United States Eventing Association

University of New Hampshire H.T. Runs Third Successful Event Utilizing ShowConnect

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is proud to announce that the University of New Hampshire (UNH) H.T. has recently completed their third event utilizing ShowConnect. The UNH Fall H.T., which ran on September 25, 2022, was organized by Equine Program faculty member and owner of the On The Bit Events, Liz Oertel Johnson with the help of students from the UNH Bachelor of Science in Equine Studies program.

ShowConnect is a community based event management system that serves as a hub for all professionals involved in running both recognized and unrecognized events. For more information on ShowConnect, please visit www.showconnect.org.

Kathryn Kilcommons, a senior at UNH and intern for On The Bit Events, gained significant experience utilizing ShowConnect at the UNH Fall H.T. “What I loved about using ShowConnect was how all of the information you needed was in one place. I have utilized other show management systems in the past where you would need multiple programs and different software to operate, but with ShowConnect, everything was made easy. I also appreciated that multiple users could be on the same server at once. This made it much easier to score during the Horse Trials. The information was all right there at your fingertips,” Kilcommons remarked after the event.

Kilcommons, like many Equine Studies students at UNH, had her first experience working behind the scenes organizing an event while taking Johnson’s “Horse Trial Management” two-credit, seminar-style class. Each semester, Johnson teaches an 8-person class that allows students to learn about the intricacies of organizing a recognized horse trial. Johnson’s goal for the students is to “learn a lot of communication and leadership techniques, as they are assigned a committee of their peers to manage in terms of pre-event prep work and then day of responsibilities. These peers are all of the students in the (UNH) riding program.” Johnson continued by noting that “the students have a broad cross-section of backgrounds, and my hope is that focusing on transferrable skills and utilizing the horse trials as an on-site, fieldwork application, that they can take those management skills into whatever they choose to do down the road.”

Part of UNH’s mission also focuses on benefitting the communities that the university is a part of. Johnson takes great pride in assisting the USEA with ShowConnect, as she sees it as a way for the College of Life Science and Agriculture (COLSA) and the Equine Studies program to give back to the sport and leave a lasting impact on the national eventing community. Johnson intends to continue utilizing ShowConnect at future UNH H.T.’s and feels that the platform will be a great asset to all event organizers in the future.

When asked how her experience working with ShowConnect and the UNH H.T.’s has impacted her, Kilcommons stated, “(It has) sparked my dreams of having a career in the horse show industry. I have always been passionate about horses and always knew I wanted a career in the equine industry. Being a part of this competition and “behind the scenes” gave me the clarity I needed for my future career in the horse show industry.” Kudos to the UNH Equine Studies program for honing the skills of future equine industry professionals, like Kathryn!

About ShowConnect

ShowConnect has been designed with the future in mind. The system provides the critical features event organizers need to register, schedule, and score an event, but also provides many additional features to all sized events that would not be cost-effective by any other means. It’s designed to allow the flow of information, and in the future, transactions securely in real-time to and from the people and organizations who interact with your event.

ShowConnect is not an online entry system but does allow for manual entries and imports from Xentry, the USEA’s online entry system.

ShowConnect provides one location with everything needed to run an event, state-of-the-art technology, enhanced scoring systems, real-time updates, easy accessibility, and support for organizers and secretaries when you need it most.