At the 2021 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention, the Adult Riders committee led an open forum featuring guest speakers Asia Vedder and Dr. Kevin Keane, both busy and active eventers. Throughout the forum, Vedder and Keane answer several questions on juggling work, life, and eventing to help fellow adult riders find creative ways to make all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Keane, a high-level veterinarian based in Area II who has previously acted as a Team Veterinarian for three countries and has competed up to the five-star level, put together the acronym DRAFTS for key points of consideration for adult riders which stands for:
Discipline
Riding Program
Ability
Funding
Time Management
Suitability
Vedder, who has a lifelong history in horses from competing in showjumping to working with racehorses and steeplechase horses, now works for her family ranch and competes at the three-star level of eventing. She offered some different perspectives as a California resident: "I am not in a barn or a program, I am doing this on my own most of the time. So all of Kevin's points are amazing and I wish I was in a program where are of those points were dictated for me, but I have to create all of that myself. I go for a lesson probably once a week, if I can do two I will but I have to choose between taking a dressage lesson or a jump lesson so I often am jumping on my own with my father, usually setting for me."
Check out the entire Open Forum replay here and see what practices Keane and Vedder suggest that you can implement into your own program.
There were surprisingly few shakeups to the top of the leaderboards Friday at the MARS Bromont CCI, but the incredibly close scores leave no margin for error heading into Saturday’s exciting cross-country phase across all five levels.
Tomorrow, the first of five regional clinics for the USEA Emerging Athletes U21 (EA21) Program kicks off in the central region of the country in Benton, Louisiana, at Holly Hill Farm. Throughout the summer, the remaining clinics on the East and West Coast will follow. At each clinic, 12 hand-selected riders will participate in a two-day clinic led by USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) coaches. The purpose of the EA21 program is to create a pipeline for potential team riders by identifying and developing young talent, improving horsemanship and riding skills, and training and improving skills and consistency. The intention is to provide young athletes with access to an added level of horsemanship and riding skills to further their training and skill development with greater consistency.
After the first day of competition, Canadian Olympian Colleen Loach and her horse FE Golden Eye lead an international field in the CCI4*-L division of the MARS Bromont CCI.