The EHOA League aims to rewards horses for consistency across the 2022 season. Pictured are prolific upper-level pair Simon Grieve and Mr Fahrenheit III. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Eventing is a tough sport no matter which way you look at it, and financially, it can be particularly galling if you’ve put the time and effort into producing a winning upper-level performance and still find yourself counting the pennies to truck home again. The lack of financial reward is also one of the reasons many riders find it tough to attract and retain owners. That’s why the creation of incentivised leagues is so important to the culture of our sport, and why we were particularly excited to hear the news that the Event Horse Owners’ Association was launching their own for this season.
The league focuses its attentions on horses competing at the four-star level, and uses its own unique points system, created in conjunction with the data whizz-kids at EquiRatings. Points can be earned at any CCI4*-S or CCI4*-L competitions on British soil for finishing in the top 15 at CCI4*-S or top 25 at CCI4*-L, and can be lost for cross-country jumping errors across the season, too, with an aim of rewarding consistency across the year.
Here’s how the points system breaks down:
- 25pts for winning a CCI4*-L, reducing by 1pt per place to all top 25 finishers
- 15pts for winning a CCI4*-S, reducing by 1pt per place to all top 15 finishers
- -5pts for 20 to less than 40 jumping penalties on cross-country
- -10pts for 40 or more jumping penalties on cross-country
- -15pts for failing to finish the cross-country phase
A horse’s four best points values will be added together to get their year-end ranking, but all negative points accrued across the year will then be subtracted. If two horses are tied at the top in the year-rankings, the horse with the highest-value individual finishing score will take the win (for example, if horse A and horse B are tied on 73 points, but horse A has a CCI4*-L win worth 25 points, and horse B’s best result is a third-place finish in a CCI4*-L, worth 23 points, horse A will take the league). If their best result shares an equal points value, the winner will be decided by which had the lower finishing score in their highest value result — for example, if horse A and horse B both have a CCI4*-L win, but horse A finished on a score of 32.5 and horse B finished on a score of 28, horse B will take the league.
Points will be counted from last week’s Chatsworth International onwards, and in order to be eligible, at least one of the horse’s owners must join the EHOA before August 1, 2022. The 2022 league has a prize pot of £20,000, which will be divided between the winner, who will receive a minimum of £15,000, the runner-up, and a special prize winner for the best horse ridden by a rider aged 28 or younger.
To check out the EHOA, become a member, or find out more about the league, click here.
