The Walmartification of equestrian sports.
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USEF and USEA both MEMBERSHIP organisations. Why join when they are so opaque and unresponsive to members? Iâm sitting on my drought-dry island off the coast of western Europe and asking a genuine question.
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You have to join if you want to compete above a certain (quite low) level.
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USEF is a getting to be a really crap deal for everyone except the elite few who actually gain something from it.
I wish some of these venues closing would consider going unrecognized, or even banding together to create an alternate organization. But I imagine thatâs not financially viable.
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I have been watching from the sidelines for the past mumble mumble years since I was actively showing, and it seems very odd to me what has been happening.
AHSA/USEF, USEA, USDF, all seem to be obsessed with ULRs.
Which is understandable, on one level.
But itâs almost like theyâve completely forgotten the base of their organizations, that is, the lower level, maybe only semi-serious competitors.
You canât bulid a pyramid without a broad base.
Itâs the lowly ammies and weekend warriors who are pouring the money into the coffers.
If they stop paying dues and turning out in numbers that make it economically feasible to run a multiday show at a lavish venue, the whole thing will come crashing down.
The lowly ammies will either find another sport, or return to the days of locally rated one day shows (I swear the swag for year end awards at those has always been greatâI still have a whole set of directorâs chairs.).
And that pretty much leaves the ULRs no sandbox to play in.
I donât have any magic wand to wave, but I do have to say that I have many fond memories of the North Shore, South Shore, Mass Horsemenâs Council, and Mass Arab shows, although Iâve had many a fine time at multi-day shows as well.
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There is now a thriving âunaffiliatedâ (UA) circuit of events in heavily horsed parts of the UK that offer the same courses, often the same officials and volunteers, same medical cover - but they canât borrow the British Eventing (BE) machinery for ground preparation. Prize money/prizes is often better than BE, which isnât difficult. The UA usually run up to 100cm max but also offer lower heights which BE doesnât. Of course, scores donât register on the BE points list and one canât compete FEI without those MERs. That potentially affects the value of a horse and horse sales is how most professionals make their best money. But that is an issue that doesnât affect the one-horse owner having fun. I would also add that the organizers of unaffiliated events have substantially upped their game over the past six or seven years.
It must be possible to organize a non-USEF not-USEA circuit within your areas/regions. In fact, from several comments Iâve read, a more organic approach to show location might also help riders. A bit of competition can be a healthy thing.
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USEF is hiding something and itâs going to come out soon. The competition calendar reboot makes no sense to most of us. If theyâd start by cutting some upper level salaries theyâd probably be in good shape.
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Iâm not an eventer, but Iâve seen this scenario play out in a lot of other settings.
The force at work here is âScaleâ. The venues that can offer multiple events will gobble up everything in site: dates, sponsors, ⊠They are the economic force at work and will end up with the attention of the governing body. The interests of others will be subordinated to these organizations.
This kind of played out in the HJ side already. Some deep-pocketed venues went to war on the threat to leave and go to NSBA as a governing body. They seemed to have won. Saw this in CA and in FL. USEF backed down in both places and some sanity emerged. The crazy part of this, that finally tipped the scale: the HJ shows in both areas were overwhelmed with entries - hello, we need more shows, not fewer.
I get that 4* eventing is a completely different competition scenario. With so many of the events disappearing, I would hope USEA and USEF would be working desperately to keep any event location going, and not finding ways to create barriers to holding currently-happening events.
When event and show managers are having to litigate the national organization like this, itâs not a good sign. This is a very, very unfortunate experience. Where the local news outlets are picking up the story, in FL, itâs not good PR for horse sports - very damaging, in fact. This is a very sad situation.
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Except Red Hills was exclusively an upper level event to serve upper level horses. The lowest level offered was prelim. And in its heyday it was tough to get in as a lowly prelim rider! While I agree sometimes USEF forgets its base, that isnât quite applicable to Red HillsâŠit was an elite event and elite riders loved it (at least the âold schoolâ ones). It had sponsors, prize money, and so many spectators that it required buses and crossing guards. It was An Event, not just another horse trial.
@Willesdon There is a thriving âschooling showâ unrecognized event circuit in many areas of this country. Here in FL, most of the regular competition venues have unrecognized events over their same recognized courses, almost monthly. There is no real need to run a recognized event through Training level. But if you want to go prelim and above, you must go to recognized events. Some events used to have unrec prelim with xc, but I think they were âstrongly discouragedâ from above.
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The thing that sucks for eventing is it would be a real sh*t show to run prelim and up XC without oversight.
The more I ponder this, the more I think âsustainabilityâ means getting rid of traditional eventing venues and forcing eventing into arena-like settings where it can be micromanaged as needed.
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Yes. It doesnât seem so much that the USEF is pandering to upper level riders (many of whom seemed to want to keep Red Hills and Jersey Fresh and so on around), but that theyâre pandering to real estate developers who have made big promises involving the upper levels of the sport, and to some fantastical theory those developers have posited about how to make the US successful again on the world stage.
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This is such an excellent point!
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yuck
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I was speaking more to the overall dynamic than specifically Red Hills.
The principle applies, though.
If the base collapses, there will be no place for the ULRs to begin from.
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Exactly. Not much interest in tradition and continuity.
Just read the news on COTH and am visiting from other forums.
Iâm sorry to hear that youâre losing so many well known events.
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And, also â remember what happened when some FEI level judges offered to judge online dressage shows during the pandemic? And ULR wanted to ride in them?
The FEI can suspend any FEI rider who competes in a show not sanctioned by USEF for SIX MONTHS. They donât do this often, of course. But, if an event said âscrew youâ to the USEF and ran a big event unsanctioned? Iâm certain each FEI rider would get a warning about what would happen if they competed.
It is beyond a monopoly, yâall. It is a racket.
And every time you wonder why we fight to stay in the Olympics? USEF would lose its monopoly under the Ted Stevens Act if Eventing were no longer an Olympic sport and then could have to deal with competition. So, weâve bent over backward to stay in the Games, because, at least in part, that benefits the USEF. The language in the Act makes reference to âInternational Competitionâ but it is specifically the Act that gave a monopoly over sports that appear in the Olympics. Iâd suggest drawing your own conclusions, but that one is pretty obvious.
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There are so many more venues that have disappeared off the ârecognizedâ calendar - if you search back 5 years, 10, 20 - CO Horse Park, Holly Hill, too many in TX to name. By sections of areas in the middle and Western parts of the country with fewer events each year. They might still be holding unrecognized events, clinics, shows for other disciplines
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If the national body has not encouraged the grass roots, why should grass roots worry about the opinion of the national body?
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As @Bensmom said, technically the FEI has authority to punish riders (& organizers I expect) for partaking in âunsanctionedâ competitions. Training level and below are beneath FEI levels, and so those lower level riders are not subjected. Though many FEI riders will certainly use the unrec events for green horses. The FEI ploy of âsanctioned events onlyâ is a thin veil of âprotecting horse welfareâ but in reality it is $$ motivated a few years back by the unsanctioned global show jumping tour that stole some of the top horses and riders from FEI events. This is really not applicable to local schooling shows, but technically the rule could still apply.
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It isnât as simple as that. Courses at that level really, really need to be designed by someone who knows what they are doing, and USEF is the only US group to provide any kind of education or licensing. I live in an area with many recognized and unrecognized events and I have been to many very nice unrecognized events and some that are really sketchy: unsafe fences, fences in disrepair, unstaked portables, inappropriate distances etc. The likelihood that someone will be hurt or killed increases up the levels even when everything is done right. Courses need to be built and designed and inspected by people who have the education and experience to do it correctly, especially at the higher levels.
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