United States Eventing Association

Stuart Landrum and Laurie Garner have been helping direct riders to the dressage ring at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event for nearly 30 years, maintaining a calm and collected atmosphere for each pair in the final warmup ring before they head down the chute to the Rolex Stadium.

Since the mid-’80s, lifelong horsewoman and professional artist Debra Sue Waters has devoted countless hours to the sport of eventing, and last year topped the rankings of the USEA Volunteer Incentive Program in Area V. Assisting behind the scenes at an event just comes naturally to the Millsap, Texas, resident.

While not an eventer himself, Jim Moyer has been involved in the eventing community for five decades through his late wife, instructor Jean Moyer. When Jean died in 2020, Jim continued volunteering in the sport to stay busy in retirement and stay connected to the community he loves.

For Jameson Cahill, volunteering is a way of life, and she's enjoyed donating her time to events across Area IX. In 2023, she clocked 63.30 hours to top the Area IX USEA Volunteer Incentive Program leaderboard. Learn more about Cahill below!

It was by mere accident that David Slagle stumbled upon the horse world and the sport of eventing. "I'm not a horse person," he said, "but I discovered the sport. Really, Elisa Wallace is responsible, as I just happened to be watching YouTube videos and came across her mustang training videos, which led me to her. She posts cross-country helmet cam videos, and I started watching those and thought, 'Man, that looks like fun.' I didn't know anything about the sport. I spent my first few years in Lexington, Kentucky, but I knew about racing, not eventing. And I saw these videos and said, I want to go to one of those events."

When Susan Hart was considering a move to Malvern, Pennsylvania, for a job in pharmaceuticals with DuPont, she had no intention of getting involved with eventing since dressage was her passion, but after driving around the Fair Hill property in Elkton, Maryland, she was intrigued.

If something needs to be done at an event in Area IX, you can be sure Kayla Dehart’s thought of it. And when she’s not doing her usual job of cross-country control, the 24-year-old will step in to help with anything that needs to be done.

After working for nearly 30 years as a broadcast engineer and operations manager for the largest radio network in the country, Westwood One, Richard "Dick" Owen has acquired many of the skills needed to help a horse trial run smoothly. From presidential inaugurations to political conventions to the State of the Union address, Owen’s friendly and calm demeanor and experience with the logistics of covering major events have served him well in Area III, where he volunteers on dozens of weekends a year.

Growing up just a few miles from the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in Stamford, England, Sarah Airhart naturally gravitated toward eventing.

A member of the Burghley Pony Club, Airhart recalls riding across the Burghley Park Golf Club where her father worked, and walking through the public grounds with her mother, climbing on cross-country fences and imagining what it would be like to jump them.

Julie Murray has loved horses since she could breathe, so when her daughters showed an interest in Pony Club and then eventing, she was thrilled to go along for the ride.

Murray started volunteering at the Fallbrook Pony Club near her home in Fallbrook, California, serving as an intermediate district commissioner.