Mallory Hogan and Clarissa Purisima. Photo by Shelby Allen.
US Equestrian has just released the 2018 Emerging Athletes Eventing 18 Program Participants List! These riders will be invited to participate in winter training sessions with USEF Eventing Emerging Athlete Coach Leslie Law.
The Emerging Athletes List designates athletes with the potential to evolve into future team candidates.
Eventing 18 Accepted Participants
Alexandra Baugh (Georgetown, Ky.)
Joe Bowersox (North East, Md.)
Mia Braundel (Clayton, N.C.)
Haley Carspecken (Purcellville, Va.)
Kalli Core (Orange, Texas)
Isabella Dowen (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
Mia Farley (San Clemente, Calif.)
Cosby Green (Lexington, Ky.)
Mallory Hogan (Belvedere, Calif.)
Carson Richards (Charleston, S.C.)
Alice Roosevelt (Stanfordville, N.Y.)
Madison Temkin (Sebastopol, Calif.)
Sophie Tice (Danville, Calif.)
Megan Traynham (Arbuckle, Calif.)
Delaney Vaden (Nevada City, Calif.)
In addition to those participating in the training sessions, other athletes will be able to audit the training sessions and participate in lectures on horse management, physiotherapy and show jumping course design.
Eventing 18 Auditing Participants
Isabella Gunningham (Medina, Wash.)
Maia Kantorowski (Aberdeen, N.C.)
Ryan Keefe (Sandy Spring, Md.)
Maddie McElduff (Ocala, Fla.)
McKinsey Wickman (Prosper, Texas)
Congrats to all the riders named!
Mike Huber, Chairman of the USEF Eventing Sport Committee and Emerging Athlete Working Group, explains the selection process:
“We look at each rider’s resume and videos, and in many cases we have seen them ride in person. We look for talent from the rider or the horse/rider combination’s talent — selection is based more on the rider than the horse’s ability. We are looking for riders who will ultimately go to the highest level, and we are there to nurture that talent along. We look forward to having the repeat riders that are joining us from last year, and we are excited about the new riders. When they get into the training sessions, we begin to see what they are made of.”
Leslie Law adds, “We are looking for talent that will, hopefully, one day develop into high performance riders to represent the U.S. on an international level. Besides that, we are selecting those who have dedication. It’s a long road in equestrian sport, so dedication is important. We need to try to identify that [dedication] and those who are in it for the long haul and prepared to work hard for it.”
With regard to the new auditing portion of the program, he says, “We were looking for that next level of athletes who haven’t quite gotten there in one way or another yet, but we thought it would be a very good idea for them to be able to still join us at our January sessions and see what they are about. We do a lot of lectures before and after we ride, which is very beneficial. I think it is good to start bringing them in and involving them in some way. I thought it was a way to try to have them involved and see how they took it on forward.”
The Eventing 18 athletes’ winter training sessions will be located in Ocala, Fla., and Temecula, Calif. Confirmed dates will be forthcoming.
The Eventing 25 list of accepted and auditing participants will be released in late November 2017.
[US Equestrian Announces Emerging Athlete Eventing 18 Program Participants for 2018]
