United States Eventing Association

Wildcat Eventing is Ten Years Strong at the University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky Dressage and Eventing Team has been a club team for about 10 years now and was founded in 2008. Our team members consist of dressage riders and eventers ranging from noncompeting to the Intermediate/two-star level. The team has grown tremendously over the years. Currently, we have about 60 members.

We have members from all over the country from California to New Jersey. Our members are coached by whomever they wish to be coached by. Lexington is such an ideal place because we have so many great coaches in the area including Cathy Wieschhoff, Allie Knowles, and Clark Montgomery, just to name a few.

We host annual clinics, as well as a hunter pace in the spring and a jumper show in the fall. In the past we have hosted clinics with Will Coleman, Katy Groesbeck and this year we will be hosting a clinic with Ryan Wood. If we have spots left after team members sign up for the clinics we will open them to the public, and we also allow auditing.

Our hunter pace and jumper show are our major annual fundraisers, but this year we are adding a 5k as a fundraising event as well! The hunter pace and jumper show are both at Masterson Station Park. The jumper show is held in the fall, so keep an eye on our Facebook page for this year’s date! The hunter pace will be held in April, and more information will be available on our Facebook page. Our 5k will be held April 22 at 9:00 a.m. at The Club at UK’s Spindletop Hall, sign up online if you want to join in! We also participate in restaurant night fundraisers at local restaurants close to campus for mini fundraisers.

We also have guest speakers at meetings and team dinners for bonding. Our guest speakers have varied in the past, from Reese Koffler giving Dressage tips to local massage therapist Michele Haman with Equi-librium Therapy talking about the importance of massage therapy with horses!

The officers always encourage and stress the importance of volunteering in the equine community, so we volunteer at a lot of events at the Kentucky Horse Park, including the Kentucky Three-Day Event, and at smaller events like clean up days at Masterson Station.

This year we hope to attend at least four intercollegiate events, including Poplar Place, Spring Bay, and FENCE, and send as many teams as possible to the Intercollegiate Championship at the Virginia Horse Trials in May.

You can find out more information about the University of Kentucky Dressage and Eventing Team by checking out their website or following them on Facebook, on Instagram @ukeventing, or on Twitter @UKDET.

All photos courtesy of the University of Kentucky Dressage and Eventing Team.

About the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program

The USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program was established in 2014 to provide a framework within which eventing teams and individual competitors could flourish at universities and colleges across the country. The USEA offers a discount of $25 on annual USEA memberships for current students of universities and colleges registered as Affiliates with the USEA and many events across the country now offer Intercollegiate Team Challenges throughout the year, where collegiate eventers can compete individually as well as on teams with their fellow students.

In Intercollegiate Team Challenges, each rider’s score is multiplied by a coefficient appropriate for their level to account for differences in level difficulty and then the individual scores are added together to determine the team score. Only the best three individual scores will count towards the team score, so teams of four will have one “drop” score. Click here to learn more about the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program.

The USEA wants to feature your collegiate eventing team in our Intercollegiate Eventing Spotlight series! Please send your story and photos to Jessica Duffy to be featured.