United States Eventing Association

Here are some notes from a few afternoon open sessions at the USEA Annual Meeting and Convention at the Hyatt Regency in Cincinnati, Ohio. Check back this evening for a highlight video of the Safe Sport and Equine Welfare Rules seminar with Sonja Keating and Dr. Stephen Schumacher. Also be sure you follow the USEA on Facebook and Twitter for additional notes, photos, and video interviews!

Membership Committee and Affiliates Open Forum
During the Membership Committee and Affiliate Meeting Open Forum, Jennifer Hardwick of the USEA shared membership numbers for 2013. There were 11,560 memberships, which is a slight increase over 2012, including 1,500 new members that were either brand new this year or have been away for two or more years. The USEA has been pushing to get members to renew their memberships on time for competitions. One thing often encountered in the office is competitors going to horse trials and not renewing their membership or registering horses. A lot of work in the office is done sending out notices to these people prior to events they have entered. Horse registration is also up, with more than 100 new horse registrations in 2013. The USEA also approved over 200 educational activities this year, including clinics, schooling shows, etc.

Also, the USEA Board of Governors approved in August to, beginning December 1 of this year, to require that all Canadian competitors be members of the USEA as well as register their horses with the USEA. In the past, the reciprocity of Americans competing in Canada was equal, but now the number of Canadians coming south far outweighs the other, hence the new requirement. Both Canada Equine and Canadian riders have been amiable regarding the change. There were close to 700 Canadian starts this year.

The direction for the Membership Committee next year is the following:

1. Promoting and growing the Youth Development Committee. Getting young people involved, increasing communication and collaboration with Pony Club, etc. There is a poster and brochure that is being circulated in the hopes to increase interest.

2. Intercollegiate Eventing League: VP of Membership, Mark Hart, introduced the budding Intercollegiate Eventing League concept, pointing out that major discussion of last year regarded maintaining the membership of youth bound for college. Tying into this discussion, is helping high schools to recognize eventing as a collegiate sport so that students may receive P.E. credits, approved absences, and experience for college applications.

3. Make Beginner Novice and Novice more user-friendly. There seems to be pressure on course designers to make the lower level courses as aesthetically pleasing and intimidating as at the upper levels. Mark is concerned that the courses may often be too difficult, and coupled with the cost of competing and ease of elimination based on simply failing to follow a rule, Mark is concerned that eventing loses people, scares them away, and they don’t come back. Allison Springer said she would love to see Beginner Novice and Novice become more user-friendly and less about competition. She would love to be able to help her nervous student competing for the first time instead of watch them make a mistake because she cannot speak to them during competition.

There was also much discussion about the intro and starter levels and the rising number of competitions hosting these divisions during recognized horse trials. Intro and starter offers an affordable, inviting, and safe introduction to the sport and set the USEA up to increase interest and attract members of all ages. It was agreed by the Membership Committee that the intro and starter levels should be embraced by the USEA, even though they are not nationally recognized divisions.

Janet Gunn, the Affiliates Coordinator, reported there were 33 new affiliates this year. Also, Dan Michaels of Area IX reported that the Mountain States Eventing Association received a grant to hire professional course designer James Atkinson to design and guide the construction of a new cross-country course at Lory State Park in Colorado. The previous course was destroyed by a wildfire, and the materials were insured so the state paid for the jumps to be replaced. A volunteer crew will work under the guidance of Atkinson to rebuild the jumps so the public once again has a place to school.

Eventing Calendar Planning for 2015 and Beyond
Roger Haller and Lou Leslie moderated the “Eventing Calendar Planning for 2015 and Beyond” forum, which gave Area chairs, event organizers, and riders alike an opportunity to discuss the challenges involved in planning a competition calendar each year.

The challenges that USEF, Area Chairs, and Event Organizers face when deciding which events fall on what weekend are threefold. Lou Leslie recounted Margie Malloy’s analogy of a three-legged stool. All three legs must be cared for: the riders, organizers, and officials. Otherwise, the structure topples over.

The group was reminded of five goals of calendar planning:

1. To provide preparatory (horse trials), qualifying (CIC’s), and destination (CCI and Championships) competitions.

2. To provide more balanced opportunities for competitors of all geographic areas.

3. To expand a schedule of upper-level national competitions.

4. To provide additional CIC’s before CCI’s. At the two-star level, there should be three CIC’s before a CCI, and at the three-star level there should be at least two CIC’s before a CCI.

5. To provide a variety of events and sites within each Area.

Professional Horseman’s Council
The Professional Horseman’s Council Meeting was a lively discussion, moderated by Jon Holling, about several potential developments in the sport. Karen O’Connor spearheaded a rule change proposal regarding warm-up jumps in show jumping. At most shows, the warm-up fences consist of one cross rail, one vertical, and one oxer. O’Connor would like to see two sets of standards at every warm-up jump so that any jump can be made into an oxer, as the cross rail is usually the least frequently used warm-up jump, mostly at the upper levels. This would help alleviate chaos in the warm-up arena when most riders are trying to jump the same oxer. There was also discussion about the warm-up stewards limiting the number of horses going into the warm -up arena at one time, which would also help prevent riders from warming up their horses excessively.

This was followed by Mike Huber’s proposal of adding a level between Training and Preliminary, which would serve to bridge the large gap between the two levels. Many professionals were in favor of this, citing that not only is it a large gap for riders who may be new to that level of riding, but also to the horses. It is also widely agreed that organizers may be losing business because many lower-level riders are tired of competing at Training level but don’t feel like they can go Preliminary. A 3’5” division, with larger galloping fences on cross-country and smaller technical questions, would serve those riders and educate green horses.

Max Corcoran brought up an Event College at competitions; individuals that would educate the general public on the sport at horse trials. This could increase spectatorship at large events, such as Rolex Kentucky. Julie Hook also presented concerns about the level of difficulty on cross-country that course designers present at the Beginner Novice level, which is meant to introduce newcomers to the sport. She explained that 80 percent of starters are lower-level, and that many riders never desire to go above the Novice and Training level. The Beginner Novice level serves to attract additional competitors in the sport, but when the cross-country is too difficult (trakehner fences on course or the largest fence at the start of the course), riders may be discouraged from competing and trainers lose profit, as well.

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