United States Eventing Association

The VIP Volunteer: From Farm Shows to the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, Debbie Hinkle Does it All

Debbie Hinkle has long been a staple of the eventing community in Area VIII. While she hasn’t spent her entire life on a farm, she first started riding farm horses and volunteering at farm shows.

“We were farmers in southeast Kentucky back in the day, post World War II,” Hinkle said, laughing. “You’ve read about this in your history books. I rode farm horses as a child. This was many moons ago, nothing competitive.”

Hinkle really started to become more involved with horses in 1981, when she started riding in between the births of her two children at Mary Fike’s Harrington Mill Farm. “Back then, there were a lot of farm shows, and so Mary had a horse trial at her farm, and I started working with Mary then,” Hinkle said. “​​I've been working with them since. I’ve done all the jobs, except for organizer. I was Mary Fike’s secretary for years and years and years and years and for a bunch of other events. So that's where I got started. When my daughter, Casey, turned 7 in 1987, she started riding competitively and kept the loop going.”

Through Harrington Mill Farm, Hinkle has discovered a second family that is still with her today.

“You build yourself another family of all your horse people. Really it's all a branch off from Mary's farm, Harrington Mill Farm, all of our kids rode together, so we're all still hanging out. I looked around [while volunteering] and I thought, ‘Okay, there are 19 people here that are somehow associated back to Mary’s farm, to our group.’”

Now, Hinkle has been volunteering for several decades, with no plans to stop anytime soon. While she volunteers all over Area VIII, she spends most of her time at the Kentucky Horse Park, where she worked at the cross-country start box for the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event at the end of April.

Even outside of Hinkle’s original Harrington Mill Farm family, she has found the eventing community to be welcoming.

“The people who do eventing in particular, because I've been to other equine events, they're a congenial group,” Hinkle said. “It's a happy atmosphere and everyone helps everyone. Why wouldn't you want to be around that?”

Besides the fellowship and camaraderie that comes with volunteering within the eventing community, the horses also keep Hinkle coming back to volunteer again and again. “I just enjoy watching that animal succeed at something they're very good at,” Hinkle said.

However, she does worry that there aren’t enough volunteers to go around, particularly younger volunteers who will be able to maintain and grow the community as the years go by.

“The continued decline of the volunteer spirit is infuriating to me,” Hinkle said. “Someone helped you and you're not willing to help [in return]? We look around at these events and we think, ‘Okay, we're all in wheelchairs, practically. Who's going to do this?’ For every 50-year-old volunteer you find, there are 20 who say, ‘I don't have the time,’ right? Well, I believe everyone stays the same number of minutes long. Of course you have the time, you choose not to offer it.”

Hinkle not only volunteered growing up, she also emphasized the importance of volunteering during her daughter’s eventing career. “Back in the day, we did go to these events,” Hinkle said. “We drove hours and hours and days and days to all of these events. The first thing we did was say, these are our ride times. How can we help all of us, riders included.”

For Hinkle, volunteering isn’t about getting a pass to cross-country schooling or coupons towards your entry fee.

“Volunteerism, by its name, should not even be recognized,” Hinkle said. “You should just do it and go away. You don't need presents. You don't need gifts. If someone hands you something, you say, ‘thank you so much,’ but you shouldn't expect it. I enjoy the reward of seeing someone appreciate what I just did for them.”

To get more young people involved in volunteering, Hinkle says a mentorship program would go a long way. “I think we absolutely have to start getting some mentoring done and some shadowing, and not just come and stand for 15 minutes and say, ‘Yeah, I've got that,’” Hinkle said. “I'm saying, come spend the day, right? See what it's really like. Try the job– anyone can do it or try it, or whatever. And I think I'm willing [to mentor]. I'm sure there are other volunteers that have been doing this forever and ever that would be willing.”

While some riders may gallop past a jump judge on cross-country and think, ‘Where does the socializing and fellowship come in? Don’t you just sit there, by yourself?’ Hinkle says this is far from the truth.

“These are your friends, and you don't want the event to fail, right?” She said. “You may not be sitting adjacent to them, but you're on the same team. It's a very rewarding field, and it makes you feel good, right? Any day you can have somebody smile at you and you smile back is a good day.”

“If you travel to Louisiana to volunteer for that event, those are your future friends,” Hinkle continued. “Open your mouth. Introduce yourself. Your next best friend could be right there in front of you. Line your basket full of people.”

While Hinkle has worked in nearly every position available to volunteers, her favorite job is cross-country starter.

“Cross-country starter is so fun, because first of all, let's face it, it’s the best phase,” Hinkle said. “I don’t know how many horses I’ve started. I think it’s well past 30,000. I know I’ve started three generations of several families. They leave me happy. You know, I can't help what happens after fence one, but everybody shows up excited. They're ready to show what they've learned or what they've been working on, and off they go.”

Over several decades of volunteering, Hinkle has encountered many memorable moments, but one sticks out in particular from her time volunteering at the Kentucky Three-Day Event in the 80s.

“My daughter had the poster of the previous year’s winner, Jamie Smart and Sudden Impact,” Hinkle said. “She was like eight or nine, she was little. My daughter’s name is Casey and his horse’s barn name was Casey. I was talking to him passing by and telling him, ‘My daughter’s name is Casey and she would love to meet your horse.’”

“You weren’t really allowed to go straight to the stalls,” Hinkle continued. “But not only did he take her to the stall, he also signed a poster. That memory said to me, this is the right sport. He took the time to take this kid and share his horse with her, because he wanted to– because he loved his horse.”

About the USEA Volunteer Incentive Program

Volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport—the unsung heroes, and the people who make it possible to keep eventing alive. In efforts to recognize the dedication, commitment, and hard work that volunteers put into eventing, the USEA formed the Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) in 2015. In 2017, an online management portal was designed for volunteers, organizers, and volunteer coordinators at EventingVolunteers.com, which is also available as an app for iOS and Android.

Volunteer incentives include national and area recognition, year-end awards, a top-10 USEA Volunteer leaderboard, and a Volunteer of the Year award which is given to the volunteer who accumulates the most volunteer hours on EventingVolunteers.com at recognized events throughout the USEA competition year. Click here to learn more about the USEA Volunteer Incentive Program.

The USEA would like to thank Horse Illustrated for their support of the Volunteer Incentive Program.