The United States Eventing Association (USEA) Board of Governors voted last night to mirror the dates decided by US Equestrian (USEF) for suspending recognizing competitions and educational activities. The USEA will extend its suspension of recognizing events under its direct jurisdiction through May 3, 2020. The suspension extends also to USEA recognized educational activities, Young Event Horse, Future Event Horse, and New Event Horse competitions.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a historic and unprecedented impact on all aspects of lives around the world and the U.S. eventing community is no different. The USEA is closely monitoring the recommendations of the CDC as well as federal, state, and local guidelines and will continue to communicate with our members throughout this trying time.
The USEA strongly recommends competitors NOT attend events before May 3 and that organizers NOT offer any type of competitions or activities at this time. Competitions that choose to run before May 3 will do so without USEA recognition or liability insurance coverage. Competitors attending those events will not be able to earn year-end or leaderboard points, USEA Classic Series qualifications, or USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) qualifications.
As the May 3 deadline approaches the USEA Board of Governors will reconvene to reassess the situation. A formal process is being put into place to reschedule competitions affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. All competitions will be notified when the process commences, however, if any competition would like to reschedule the organizer needs to notify Katlynn Sacco at the USEF of their intentions along with dates and levels and copy their Area Chair. The USEA appreciates the patience of organizers while the process is formalized. The USEA will refund organizers' registration fees to all organizers that were already paid to the USEA for events that were scheduled to take place between March 16 and May 3. USEA starter fees are to be refunded to entered competitors by competition organizers.
The USEA is also committed to giving competitors an adequate amount of notice to safely prepare horses for when eventing resumes.
The USEA staff continues to be available for our members. Please contact us with any questions. For questions about the USEA’s decision please contact [email protected].
COVID-19 Updates from USEA
Riders in both the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S and the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L are sharing similar sentiments about this year's cross-country courses: course designer Derek di Grazia didn't play around this year. Here is what some of the riders across both divisions had to say about the tracks they will aim to conquer on Saturday.
Off The Record decided not to let Michael Jung be the only record-breaking entry at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event this week and delivered a career-best score in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S on Friday morning. He and Will Coleman delivered a test that received a score of 21.8, not only marking a personal best for the horse but also securing their position at the top of the leaderboard going into cross-country tomorrow.
Boyd Martin and the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding Commando 3 were the last pair to go in the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L field on Friday afternoon and were warmly greeted to the bluegrass with an impressive downpour that outshined anything the other horse and rider pairs had to combat throughout the day. But that didn’t stop this pair from putting their best foot forward and impressing the judges enough to earn them a score of 26.0, just 0.2 points ahead of second-place pair Tom McEwen (GBR) and Brookfield Quality.
Please always remain vigilant when it comes to sending any personal communications via email or text. Every year we receive reports of members and leaders of our sport receiving phishing attempts both online and by phone. These are often communications disguised as being sent from USEA staff or other leaders. As the years go on, the phishing attempts appear to be more directed and tailored.