Area II bragging rights: The world's newest 5-star event, the Maryland 5-Star held at Fair Hill NRMA in Elkton, MD., took place last weekend and the winner was Boyd Martin on On Cue, from Cochranville, PA., keeping it all in the area! We are all very proud of Boyd and his program, his supporters and owners, and of course, hundreds of Area II volunteers who worked for this event. It was live streamed all over the world and had six overseas competitors attend. (See stories and results at the USEA website, The Chronicle of the Horse, and watch video at the USEF Network for more on this exciting competition.)

The Area II Championships were held at the Maryland Horse Trials at Loch Moy on Oct. 1-2, and a wrap up of this competition is coming! We had a beautiful new trophy to award to the winning Junior Training rider and horse courtesy of the familes who loved Cadenza Aria. Pictures soon!

The Young Event Horse eastern championships were also held last week (Oct. 14-15) at Fair Hill. This wraps up the Young Event Horse competition for the year, and the Future Event Horse championships were completed in September.

Our newest year end awards in 2021 included both Future Event Horse and Young Event Horse categories, based on average scores and we are pleased to ANNOUNCE the following Area II Year End Award winners for Future Event Horse and Young Event Horse: (winners with a minimum 3 competition scores). Awards will be given at our annual Area II awards ceremony, but we can announce the winners now! Here they are:

2021 Area II Year End Awards of Excellence - Future Event Horse

1. Utah Beach (G., 2019) (79.6 ave.) (3 competitions) owner Monica Fiss

2. Okie Brown (G., 2018) (76.29 ave.) (3 competitions) owner Angela Bailey

3. Lady Leia (M., 2018) 76.55 (2 competitions) owner Cynthia Gartrell

4. Another Yes (M., 2018) 80.0 (1 competition) owner Tracy Wagner

2021 Area II Year End Awards of Excellence - Young Event Horse

1. Archelos, (74.75) (2 competitions) owner Rebecca Lee

2. Accordingly, Cynthia Sansone (0) no competitions

The last three events for Area II year end awards are Waredaca Horse Trials/Classic Three Day Events Oct. 22-23, Virginia Horse Trials, Oct. 28-31, and Full Moon Farm horse trials Nov. 7. (While Tryon International 3-Day Event is the final event of the Area II season, it has only FEI divisions this year.) As per the rules all year end award winners will have a short period after Full Moon, to check points and make corrections known to the Pointskeeper Seanna/Awards chair Holly. We will have news about Year End Awards of Excellence and the Area II annual meeting coming soon. The Year End Awards scoring can be seen at the Tableau here. Once again, please check your scores and submit any discrepancies to us immediately for correction.

Our Area II Adult Riders will plan a Team competition at VAHT along with the Interscholastic Teams, please make sure you are signed up for a team if you enter. This is a fun teams event for all!

Young Riders/YTC final will be held at Tryon International Three Day Event Nov. 10-14, and YR Coordinator Chris Donovan is hard at work helping our Young Rider teams at the various levels enjoy the team experience in what has been an exciting year in this newly developed program. More on the YTC after Tryon!

Annual Area II Meeting/Awards will be announced shortly. 

FROM USEF PRESS RELEASE 11/15/21

Mill Spring, N.C. – With a huge number of entries, the final day of competition at the 2021 Tryon International Three-Day Event was just as full and exciting as the days that preceded it, with show jumping taking place from the cool morning into the evening under the lights. By the end of the day, a new four-star national champion emerged, and the victors of the inaugural Adequan®/USEF Eventing Youth Team Challenge were crowned.

Young Riders from throughout the U.S. and Canada braved wet conditions at Plantation Field International event, Sept. 21-24, 2023, to compete on a full set of teams at the Area II-sponsored Young Rider Team Challenge. The challenge is a promotional competition held within a standing competition to encourage team comraderie and competition among Young Riders.

At the CCI-1* level, the scrambled Area 2/West Team of Lillian Kager/Game On (45.5), Scarlett Peinado/Shadow Inspector (49.7), Lizzie Hoff/HSH Kept Secret (51.4) and Eva Taylor/Irish Rose (85.9) won the FarmVet $25 gift certificates,The Engraver leather engraved keychains, and Maryland Saddlery merchandise for first place (team score 146.6). In second was the Canada/NE Team, (168.6) of Kimberley Begin/Victory Cents (41.9), Kimberley Begin/Ultimate Legacy (44.9), and Kate Servais/Cathedro (81.8). Placing third was the Area 2 Team (1089.2) of Rylie Nelson/Galway Sunrise (35.2), Jenna Levesque/Born Ready (54), Gianna Fernandez/Excel Star Vero Amore and Berkley Gardner/Aristocrat.

The CCI-2* competition was hotly contested over the soggy show jump course down to the last rider. Ending on the top was the Area 2 Team, (139.6), winning the $25 FarmVet gift certificates and C4 Belts from Maryland Saddlery, consisted of Noah Stanlaske/Chesterland (38.5), Carlin Keefe/Point Nemo (44.8), Paige Ramsey/MTF Cooley Classic (56.3), and Anna Fitzhugh/Shirsheen Deal Me In. Second place team (154.6) went to Canada/NE, of Lizzie Hoff/HSH LImited Edition (34.7), Audrey Littlefield/Mr. Pumpkin (55.2), Madison Haney/Chesterlands Sweet Charlotte (64.7), and Lucine Claudel/Tsantania (69.4). In third, the Area 2-3-8 Team (1096.4) of Carlin Keefe/Mr. Candyman (33.8), Maddie Hale/Fernhill Hotshot (62.6), Chloe Haddack/Hawthornestud Fortunate Love and Noah Stanlaske/DHI Showman.

Completing the team competition was the CCI-3* section. They finished on Saturday, with the winning team from Area 8, (1126.4) receiving the $25 Farm Vet and $25 Maryland Saddlery gift certificates,of Alexandra Baugh/Hubert des 3 Arbres (62.1), Maddie Hale/Cinzano 7 (64.3), and Alexandra Baugh/MHS Fernhill Finale. Second place team was Area 2, (1137.3) of Braden Speck/BSF Liam (49.2), Benjamin Noonan/Street Fighter (88.1),  Peyton Klein/Pleasant Humphrey, and Meg Pellegrini/Cooley Wish Upon A Star. In third was a scramble team of Canada/Area 1-7, (3000) with Lea Adams-Blackmore/Frostbite, Kimberley Begin/Ballingore Rock Quality, Olivia Miller/Cooley Starstruck, and Madison Tempkin/MVP Madbum.

In the CCI-4* competition, one Young Rider completed, Brooke Burchianti and Cooley Space Grey (87) who finished in fifth place. She was top placed U25 rider and received a FarmVet $25 gift certificate.

Individual Young Rider winners received Coat Defense prize packages, and The Overall Horsemanship winner was Canada Young Rider Kimberley Begin, riding three horses and placing two of them in both the CCI-1* and CCI-3* competitions. She received the Freely Forward Bodywork certificate sponsored by Maija Luttinger of Freely Forward Bodywork. The Local Grooms/Horse Care Award from Wawa Foundation went to Area 2's Carlin Keefe, riding two horses in the CCI-2* and completing with both. All Young Rider Team Challenge riders received Standlee Premium Western Forage treat bags for their horses.

USEF has extended the 2021 Youth Team Challenge sign up online to FEBRUARY 15th, 2021. (Previous deadline was Jan. 29). If you want to be considered to be on the Area II team this year you should go to the USEF dashboard and sign up. Your declaration will be sent to Chris Donovan, YR Coordinator. To date the following Young Riders have made their Area II declaration: (if you don't see your name on this list, contact Chris)

AREA II YOUNG RIDERS/YOUNG RIDER ADVANCEMENT PROGRAM

1/7/21 NOTES FROM ZOOM MEETING WITH AREA II YR COORDINATOR CHRIS DONOVAN

Our first meeting of the year. Many changes have been made to the current Young Rider/YRAP programs in an effort to continue with the national and area wide Young Rider/ne Youth Team concepts.

New Interscholastic Team League

Chris went over first the new procedures for getting all youth eventers interested in the new program for Interscholastic Teams. This program is for junior riders 7th-12th grade, at any level in recognized eventing. (The USEA is referring to the program as the “IEL”, Interscholastic Eventing League) It has a dedicated page the Useventing.com website here: https://useventing.com/events-competitions/competitions/interscholastic-eventing-league

This explains the signup procedure, about teams, what is an affiliate team, etc. Please read.