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Nov 26, 2021
What You Need to Know: New Eventing Rules Effective December 1, 2021
With the new competition season kicking off officially on December 1, it’s time to brush up on the USEF Rules For Eventing ! There are five new rules and amendments that will take effect at the start of the new season regarding competition approvals, officials, and more. To access the full 2022 USEF Rulebook, click here.
EV 121 Calendar Approval Process and Federation Guidance
An addition to this rule was made regarding eventing competition standards in point two as follows: EVENTING COMPETITION STANDARDS. The Eventing Competition Standards apply to all National levels of Eventing Competitions. Refer to Annex 5 on the Federation Website for the USEF/USEA Eventing Competition Standards.
EV 134 Dressage Rules
A new rule was added to this list that reads as follows: Judges must be given at least a 30-minute lunch break and at least a 10-minute break every 2 hours. A prior agreement should be met between the judge and competition if a judge will be required to officiate longer than 8 hours in one day, or be required to be on the show grounds longer than 10 hours.
EV 169 National Horse Trials and EV 170 National Three-Day Events
A clarification has been made as to which officials are required at Nationally rated horse trials and three-day events for all levels Beginner Novice-Advanced.
EV 171 Ground Jury
In Section 1 of rule EV 171, further clarification was added to dictate that family members of the cross-country course designer or show jumping course designer are not allowed to serve as the Ground Jury at any event.
EV 172 Additional Judges
Clarification was added to indicate that if the cross-country course designer and show jumping course designer are different individuals, that the show jumping course designer may serve as an additional judge if they are licensed to do so.
In addition to the five rules above, the following changes to the rulebook are pending approval by the USEF Board of Directors.
EV 108 Exercising and Warming Up
Placement poles are not permitted at National Horse Trials.
EV 153 Faults
This clarification was added in to solidify that a rider may not request permission to continue on with cross-country after receiving a CR penalty.
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