United States Eventing Association

Three-Phase Events - An Interesting Twist on Eventing...for Gaited Horses!

The Three Phase Event is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to provide quality combined competition venues for all breeds of gaited horses and supporting a training, education and development (T.E.D.) program for children, young adults and senior riders of gaited horses. The second annual national Three Phase Event, held at the new Kentucky Equestrian Center in Winchester, KY on April 19-20, 2008, was a huge success by the organizers, the competitors and those who attended to watch.

This type of versatility event has never been put together before for the gaited horses and because of the format of the horse and rider team point system makes it totally non political in it’s scoring. Each horse and rider team, arriving at the stadium obstacle course, the dressage ring and the cross country obstacle course are presented and compete one at a time. Each team is given a start time at each venue, and it is their performance that day at that venue that the judges score on. Because of this, the relaxed feel in the barns, the laughter and camaraderie between competitors is seen and felt through out the entire week-end. Each rider starts each venue with a hundred points, and what they lose through deductions after each event accumulates until all three events are finished. Until the last rider of the day crosses the finish line of the cross country event, no one knows who the winner will be. The three disciplines challenges the horse and rider teams in different ways; and that is the challenge of the Three Phase Event.

We encourage anyone who has a gaited horse, whether it’s a registered breed, or just because it just naturally turned out to be a gaited horse is not important to us. We strive to open our competition to anyone whos’ horse is gaited. At a TREK seminar we attended in early spring, we were sitting at lunch with a couple of ladies we had just met. Jokingly (they thought) they asked if gaited mules could compete. They were quite surprise when they were told they would have been welcomed. A serious flow of questions began then about what they would have to do, about the obstacles and the dressage and before the lunch was over they were seriously trying to figure out if they could get their mules ready in time for the competition. When we were first organizing this event, we were asked if we would consider having a trot division. The individual requesting this was considering those thoroughbreds who were finding another life after racing. As it turned out, in our event of 2008, we had a young girl who had two saddlebreds, one that gaited and one that trotted. She hauled both horses from Chicago, Ill. and had a great time. If you take a moment and go to our website: www.threephaseevent.org, you will see her reaction to the show. She promptly sat down to her computer the very next day after arriving home and wrote a wonderful blog about her experience at the Three Phase Event. Because our event is primarily for the gaited horse, we only consider a small percentage of the trot horses in our overall number of competitors. As we grow the percentage will stay the same, but the numbers will continue to increase.

In the end the primary goal of the Three Phase Event is our T.E.D. program. Our funding goal is to provide financial support to strengthen the knowledge, skills and sound horsemanship of the gaited horse community. We are implementing this goal by sponsoring the national Three Phase Event and various clinics and seminars and by awarding scholarships for individuals committed to equine studies, at the local, state and national levels. Scholarships are also available to those attending equine related trade schools, such as equine dentistry or farrier schools.

Each day we are contacting individuals, companies and corporations seeking sponsorship money to support the T.E.D. program and raise the money to put on the national Three Phase Event competition. Those sponsorship and advertising rates can be found on our website: www.threephaseevent.org. Cash awards, ribbons and trophies are given to the riders in the four levels; beginner novice, novice, training and preliminary and an overall high point winner is given a special awards in the beginner novice/novice combined category and the training/preliminary combined category. Their name and their horses’ name are added to the perpetual trophy on exhibit at the competition. We proudly display the trophy at any trade show or meeting we speak at. As everyone knows, fundraising is almost a full time job, but we feel so strongly about this one of a kind event for the gaited horses, that we gladly take the time to do it.

At the end of it all, we want you to come and experience the Three Phase Event for yourself. The date for the 3^rd annual national Three Phase Event is April 18-19, 2009, at the Kentucky Equestrian Center in Winchester Kentucky. With barns enough to house over 200 entries, (and expanding each year) we look forward to filling them in our upcoming competitions. Spring is a beautiful time in Kentucky, and the stream flowing through the cross country course is lovely. The challenging part is to remember you are on a timed course and can’t spend time looking at the scenery while competing. But during your walk through don’t be surprised if you see wild turkey, maybe young deer, and all sorts or birds and butterflies. Cattle graze near by and nothing is cuter than the big brown eyes of the newborn babies. Colorful wild flowers, sprinkle the landscape with the mountains in the distance for a backdrop.

Check your calendars, mark the date, and make sure your get your application mailed by midnight, April 1^st, 2009 (the entry forms and the rules and regulations can be found on the website: www.threephaseevent.org) Whether you are on a Mountain Horse, or Paso Fino, gaited Morgan or Arabian, Tennessee Walker or McCurdy Plantation horse or any other of the 30 or so gaited breeds (or even a gaited mule) we hope to see you at the 2009 national Three Phase Event. If you have any questions, contact me, Kristie Wehmeyer, 859-383-0133 or by email at: [email protected] and I’ll be glad to help you. Come join us in Kentucky!