Tamie Smith poses with Mai Baum, owned by Ellen and Alex Ahearn and Eric Markell. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
To celebrate their victory with Mai Baum at the 2023 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, Tamie Smith and the Ahearn/Markell family are joining forces with Strides for Equality Equestrians (SEE) and the USEA Foundation to raise funds and create a program which helps improve access to eventing for underrepresented members of our community.
As an organization, SEE’s mission is to create a welcoming and open environment for all people who have one thing in common, a love for horses. We seek to grow both allyship and diversity in Equestrian sports by promoting access and inclusion for those who may feel marginalized because of their ethnicity or race. To learn more about SEE, click here.
A simple and elegant baseball cap with the likeness of Mai Baum will be offered for sale for $25 at the USEA booth at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, happening April 25-28 at Kentucky Horse Park.
In purchasing a cap, you will be supporting a Mai Baum SEE Scholarship offered through the USEA Foundation. This program will support experiential internships that promote openness and diversity to young equestrians. All proceeds from the cap sales will be contributed the scholarship.
When asked about the program’s goals, the family responded, “We would love USEA members to buy a cap and for those going to Defender Kentucky this year to wear one. We would like to give others the equestrian opportunity that has changed so many lives. Life sometimes just comes down to giving people a fair shot. That is what we aim to do. If we can use the Mai Baum SEE Scholarship to give the gift of equestrianism to others, we will have succeeded.”
Tamie echoes the importance of giving opportunity saying, “It’s amazing what giving someone a chance can do to their lives and those around them. There was an old saying on TV that ‘opportunity knocks, but you have to open the door.’ We want to help open the doors to Eventing for those who may never have been given that shot. If US Eventing is to going to survive and prosper, we need to expand the opportunity for everyone to participate. There are so many ways to be in and around Eventing. We just need to do our part to help expand the opportunity to do so.
Heather Gillette, co-founder of Strides for Equality Equestrians says “I’m excited to develop a scholarship with the Ahearn-Markell family that will help deserving young equestrians realize there is space for them in Eventing. That they have supporters within the sport, that they have allies who want to help them and that we are invested in their success. This scholarship fits right in with other programs that SEE offers in our effort to grow the sport we love by making it more diverse and welcoming.”
