Young Riders is approaching quickly! Area X Young Rider coordinator and now EN guest blogger, Michelle Parker, was kind enough to introduce herself and break down the 2012 NAJYRC eventing entries. Thanks to Michelle for this brilliant look at how superbly all of the areas will be represented this year and thank you for reading.
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From Michelle:
Hello EN! I am excited that I will be blogging next week from the NAJYRC. I am the Young Rider Coordinator from Area X and my daughter Claire and her horse Hope Cove are the only pair from Area X at NAJYRC this year. She will be scramble teamed with our neighbors to the north, Area IX in the CCI* competition (Area IX has 4 total riders going with 3 in the CCI* and 1 in the CCI**). GO TEAM IX AND X!!! OK…I will try to remain completely neutral in my reporting except for this one outburst!
The definitive entries from each area were due to the USEF (our national federation for the competition) last Monday. All of the Young Rider Coordinators were informed on Tuesday by the awesome Shealagh Costello, USEF Director of Eventing National Programs what areas and who from the areas would be going at both levels. I am happy to report that EVERY USEA Area has at least one entry this year in the CCI* and 7 out of the ten areas have at least one entry in the CCI** this year. Area V is the only area to submit a full team for the CCI** this year. All the other teams in the CCI** will be made up of scramble teams from all the areas submitting entries. But, Areas I, II, III and V all have full CCI* teams this year.
I am a numbers person so I thought I would share some of the numbers I have gathered thus far from this year’s entries. These are my calculations and not official in any way!
There were 63 applications submitted for the CCI* earlier this year. Of those 63, 48 were qualified by the deadline to compete at the NAJYRC. Of the 48 qualified, 34 were submitted as definitive entries by their respective areas. So, if you look at it in percentages: 76% of the original applicants got qualified by the deadline (I think this is outstanding!), 71% of those quailed were either selected by their area from the field of respective applicants or were otherwise able to go, and 54% of the original applicants are expected to be presenting at the first jog at NAJYRC. It is the last percentage that should make every Junior rider on that list of definitive entries now in the hands of the organizer VERY PROUD! These are indeed the cream of the crop of our Eventing Junior riders!
As one might expect, the numbers at the CCI** are much smaller. There were 17 applications for the CCI** earlier this year. Of those 17, 16 qualified by the deadline to compete at the NAJYRC. Of the 16 qualified, 13 were submitted as definitive entries by their respective areas. And the percentages are: 94% of the original applicants got qualified by the deadline (truly outstanding!), 81% of those qualified were either selected by their area from the field of respective applicants or were otherwise able to go, and 76% of the original applicants are expected to present at the first jog at NAJYRC. Again, these are the cream of the crop of our Eventing Young Riders! You guys ROCK!
There are expected to be 7 US teams at the CCI* level and 3 US teams at the CCI** level. Hopefully, we will hear about the Canadian entries soon.
As a coordinator for a program that I feel is core to our future USA Eventing teams, I say job well done to all who tried to qualify, congratulations to all who qualified and GOOD LUCK to all preparing this week or who are on your way to Kentucky! It is going to be a very exciting NAJYRC! Safe travels and keep your ponies in bubble wrap!
I will try to think of something more exciting than percentages to write about next time……….
