The 2012 USEA convention is in Colorado and 2013 is going to be in Cincinnati, OH
If you are reading this and attended the USEA Annual Meeting this weekend I want to congratulate you on your survival. I ended up having a light weekend and turned in early last night, but let’s just say that wasn’t the case for all of the attendees.
Let me start this post by echoing Annie’s congratulations for all of the award recipients at the USEA Awards Dinner Saturday night. Watching so many great riders and more importantly great people receive awards was yet another reminder of the greatness of US eventing. I want to give a special congratulations to EN’s good friend Sharon White for receiving the $30,000 Rebecca Broussard Developing Rider International Grant. No one in eventing is more deserving and I was so happy to see her receive the award. Buck also deserves a lot of credit for absolute domination by winning the rider, horse, and mare of the year awards.
The Board of Governors meeting on Sunday at the convention was a recap of everything that has been accomplished at the convention, a look ahead to new initiatives for next year, and several official motions to thank various key members of the eventing community including the Endowment Trust, David O’Connor, and outgoing Board member Kaiti Saunders.
Here are a few notes from the meeting:
Endowment Trust — Ms. Kyra Stuart gave the report to the Board from the USEA Endowment Trust. The Endowment Trust is responsible for the allocation of the Rebecca Broussard Developing Rider Grant and Ms. Stuart recognized how grateful the Endowment Trust is to have that responsibility and how pleased they are with how the first grant went. She also echoed that the Trust wants to work in partnership with the USEA Board for the betterment of the USEA. The Endowment Trust has revised their financial management policy by focusing on 30% in safe equities and 70% in fixed income. This will be a slightly more aggressive investment approach than their current distribution.
One Fall Rule — Robert Kellerhouse mentioned an alternative option to repealing the one fall rule. He suggested letting riders who fall off go back to the barns, get checked out by medical, and then have the possibility of restarting cross-country at a lower level later in the same day. This would let medical check out the rider and at the same time let the riders correct their problems. According to Robert, this is a possibility under the existing rules and we wouldn’t have to wait until 2013 to start it. President Sabo said that the idea needs more research but that it is an intriguing option.
Young Riders Committee Report — President Sabo gave a quick report on the committee meeting. He reiterated the importance of viewing the Young Riders program as a pipeline to develop riders so that we can provide support at all levels of the development process.
Organizers’ Committee — The Organizers’ Committee is focused on further educating people on where our entry fees are spent. The Organizing Committee gave a presentation this weekend about the use of entry fees that they said was really well received. They mentioned that they continue to have challenges with Xentry although a lot of progress has been made this year. Since the FEI is going to require microchipping in horses in 2013, the Organizing Committee is going to research microchip readers to be used by organizers.
Safety Committee — Carol Kozlowski gave this report. She mentioned the possibility of replacing the medical armband with a medical bracelet currently used by cyclists. It is of a similar material as the LIVESTRONG bracelets. The concern with the armbands is that kids have a lot of trouble getting them to fit on their arms and the bracelets might lead to more safety by being used throughout the grounds of an event and not just only on course. The bracelets cost around $35 and contain all of the necessary medical information. It sounds like a committee will be formed to refine the bracelet idea and re look at armbands before the bracelet idea moves onto the technical committee. From the conversation, my guess is that the days of the armband might be numbered.
Long Format — President Sabo affirmed the importance of the long format at the beginner novice, novice, and training level and said that the Board is committed to supporting these events moving forward. Jon Holling raised the point that we need to make sure we keep education of the long format at a high level as more and more coaches who used to ride in upper level long formats age out of the USEA. The Board seemed divided in a discussion of a rule change is coming to allow formal dress (shadbelly) at lower level three-days. The Board supported the concept to accept the lower level three days as qualifying points for the AECs and year end awards although it was made clear that the specific standards still need to be hammered out and it was sent back to committee for more review.
Technical Committee — Malcolm Hook gave the technical committee report. Mr. Hook mentioned that the NAJYRC dates conflict with both Stuart and Rebecca Farms, so they will take the possibility of a slight date change to the USEF. He said that all but one of the rule change proposals passed and will go forward to the USEF convention. The one fall and out rule was tabled until the January meeting at the USEF convention. As we described on EN yesterday, this was because several committee members wanted a chance to view the USEA convention concussion seminar DVDs because they missed the seminars due to scheduling conflicts.
370 people attended the USEA convention this year making it a big success and a really fun experience for everyone involved. The Virginia Horse Center, Queeny Park, and Aspen have been selected as finalists for the next home for the AECs ATC (Adult Team Challenge). Last, but not least, the Board voted the Queen City and my birthplace — Cincinnati, OH — as the location for the 2013 USEA Annual Meeting.
Thank you to the USEA for, as always, putting together a wonderful convention. I can’t imagine how much effort goes into coordinating the hundreds of activities throughout the weekend. The 2011 convention has been mercifully calm and without major conflict although the future of the one fall rule is very much still uncertain. Thank you for reading our coverage as it continues into the coming week. Stay tuned for Clayton’s nickname for David O’Connor and much more. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. Go eventing.
Correction: As a quick but important correction I wrote that the Virginia Horse Center, Queeny Park, and Aspen were selected as finalists for the AECs when in fact they are finalists for the ATC–the Adult Team Challenge. I misheard “AEC” when the Board member said “ATC.” The situation with the AECs is apparently the same as on Saturday when we reported that there is no announcement on a future home for the AECs. Apologies for the mistake and thanks to EN tipsters CTB and SR for correcting me!
