. “I’ve always wanted to do it; that’s why we bought the farm [in 2017],” Kaugars. “We found this property and said, ‘Well, this one has the terrain to do it.’ So, we basically purpose-bought it to run a horse trial. Then, the boarding facility was my way of making it work.”
With the goal of expanding the sport of eventing to the Southwest corner of Florida, the Event at TerraNova was born! A new addition to the 2021 eventing calendar, the Event at TerraNova has a powerhouse of a team behind their organizational efforts in order to make their inaugural year a slam dunk for competitors. TerraNova started as a personal barn with the ambitions of building a lesson and training program, but upon recognizing the need for horse trials outside of the Ocala area, Hannah Herrig Ketelboeter and her husband Zach decided to take the plunge.
A revived addition to the 2021 event season is Area IX's Moqui Meadows, held October 2-3 in Colorado at two separate, but close-by, venues. While this event in its former life was previously held solely at Moqui Meadows in Johnstown, Colorado, in an attempt to accommodate more entries and offer stabling, the decision was made to host the event at split venues. The stabling site, the Tomora Training Venter in Greeley Colorado, is also the competition site for dressage and show jumping on Saturday, October 2nd, with cross-country kicking off on the morning of Sunday, October 3rd at Moqui Meadows.
The Old Tavern Horse Trials is an exciting new addition to the event season hosted at the Great Meadow Field Events Center in The Plains, Va. This year, the event takes place September 25-26, and will be run by Five Rings Eventing, the same organizer who puts on the Great Meadow International!
The Miami Valley Horse Trials is held at the Twin Towers Horse Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio (Area VIII) in early May, offering Starter through Training levels.
The Barnstaple South Horse Trials take place in Morriston, Florida (Area III) offering Beginner Novice through Preliminary levels. Barnstaple South currently has two USEA recognized events on the 2021 calendar, the first of which will take place this coming weekend and the second in early May.
It's been a long road, but we've finally arrived at the end! In June of 2017, the USEA undertook a project - to tell the story of each of the currently active USEA recognized events, starting at the beginning of the alphabet and working our way all the way through to the end. Now, more than three years later, we've reached the final event on our list.
The Whidbey Island Horse Trials take place in Oak Harbor, Washington (Area VII) in early July of each year and offer Beginner Novice through Advanced/Intermediate horse trials. The Whidbey Island Horse Trials lost their venue in 2019 but are working on finalizing a new venue for 2021.