The 2021 USEA Annual Meeting and Convention wrapped up a weekend full of information and learning in Albuquerque, New Mexico yesterday, welcoming a few hundred members as well as panelists and professional riders from all over the country.

I attended several sessions on Saturday, my notes from which you can find below. This was my first time attending Convention, believe it or not, and I definitely plan to make the trip a recurring date on my calendar as I really enjoyed the variety of seminars to attend as well as the opportunity to meet and talk with other USEA members throughout the weekend. Many of the sessions were livestreamed, but replays have not yet been made available — we’ll update this article if and when they are.

Safety Committee Open Forum

The USEA Safety Committee is comprised of three sub-committees or task forces dedicated to the following categories: Horse, Rider and Cross Country Safety. Cross country safety lead Jon Holling noted that the Frangible Fence Fund raised $500,000 in its first year and has aided the addition of 375 new frangible fences at 130 facilities around the country. Fundraising is ongoing in 2021 and has raised $200,000 so far.

“We try to look at the sport as a whole, specifically on cross country,” Jon said of the committee’s work in 2021. “We try to see the issues on the horizon and catch them before they come up. Whenever there is an accident, we look at it and see if there are ways to minimize risk, then give recommendations to the USEA.”

Dr. Jennifer Miller DVM, who heads up the Horse Safety sub-committee, noted some interest in further research such as an epidemiology study using Equiratings data as well as potentially working with heart monitors for continued benefits. Sarah Broussard, representing the Rider Safety sub-committee, said that the members were always looking for updated technology and ways to make our sport safer using these new ideas.

USEA CEO Rob Burk provided a few numbers on safety, noting that the cross country elimination rate for 2021 was down by 8% and the rider fall rate had decreased by 5%. The Mandatory Retirement (horse fall) rate was .22% in 2021, slightly up from a 2017-2019 average of .16% (2020 numbers were not used for comparison due to the variables that affected numbers). The highest Mandatory Retirement rate came at Kentucky this year and the highest number of rider falls also was seen at the 5* level.

Several members asked questions regarding the use of old, outdated equipment, disseminating information and reports following catastrophic accidents, and safety during schooling. Rob Burk noted that the USEA has begun to track schooling incidents, explaining that “a lot of our focus has been on the training and education aspect,” and that those interested in building cross country fences should be better educated on how a fence is read by a horse. David O’Connor, from the audience, also mentioned that the Cross-Country Course Design Guidelines was full of useful information that anyone can access.

Burk also conceded that lack of reporting and the resulting speculation can be more damaging than not. “We need to do a better job of communicating the investigation,” he said, also noting that the organization wanted to avoid giving out personal information or “victim-blaming”. “We’ve looked at the aviation industry and how they report out accidents and I think we can improve on what we’ve done.” He also noted that the USEA is not the keeper of accident records at competitions and that this was something that would need to be worked on in conjunction with the USEF.

Photo by Sally Spickard.

Rule Change Committee Open Forum

Malcolm Hook and Jonathan Elliott sat in to chair the Rule Change Committee’s open forum session, always a popular stop for members to get the latest updates on forthcoming proposed rule changes. The latest batch of rule changes has yet to be discussed and approved by the USEF and will be open for two different comment periods for members.

You can read the full report from this session, including descriptions of the proposed changes that would, if approved, take effect in December 2022, here.

Much discussion centered around the proposed Appendix 3 addition, changing the numbers of MERs required to move up. This proposed change caused much scuffle earlier this year and was subsequently sent to a new task force for further review after members voiced concerns about the number of required runs at Training level (changing from four to six with this proposed change) before moving up to Preliminary.

“Appendix 3 deals with people that haven’t been established at a level and what’s required of them to move between the levels,” Jonathan Elliott said. “It was ultimately tabled and a task force was formed to evaluate the proposal and retool it.”

At least one representative from each Area was on this task force, which tried to take the concerns of stakeholders into account. The result was a change to the proposal that extended the MER window from 24 months to four years.

“We looked at a lot of statistics as we went and there was a lot of debate back and forth,” Malcolm Hook “And ultimately…the riders and horses that have done (at least six MERs) are half as likely to fall as those that had less than six. Therefore, it just seemed smart that it was a logical break even point o do that.” The committee also noted that about 85% of the riders moving from Training to Preliminary are already doing an average of six events at Training before moving up.

Questions still swirled around the conclusion of six events to qualify, and the moderators reminded members that the next open comment period for these proposals will be from December 15 through January 17. You can add your comments to these proposals using your user portal on the USEA website. There will also be another comment period via the USEF in March.

Photo by Sally Spickard.

Eventing is Evolving

Helmed up Ride IQ co-founders McKinsey and Jessa Lux and accompanied by a panel of Kyle Carter, Lauren Nicholson and Doug Payne, the Eventing is Evolving panel featured a Q&A session about the future of the sport.

The session began with a video comparison of eventing in the 70s versus eventing today. Kyle Carter pointed out that as much as some like to wax poetic about the “good old days” of the long format, the courses still showed much less flow than we tend to remember. “The riding has developed to be much smoother,” he explained. “Our former professionals had fewer horses and fewer opportunities to train and get better.”

Moving away from the former long format, all the riders agreed, has lent itself to longer careers and fewer injuries. “Welfare is the biggest improvement over time,” Doug commented. “On a per start basis, we’re far safer now.”

Discussion centered on the implementation of frangible pins, including MIM clips that are designed to break on corner fences and hung rails. The riders all agreed that seeing a pin fall — even if that pin costs a medal as it potentially did in Tokyo for Michael Jung — was better than seeing a horse fall. “Yes, it changes the competition a little bit,” Kyle Carter said. “And if a great horse and a great rider has a pin that costs them a medal, I can live with that and I can live with there being a little more of that. We can’t expect the world to stomach what can happen with a horse fall or a horse injury.”

Lauren Nicholson was a vocal advocate of promoting a higher standard of riding when it comes to safety. “I think the standard of riding needs to keep being raised,” she explained. “You can create as many safety measures as you want, but we have to keep expecting more from the riding and the quality of riding.”

Lauren also noted the “move up mentality” that’s prevalent within our sport, encouraging riders to instead challenge themselves to become more than just proficient at a level. “Everyone has to make the challenge about ‘how well can I do this level and how well can I make that the standard before I move up?’ And trainers have to be able to tell their students they aren’t ready to move up. A lot of people hear what they don’t like and they can always find a trainer that will let them move up.”

“We don’t want people to think they have to move up all the time,” Lauren continued during a part of the discussion that centered around the biggest risks for longevity of the sport. “We need to give everyone goals to attain at the levels they’re comfortable.” She referenced the Grassroots Championship at Badminton as a creative way of keeping people involved and interested in other levels.

Kyle Carter echoed this, saying that accountability and a focus on horsemanship would be the way to get ahead of negative implications. “If we can prioritize horsemanship, we can avoid the things that will crush the longevity of the sport,” he said. “The horsemanship and accountability needs to be taught.”

I’m going to drop in some links to coverage from the USEA from other sessions, including the Board of Governors meeting and Annual Meeting of Members. Be sure to stop by the USEA website for full coverage from Convention week.

Board of Governors Meeting Summary
Annual Meeting of Members Summary
Tokyo Team Review Panel
Creating a Le Lion Atmosphere in the U.S. with Proposed 6- and 7-Year-Old Championships
Meet the USEA President Elect Lou Leslie

The consequence of opting not to bring your camera…bad back-of-house photos! You’re welcome.

Attendees at this weekend’s USEA Annual Meeting and Convention were treated to a special keynote address from Dr. Mark Revenaugh DVM during Saturday’s member meeting and luncheon. An expert on the subject of lameness diagnostics and performance issues, Dr. Revenaugh’s career as equine vet which has taken him around the world as an official USET Team Veterinarian and attracts clients from all over the country to his Oregon practice, Northwest Equine Performance.

You can read more about Dr. Revenaugh and his philosophy here.

Through an engaging hour-long presentation, Dr. Revenaugh reflected on the most important lessons he’s learned, the progression of the equine sports medicine and veterinary field, and what the future holds. Underneath his message was one common theme: what we do now matters, and the big picture is often more useful than looking at everything through a microscope. The following are some key takeaways from a presentation that I know I really took to heart and found to be insightful, impactful, and incredibly important.

1. A strong and healthy spine is key to overall health and wellness.

I’m going to put my personal hat on for just a moment and talk about my recent experience with a chiropractor (a GOOD chiropractor, mind you — there are plenty of poor experiences out there, so do your research). I have suffered from small but recurring soft tissue injuries on my legs due to running. I’m not sure I would have thought to look at my spine during my rehab process; instead I primarily have focused on “why does my Achilles still hurt?”. But then I began working with an incredible chiropractor, who has not only helped rid me of back pain (I’ve had scoliosis since I was very young), but has also helped expand my perspective to appreciate that literally every part of my body connects, in some way, to my spine. Why wouldn’t I think to take proper care of it, then?

This concept applies to our horses, Dr. Revenaugh says. He illustrated his point by listing off several issues that could be traced back to neck issues in horses, from landing and having legs buckle due to spinal compression to bucking, rearing and other “behavioral” problems. He also pointed out the fact that the horse’s lumbar spine is particularly instrumental in creating power and push for jumping, meaning that it often comes up as a point of discomfort if left unmanaged. He pointed out examples where treating a horse’s lumbar spine had helped resolve other hind end issues — hock problems, suspensory issues.

This led into Dr. Revenaugh’s discussion of how we need to be looking at the whole horse — “backing up to look at the picture from a telescope rather than a microscope” — in order to create a better, sounder athlete instead of chasing injury after injury.

2. Medicine doesn’t fix everything.

Dr. Revenaugh also observed the progression of veterinary medicine as it pertained to sporthorses. The 1990s, he joked, were solved by diagnosing everything with EPM and ulcers. The 2000s introduced advances in imaging and regenerative therapies such as stem cells. The 2010s brought about additional options for rehab and injury treatment aside from only stall rest.

“But despite all this progress,” he said. “We have to ask ourselves: are our horses healthier? Stronger? Are they having longer careers? And this question, for me anyway, really makes me question what kind of progress we’re doing and whether I am effective at my job.”

Noting the results of a study done at Los Alamitos racetrack that eliminated the use of corticosteroid injections for 30 days and resulted in a reduction/elimination of injuries and breakdowns, Dr. Revenaugh took a “less is more” bottom line: “We’ve got to start reeling in what we’re doing and try to be more effective.”

This brought him to talk about recovery and proper maintenance of athletes. Using the example of if an NFL team were to try to play for 11 months out of the year — similar to how the eventing competition season has expanded to where the offseason is negligible if you want it to be — he explained that recovery wasn’t being emphasized enough. He referenced the priority that human sports medicine has placed on recovery and preventative treatment as a way to gain a competitive advantage. “This presents a new way of thinking in managing our horses,” he said.

3. Training affects soundness in a very complex and profound way.

“The future of this whole thing is going to be more about building better athletes than fixing injuries,” Dr. Revenaugh continued. “Progress is about getting the right things done, and I think as an industry we need to think about what the right things are.” He encouraged riders to think about building recovery into their training plans and to take some lessons from those outside the horse industry. On that note, he also mentioned a new Sport Horse Series he’s working on with several other industry subject matter experts as well as leading health and wellness professionals from other sports and industries.

4. Give your horse the benefit of the doubt, and listen.

Dr. Revenaugh showed the audience a series of photos depicting a horse and rider jumping a jump. In the series, which was taken from behind, you could clearly see the crookedness with which the horse was jumping and landing, as well as the crookedness of the rider. He described the importance of understanding how our own balance affects our horses way of going, noting that the horse in the photo had presented with some front end issues that could be traced back to this crookedness.

Horses generally don’t want to do something wrong. They aim to please, making it our job to clearly communicate the ask to them and to ensure that our riding isn’t confusing them or causing overcompensation. “People are often looking for veterinary solutions for non-veterinary problems,” he explained. “Evaluate the weaknesses of the riders as they pertain to the horse.”

5. Why does it matter?

“The future is closer than we think and we need to be thinking about how our future should look,” Dr. Revenaugh said in closing. “And we need to be thinking about it today.”

Noting the evolution of veterinary medicine as well as the sport horse industry, Dr. Revenaugh encouraged the audience to think about the future of the sport. “What is the vision? What is the big picture?” he asked. “Are we willing to innovate? Or are we going to keep doing the same thing?”

He told a story of a colleague who had felt somewhat disheartened at some of the clientele he was treating, saying he felt that the owners viewed the horses as disposable commodities.

“The notion of connection to the horse is becoming increasingly important,” he said. “Horses teach us genuine trust, to not be distracted. It’s about that interaction and trust and the ability to work through things. So if we really believe in it, we really need to focus back on that.”

The USEA Annual Meeting and Convention continues this evening with an awards dinner and will wrap up tomorrow with a few more sessions. I’m heading home this evening, but will have some additional notes from the other sessions I attended this weekend, and Erin Tomson (who was just nominated onto the USEA Board of Governors representing Area VII!) will be along tomorrow with a wrap-up of awards from tonight’s dinner. You can follow along with all things Convention on the USEA website here.

Screenshot via Vimeo.

Two hot-button topics topped the sessions on Friday’s schedule at the USEA Annual Meeting & Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year’s annual meeting of members feels a bit more wrought with tension (in some sessions at least), with the recent non-renewals of high performance eventing leadership contracts (USEF Eventing Performance Director Erik Duvander, Managing Director of Eventing Jenni Autry and eventing show jumping coach Peter Wylde have all departed from their positions as of this past week) as well as the as well as the ongoing controversy surrounding the new calendaring process (a USEF-led initiative).

US Equestrian CEO Bill Moroney took the hot seat first this morning to lead the USEF High Performance Athletes Open Forum, where he outlined the plan for the next few months following the departure of Erik Duvander, who took the helm from David O’Connor in 2017. Mr. Moroney took a few moments to outline the feedback and evaluation process that would eventually lead to the decision not to renew leadership contracts, particularly that of Erik Duvander.

“Throughout this process, we had an incredible amount of feedback,” Moroney stated. “One of the key points that made the decision-taking even harder was the fact that we knew and recognized through this process that Erik brought a certain element in the training he did one on one with people and in groups of people – that they really appreciated and found a real value in. However, the evaluations aren’t done just off of just one situation, they’re done off the analysis of multiple issues across the board that have led us to today.”

Two components of evaluation have happened over the last three months or so: confidential surveys were sent to program stakeholders (later during the session, several individuals commented that communications often went to spam folders or were otherwise missed), which led to the request for more direct meetings with USEF leadership for additional communications. The feedback gathered was then analyzed “for patterns, not outliers” and three areas emerged as being most majorly in need:

• Governance structure: What’s working and what isn’t? Is the Performance Advisory Team effective? Should we have a High Performance committee or working group?
• Administration of programs on the USEF side: Are communications clear? Is USEF engaging the diversity of constituents properly?
• The structure of the high performance program and pipeline: Are the programs right? Is USEF doing what the best with the resources it has?

“We learned from this process that we don’t always explain things we know to the outside,” Moroney conceded, noting that much of the strong feedback received from committees, athletes and owners centered around a lack of transparency or communications. He also noted that the athletes themselves provided “the greatest amount of feedback”.

These discussions, which Moroney estimated to have taken place over the last 10 to 12 weeks, eventually identified two key focus areas going forward: leadership and responsibility. This led to some analysis of what other disciplines have done in terms of structuring their high performance programs. Show jumping was a notable example, having worked under the technical advice of Robert Ridland since 2013 with multiple WEG, Olympic and Pan American medals earned during his tenure. These riders often work with their own coaches at home, relying more heavily on the role of a technical advisor at major competitions.

This is one avenue on the table for US Eventing — but a decision has yet to be made and will be given to a yet-to-be-formed task force aimed at restructuring the eventing high performance program. Moroney noted that anyone interested in possibly participating in this task force should contact US Equestrian.

Having a program without leadership 10 months removed from the 2022 FEI World Championships for Eventing, slated for September in Italy, is unsettling to say the least. Moroney acknowledged that WEG was at the top of the priority list, naming several tasks that will need to be undertaken in the process of establishing new leadership. This list includes the recruitment of a new Managing Director, finalization of the 2022 competition calendar and WEG selection process, identification of the next cycle of high performance athletes, and the solification of leadership decisions to guide the listed riders. The vacant Chef d’Equip role, Moroney explained, will be filled once this structure has been identified.

To say that the departures of high performance eventing leadership has garnered surprised reactions from most would likely be an understatement. The workings of the evaluation process outlined in this session remain a bit murky — several riders and owners raised questions about the communications process, the communications roles within the US Equestrian office, and exactly how many riders had the opportunity to give input, none of which received direct answers — as does the timeline moving forward. We can expect to see more official communications on the forthcoming task force and its decisions in the coming weeks.

Moroney also came under more direct questioning regarding the actual decision not to renew Erik Duvander’s contract, with multiple mentions of the recent results achieved by the U.S. team (most notably a win at Aachen, a Nations Cup silver medal at Boekelo, and an American 5* winner at Maryland). “I totally get what you’re saying,” he responded. “We’ve had some recent results at Aachen, Boekelo and Fair Hill that were amazing. But those results are after four years. And are those sustainable? And when you look at those results, they were also created by the people that were at the table, taking personal responsibility. Here we are circling back to that theme of personal responsibility for preparing themselves and their horses to arrive on competition day ready to go.”

“And you have to look at what’s happened and you have to compare to what was proposed back in 2017 for the programs and compare where we are to that,” he continued. “And you have to look at the entire spectrum of how the programs have gone.”

Several riders, including Rebecca Brown and Liz Halliday-Sharp, raised concerns over the involvement of a potential technical advisor. Rebecca noted that Erik had been very instrumental for riders on the Pre-Elite training lists and in the development pipeline in terms of providing guidance as they navigated their way up the ranks. Liz asked about the potential of private coaches accompanying riders to championships — whether this would be an option in terms of credentials and/or funding. Moroney acknowledged that riders can generally train with whoever they want, and noted that the role of the new leadership team would take into account the relationships with developing riders.

Lastly, the discussion centered on trust, or the lack of it between constituents and governing body. “There is a need for people to know more,” Moroney said. “For the process to be clear. People like to use the word transparency. I like to use the words clarity and communication. The federation has a responsibility to communicate out information to people and to be clear about it and provide people an understanding of what processes are.”

He then went on to note that stakeholders also held their own responsibility to read emails that come and to stay on top of communications. “On the other end, the receiver has to be held accountable for reading it and getting it and for asking questions.”

Moroney closed by again referencing the task force, mentioning an “outside sport facilitator” that could be brought in to help identify challenges and come to a conclusion on the best plan of action.

Discussions Swirl in Calendar Planning/Organizers Open Forum

Tensions ran high during the afternoon’s Calendar Planning and Organizers Open Forum, moderated by Jonathan Elliott, as organizers from around the country sounded off on the newly-revamped USEF calendaring process. The process required events to bid on dates after the calendar was divided up by numbered weeks.

The bid process, which has received feedback from organizers as lacking in transparency, resulted in a major change to the competition calendar beginning in 2023 (with some additional changes on the docket for 2022), and a reduction of 5* preparation events leading up to Kentucky. The calendar changes are likely to have a trickle-down effect on the lower levels, also.

Primarily, contention was raised around lack of choices. The original intent of the updated calendar process was to establish an “ideal calendar” for the proper development of horses and riders, but it becomes clear in forums such as this that the changes have left much to be desired on the part of organizers, many of whom feel they’ve been left out of the process or otherwise unfairly treated.

“We need to treat our organizers and venues well,” one attendee stated. “Because without them we don’t have anything.”

Today’s sessions continue with forums such as the Safety Committee, Strides for Equality Equestrians, the Annual Meeting of Members and Luncheon, Rule Change Committee, and more. You can follow along on the USEA live stream here. I’ll be back with some notes from sessions I’m sitting in on tomorrow as I have a late afternoon flight to catch.

Go eventing.