United States Eventing Association

The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships Will Return in 2021

Like many of the events in 2020, the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships were canceled this year due to COVID-19. The Championships were scheduled to take place on May 16-17, 2020 in Fairburn, Georgia at Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trials. Although the Championships did not happen this year, they will return in 2021. The 2021 USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships are scheduled to take place next year over Memorial Day weekend at Virginia Horse Trials in Lexington, Virginia.

Due to the cancellation of this year, the USEA agreed on extending the joint bid from Chattahoochee Hills’ organizer Hugh Lochore and the Virginia Horse Trials’ organizer Andy Bowles by one year. This extension is so that both venues have the opportunity to host the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships two times. The updated USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championships schedule is as follows:

• 2021 - Virginia Horse Trials in Lexington, Virginia
• 2022 - Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trials in Fairburn, Georgia
• 2023 - Virginia Horse Trials in Lexington, Virginia

There are no qualifications necessary for Championships, but schools represented must be registered Affiliates of the USEA. Students must be enrolled as undergraduate students. They may compete in the USEA Intercollegiate Championships up to six months after graduating, allowing December graduates to compete in the May Championships. In 2019, the USEA introduced the graduate division at Championships which allows graduate students to compete in their own division at the Intercollegiate Championships.

On the West Coast, Fresno County Horse Park submitted an expression of interest in 2019 to host a future Intercollegiate West Coast Championships. The USEA Board of Governors voted to have a pilot year first showing participation from six different colleges/universities. The pilot year was originally set to take place at the intercollegiate team challenge on April 17-19, 2020 at Fresno County Horse Park, but due to COVID-19, this was canceled.

The Fresno intercollegiate team challenge will now take place next year in April 2021 at Fresno County Horse Park. This team challenge will serve as a pilot year for a future USEA Intercollegiate Eventing West Coast Championship. As a reminder, this team challenge must have at least six colleges/universities participate for a 2022 USEA Intercollegiate Eventing West Coast Championship to be considered.

The USEA looks forward to the 2021 Championships and the Fresno County Horse Park intercollegiate team challenge!

For any questions, please email [email protected].

About the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program

The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program was established in 2014 to provide a framework within which eventing teams and individual competitors could flourish at universities and colleges across the country. The USEA offers a discount of $25 on annual USEA memberships for current students of universities and colleges registered as Affiliates with the USEA. Many events across the country now offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges where collegiate eventers can compete individually as well as on teams with their fellow students. In Intercollegiate Team Challenges, each rider’s score is multiplied by a coefficient appropriate for their level to account for differences in level difficulty and then the individual scores are added together to determine the team score.

The USEA would like to thank Bates Saddles, EQuine AMerica Magazine, FITS, World Equestrian Brands, RevitaVet, FLAIR and US Equestrian for sponsoring the Intercollegiate Eventing Program