While there is no longer a North American Young Rider three day event championship, in its place the governing bodies have developed a new Youth Team Challenge, with finals to be held at existing horse trials on both the east and west coasts. The news about this was posted at both the USEF and USEA this fall.  

A reminder from Chris Donovan, Area II Young Rider coordinator: riders must declare on your USEF Dashboard.  If you PLAN to complete at the Modified level or above in 2021 - you should sign up!! Please go to your USEF Dashboard and complete your declaration.  We are expecting to see 50+ Area 2 Youth riders declared for 2021. Events will be selected that will hold these competitions, and a list will be posted next year.
 
For more information be sure to join in the monthly YR conference call/zoom meeting January 7. For information, contact Chris Donovan.
 
Team Competitions (Short formats) (36 riders in total)
2 Teams and 4 individuals at each level
Modified * (14-18 years of age)
Preliminary ** (14-21 years of age)
Intermediate *** (16-25 years of age)
 
Team Competitions (Long format - Championships) (18 riders in total)
1 Team and 2 individuals at each level
*, **, and *** held in the late fall. 

Area Championship YR Program Awards

cropSofiePhoto: Sofie Harangozo and Coco Rosso, Young Rider Preliminary Champions. The placings below are your extracted Young Rider Program member placings. For complete (overall) results, see evententries.com, click on Maryland Horse Trials and Area II Championships link.

If you did not pick up your award and were placed, please email Chris.

120966881 10101516282744093 5058323781034831375 oThe Maryland Horse Trials in Adamstown, MD., was the host for the 2020 Area II championships, which held all divisions over three days of competition. Due to pandemic restrictions, the organizers scheduled each division to be held in one day, with show jumping taking place last in reverse order of placing, which made for some excitement in the final phase.

Elizabeth Bortuzzo and Belongs to Teufer started off the weekend on Friday, to win the Intermediate championship. She placed second after dressage and pulled up to first after XC, adding just 1.20 time penalties to a clean round, then added just one rail in show jumping to win with a respectable score of 37.3. Reserve champion was Erin Harrington and Viola, with 3rd place going to Courtney Sendak and DGE TheManInTheGlass.

This is an opportunity for the sport to recognize those horses and riders who excelled in Eventing throughout the year. It is also an opportunity to recognize and honor the very important people who have served the sport tirelessly both in a non-riding capacity and riding capacity during their golden years.

While it is a simple matter of tabulating points earned in a competition to arrive at horse and rider awards, it is a very different proposition when it comes to the non-rider awards; these awards require nominations from our members.

The Appreciation Awards Committee is currently accepting nominations for the awards listed here. If you know someone who is deserving of one of these awards, please submit your nominations for consideration to (or submit online below):

Area II Patrick McGaughan Memorial Excellence Awards 

Scores are almost completed for 2020!

Thank you to everyone who participated.

We will post the final averaged scores soon. Please note the table can be sorted several ways, at the moment we have it sorted by the high number of completed events. This may change who is in the top placings! A reminder that this is AVERAGED scores. At years end a minimum number of events will be calculated; your BEST scores from that number will be used for your average final; and those with more double clear results will be placed above less double clear results. We will crunch the numbers and find the average number of completed events for each class and base the high average on that number. Remember, our new Area II scoring system averages your score and makes note of your best results for an average, rather than points for placings. For more information please see the Competitions/Year End Awards page.  PLEASE watch your email for an important announcement about winnings and placings. This email should be sent somewhere around the first week in December.*** Due to the Covid-19 upswing we are delaying awards until after the holidays. We will let everyone know in January how we will award prizes. 

THANK YOU to our organizers, our Area Council, our Awards volunteers (Monica Fiss and Seanna Miller)  and our Chair Melissas Stubenberg --who have worked so hard for you to have a real season this year!

halter plate example

TO ALL AREA II COMPETITORS – IMPORTANT CHANGE TO YEAR END AWARD PROGRAM

First, the bad news:

  • The Area II Council has suspended the traditional Year End Awards Program, which is based on points gained for placings at USEA Area II recognized horse trials, for the 2020 competition year. The council felt that in all fairness it was not appropriate to encourage point-chasing given the circumstances of the shortened season; not all competitors were able to compete at their local events this year; and some events have had to restrict entry numbers due to local or state regulations. These circumstances make open and fair competition for the traditional high point awards impossible.

Only 8 events have been completed by the middle of our Area II season; normally, there would have been 30. And we cannot predict what may happen going forward. It is reasonable to expect a very shortened season. For that reason, the memorial and perpetual trophies (with a few exceptions, those awarded not based on points) will not be calculated for this year only, and high points will not be counted in the traditional format at this time.

In addition, with the national association freezing funds, and our budget being affected, we also had to take in mind the costs of this program as well, and to date, registration totals are not near what we would need for a full year end awards offering.

Now, the good news!

  • However, in an effort to reward those who are supporting Area II events by entering and competing, and to fulfill the objective of the awards program to assist organizers in filling events and encouraging good Area wide competition, the council has allowed the Awards Committee to create new awards based on other criteria than points and placings.

 The committee has requested that these be called the “Patrick McGaughan Memorial Area II Awards of Excellence”*, or the “Packy Awards!”

(shared with permission from useventing.com)

The following is personal anecdotal advice, not professional medical advice. For official recommendations on COVID-19, please visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

In these challenging times, I was asked to share my tips on how to stay mentally and emotionally positive when things are uncertain as well as tips for keeping our farms safe in this age of COVID-19. Who am I? I’m the current Area II Chair, a volunteer position that a few of us older eventers who demonstrate a certain skill at herding cats get asked to fill and are not quite clever enough to say no. I’m a transactional attorney at a large Delaware law firm, a farm owner, and an owner of too many horses, dogs, and yeah, a lot of cats too. I’m also a former show groom, professional stall mucker and farm hand, and I've started a lot of young horses. And like you, I am an eventer. What I am not is an expert in really anything - this is just what I do!

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Photo created by prostooleh - www.freepik.comThe Broussard family, through the Broussard Charitable Foundation Trust, has announced that for 2020 only, several special educational grants will be available to USEA members.

The Trust has made a very generous gift of $25,000 to the USEA Foundation to be awarded to deserving candidates 18-years-old and above who are passionate about moving their commitment to the sport forward.

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Allyson Rice

Mr. Indiscretion and Allyson Rice at SVPC HT 

PC: GRC Photography

 

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