I have included notes from the USEA annual meeting in this post and you can watch Clayton Fredericks’ keynote speech below, but here’s a quick look at the Pan American Games Review forum from Saturday afternoon at the USEA convention.
The review started with a recognition of Jon Holling and how tough it was for everyone on the team to see him left off at the final vet inspection before leaving for Mexico. The other side of that coin is a recognition of how Lynn stepped up and rose to the occasion of being added to the team. After that emotional introduction, the Pan Am review became a welcome celebration of a fantastic gold medal performance in Guadalajara. The consistent theme throughout the forum was the unity of the US team that went to Mexico.
The USEF’s Sara Ike described the behind the scenes Games experience including living in the athletes village, going to bed at night viewing the Pan Am flame burning in the night, and being under State Department security. She said that perhaps the most important thing is that Buck, Hannah, Michael, Lynn, and Shannon have all been “bitten by the bug” of hearing their national anthem play at an international team event and hopefully that will be the first of many times for all of them. Sara concluded her speech with a thanks to all of the behind the scenes personnel including grooms, support personnel, and the selectors.
Buck was the next up to talk about his experience as the unofficial team captain Buck said that this time was difference from past team experiences in that all of the riders were focused on the team. He said Michael was the clown, Hannah was the Smurf, Lynn was the gymnast, Shannon was the mother, and he was the key keeper. There are a few inside jokes behind all of those titles, some more appropriate than others. He ended by saying that at the end of the day everyone did what they needed to do and that is what made them successful.
Michael opened by joking that for the first time in his life his role was to be the tallest. He thanked his lovely wife Nathalie for giving him the ride on Hanni and he emphasized how wonderful it was to work with such a magical team.
Hannah Burnett thanked her owner Ms. Mars as well as her team at home including David and Karen O’Connor and the entire OCET team.
Lynn Symansky described how her journey as an alternate was different in that it was impossible for her to be excited about how she got on the team. She said that she had an important conversation with Karen O’Connor before training camp that helped remind her to stay focused as an alternate at the camp.
Shannon Lilley talked about being a west coast rider out east as part of the team experience. She felt really lucky that the entire team embraced her and helped her feel at home leading up to the Games. Shannon said “this is the epitome of what ‘team’ means and I hope that everyone who was a part of this can take this experience forward.”
Dougie Hanum, the USET’s stable manager (and so much more), described the entire experience as a “dream.” He reiterated what a great team went down to Mexico.
US coach Mark Phillips was the last to speak. He credited the selectors with putting together an amazing team. He praised Buck’s leadership. He said that “it was the best team in my 19 years of coaching that I have ever had the privilege to coach.” He said how hard it was for Jon to be left off of the team and credited Jon for dealing with it with incredible maturity. According to Mark, the hardest role on any team is to be the alternate and praised Lynn for stepping up to the challenge so well. Mark credited Michael with stepping up to serve the team after having really rough rounds at Burghley and Boekelo. He said that ultimately what gave him the most pleasure was having all 5 riders finish on their dressage score, setting a new team record.
When the Q&A session started, David O’Connor thanked John Williams for designing a great course. Another question prompted Buck to tell the story of how his stirrup broke at the last water complex a minute and a half from home. He said that Absolute Liberty was wonderful to carry him home with just one stirrup.
—-
Annual Meeting Notes:
President’s Report — President Sabo opened the annual meeting by thanking former USEA president Baumgardner for his service during a very tough three year term as president while the USEA went through safety and financial challenges. He then congratulated eventing on a great and perhaps most importantly a very safe past year. Next, President Sabo gave recognition to USEA CEO Jo Whitehouse as well as the incredible USEA staff members who work hard behind the scenes to make our sport a success each and every day. He also thanked the many volunteers who help the USEA and emphasized that he views the USEA as an organization that is very open to membership involvement. He thanked a great many additional folks including the sponsors of the USEA and the USEA convention this year.
President Sabo continued by identifying a few key statistics for the USEA that were also mentioned in the USEA Board meeting on Friday. He said that membership is pretty constant and that fortunately horse registrations are up. He said “we are financially secure, we are debt free, and we have cash.” After that it was time for a bunch more thanks to many more key contributors to the USEA including Board and committee members, organizers, the growth of higher level events, and a subtle joke/hint that a new four star might be coming to the US. He reminded the audience about the importance of the USEA in terms of providing support and organization to eventing in the US. With that he concluded his report.
Financial Report — Mike Winter delivered the financial l report and mercifully spared us as much of the financial minutia as possible. He summed everything up by saying “as we say in Indiana, we done good this year.” The USEA had a surplus in 2011 and it was bigger than they expected. The USEA brought in $3.6 million this year. Expenses were nearly $3.5 million, yielding a surplus for 2011 of $122,936. Some important trends include an increase in starters from just under 40,500 in 2010 to just over 41,000 for 2011. Horse registrations have increased at a considerably larger pace, which Mike said he didn’t quite understand. Sponsorship revenues have increased but donations have decreased. He reiterated that 1,500 members leave the USEA each year and 1,500 new members join. The USEA seeks to have 3 months of minimum cash reserves, zero debt, and a balanced operating performance (breaking even), and the USEA is now meeting those objectives.
Report of the CEO — Jo Whitehouse started her report by once again thanking the USEA staff for their service. She thanked Dr. Halstead and Dr. Sills for their help with the concussion education this weekend. While we are on thanks, I want to also thank the USEA staff for their great friendship with Eventing Nation particularly by indulging me with conversation, media passes, and so much more at events throughout the year.
After awards for outgoing area chairs, it was time for a quick presentation by former President Kyra Stuart on behalf of the USEA Endowment Trust. She explained that the Endowment Trust is really excited to be putting up old issues of the USCTA News Magazine online in an archived and searchable format.
The meeting concluded with a vote for the new nominees to the USEA Board.
Go eventing.
