2007 USEA National Convention



December 6-9
Colorado Springs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrap-up Article - USEA Annual Meeting 2007

The United States Eventing Association holds an annual meeting each year in different venues around the country. This year, on December 5-9, Area IX hosted it in Colorado Springs at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel. The exquisite site along with the thought provoking content of the meeting made for a truly memorable weekend.

Throughout the weekend, meetings addressed deficiencies in the sport, which need attention and praised areas of the sport that have progressed. As always, the sport of eventing is an extremely dangerous and the search for safety continues. Many of the committees have been put place to create solutions to this problem. The main solutions discussed at the meeting were rider responsibility, the two-track system, the ICP program and how it can be more of a pivotal role in regulating safety.

As concept of dangerous riding becomes more prevalent, rider responsibility is crucial. Eric Smiley gave a great talk about this and the audio version along with the power point presentation will be posted on the USEA website. Basically, riders need to take more responsibility while they are on their horses. There is not a time at which, while mounted, we as riders are not training our horses. Therefore, every rider is essentially a trainer who controls speed, preparation time, quality of jump and, most importantly, the education it takes to execute all of these things.

Additionally, the concern with safety has led the sport to reevaluate the jump from training to preliminary. Many members have stressed the gap between the levels is too great suggesting that preliminary should be softer. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the better use of the FEI star system and the national horse trials has been proposed. Currently, most preliminary and CIC* courses; and intermediate and CIC** courses are similar if not the same creating an unfair disadvantage for those green preliminary horses and riders. The FEI is going to make the training level half-star a one-star, which would generate a five-star system. This could potentially yield to half steps between training to one-star, one-star to preliminary, preliminary to two-star, and so on. In order to make this system effective, it will be up to course designers to follow guidelines to make sure that each course has components pertinent to each level without "over-building" the course.

Lastly, the Instructors Certification Program is a relatively new program that was put in place to help standardize the level of instruction being given in the sport. As it grows, many additional programs are using ICP as the qualification for instructors; for example, the developing riders instructor has to be ICP certified - level four. There are some ideas that the coach for Young Riders by 2010 might have to be a level four instructor as well. Although there are many concerns about the program and its ability to effectively evaluate how well the certified instructors actually teach, the program continues to progress in members and responsibility.

To conclude, the week in Colorado Springs at the snow-glistening, five-star Broadmoor Hotel was fabulous in its setting and stimulating in its content. Area IX produced a fantastic, well-attended meeting. Once solved, the concepts - rider responsibility, the two-track system, and the ICP program - addressed at the meeting will better the sport and members of eventing tremendously.

 
areavi@gmail.com (12/28/07)
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