United States Eventing Association

Area IV riders flocked to the Sundance Farm Horse Trials in Plymouth, Wisconsin, this past weekend for the Area IV Championships. Featuring Championship divisions at the Preliminary, Modified, Training, Novice, and Beginner Novice levels, the Championships at Sundance Farm received much praise from all of those competing. Get to know each of the five 2023 Area IV Champions a little bit better below.

The United States Eventing Association’s (USEA) Area IV is comprised of the Heartland states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Area IV Chair Jill Wagenknecht says that eventing in the Area makes up the heart of what the sport of eventing represents: community, dedication, as well as having fun. Area IV will host 16 USEA-recognized events (including one USEA-recognized combined test) in 2023 during a concentrated season that begins with the Catalpa Corner May Madness Horse Trials in Iowa City, Iowa, on May 6 and concludes with the Windermere Run H.T in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 20-22.

The 2022 Area IV Championships took place in Wheeler, Wisconsin at the Otter Creek Fall Horse Trials on September 16-18. Four new champions were crowned in four divisions: Preliminary, Training, Novice, and Beginner Novice. Meet your newest USEA Area IV Champions below.

Get to know each United States Eventing Association (USEA) Area a little better in this new series, Meet the Areas! This month’s feature is USEA Area IV which is made up of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Four Area IV riders dominated their divisions at the 2022 USEA American Eventing Championships and several five-star riders such as Jim Wofford, Meghan O’Donoghue, Leah Lang-Glusic, Allison Springer, Emily Hamel, Lauren Kieffer, Jennie Brannigan all got their start in Area IV. Learn more about Area IV below.

In preparation for this year’s Area IV Championships, the team that hosts the Heritage Park Horse Trials in Olathe, Kansas invested in a new course of cross-country jumps for their competitors and championship qualifiers to enjoy. The new courses and jumps received rave reviews from competitors and spectators alike and paired with picture-perfect weather and the championships were a huge success. We caught up with the riders who topped the leaderboards following their year-end performances.

Now in its seventh year, the Sundance Farm Horse Trials hosted the Area IV Championships this year at the Mahloch family farm in Plymouth, Wisconsin. In order to qualify to compete in the Area IV Championships, riders would need to earn first through fourth place at one event during the qualifying period from October 8, 2019 to September 1, 2020.

For over 20 years the USEA Instructors’ Certification Program (ICP) has been educating all levels of eventing instructors to confirm their knowledge base, both theoretical and practical, upon which they will continue to build throughout their teaching lifetime. The USEA is now shining the spotlight each month on some of the 300 ICP Certified Instructors.

Julie Wolfert was a triple threat at the Area IV Championships held by the Mid-America Combined Training Association (MACTA) at their Heritage Park course in Olathe, Kansas. Not only did she win both the Preliminary Championship and Open Preliminary divisions on her dressage scores, but she also scooped the Adult Rider Low Score Award with her Championship score of just 26.1 penalties!