Elkton, Md.—Oct. 18—After Saturday's CCI3*-L cross-country at the MARS Maryland 5 Star, Sharon White and Jaguars Duende ascended from 9th place after dressage to take the lead with a score of 29.6. Sara Schulman held steady in second place on Cooley Chromatic, finishing their cross-country round with a score of 30.6. Alexandra Knowles and P.S. I Love You made an impressive jump from 14th place to third, finishing with a score of 31.4.
“I couldn’t have asked 'Jag' to be better today,” said White. “It was really a special day for her, she is a very good competitor, and her mind is excellent. It is really nice to sit on a horse you know wants to go and fight for you and will think of nothing else but doing her job. The biggest thing I learned about Jag is that she is really as good as I think she is, which is really satisfying. It was a big test to come here knowing that Ian Stark’s courses are always intense, so it is very satisfying when a horse does it so easily.”
According to Equiratings, today’s three-star competition presented its most demanding challenge since it began running alongside the five-star event. Only 15% of riders—just 8 out of 53—managed to finish the cross-country phase within the optimum time, marking a sharp decline from previous years. In addition, the cross-country jumping clear rate proved to be the toughest yet, with only 53% of riders achieving a faultless round. This is a notable shift from the rates of 37% in 2021, 61% in 2022, and 68% in 2023.
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The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is pleased to announce the continued partnership with RevitaVet and Tom Neuman to provide the 2024 USEA Young Rider of the Year with one RevitaVet system and prize pack.
As the curtains close on the 2024 competition season, the USEA is looking back at an incredibly busy fall season. With the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, two Dutta. Corp USEA Young Event Horse Championships, Area Championships in all 10 sections of the country, and more, there was no shortage of excitement, but the rise in IEL Team Challenges was certainly a highlight of the year for the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL). Since we last reported in October, 13 additional IEL Team Challenges were hosted at events across Areas II, III, IV, VI, and VIII, to bring the grand total for the year to 44 challenges.
As 2024 draws to a close, we would be remiss not to recognize the many volunteers who dedicate countless hours of their free time to the success of our sport. There were 72,374 hours logged in the USEA’s Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) this year across the 171 events that utilized the eventingvolunteers.com platform to log volunteer time. This impressive amount of volunteer time was contributed by 4,378 amazing VIP volunteers.
Are you following along with the action from home this weekend? Or maybe you're competing at an event and need information fast. Either way, we’ve got you covered! Check out the USEA’s Weekend Quick Links for links to information including the prize list, ride times, live scores, and more for all the events running this weekend.