The updated “rulings and findings” section on the USEF website is some interesting reading. You have to be logged in to USEF so no link. Has anyone ever seen an organization be fined by USEF before?
only as it relates to regular horse show management groups with violations of show org rules. Never a “federation” like USAHJ.
I am not a Usef member so I cannot look at rules violations and findings ( which is a gripe when it comes to people wanting to do due diligence)
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Wow.
It’s unfortunate that there was such a big snafu at an event that draws so many participants who are so gung ho on that competition.
Thanks for posting the document.
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thanks for the information.
Show managements need to be careful not to neglect their obligation to the rules and participants both before and after a competition.
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This horse show is the US National Hunter Breeding Finals, so the USHJA is the show management for that aspect of the competition.
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Wow, I remember when this was being discussed on FB and then I forgot entirely about it…
yes I understand that.
This sounds like a situation that slipped in details in the planning stage and then was punted around in the challenge phase. Management, big and small, has an obligation to serve their clients. The show ain’t over when the trailers leave.
I have no personal knowledge nor dog in this fight but what was being discussed on FB sounded a little less benign than an oversight/missed detail. I’m attaching the “press release” I saw about it. I don’t know whether the facts in it are true but, if so, it seems like more than just an “oopsie” happened.
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Thank you, USEF !
No excuse for USHJA to ignore the trophy winner and not resolve the problem.
USEF’s ruling is an important win for all exhibitors.
I have been in a similar situation in dressage.
Show organizer/management offered AHSA classes (back when they did so) as per prize list.
An extra entry fee was required to qualify and compete in the zone championship classes.
AHSA logo was in the prize list, and on prize ribbons
My horse won the zone championship at her level; I have the ribbon and trophy with AHSA logo.
At end of year, the win was left out of the AHSA annual region/zone award magazine.
I called AHSA and asked why.
Answer: the horse show shouldn’t have offered the class/championship, and AHSA admitted they
didn’t catch the error when they proof read the prize list.
I called show organizer/management and told them.
Response: We have nothing to do with that. 
(ps. I don’t mean to hijack the thread. Show managements’ dismissive attitude towards exhibitors
happens too often.)
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I’m curious where in the USHJA budget the money for fines comes from. Is there a line item on the tax return for that, or is it considered a miscellaneous expense?
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Other perpetual trophies had been awarded to participants without bio forms completed as well, I believe. The bio forms are also filled out by the owner as part of the entry process so it makes no sense whatsoever to have a breeder award being based off them when the breeder has no control over whether they’re completed and the breeder information is readily available with the horse’s USEF registration. My impression is that they made a mistake, doubled down and made up some kind of justification on the fly in hopes it would go away, and instead of making it right and admitting it when they got called out, stuck to their guns.
It’s disappointing given all the current conversation about US bred horses that the USHJA can’t even get it together for hunter breeding, which is a particularly North American venue for breeders and young horse owners. I think they also disbanded the young horse committees with no real commentary recently as well.
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I agree that the situation seems very strange. Even without the bio forms, those horses were listed with their breeding on their entry. So it would seem very easy to figure out who the breeder was.
When they sent us the bio forms they pitched it like the purpose of the forms was to get your horse listed in the program and to be eligible for breed awards, and if you didn’t care about the program or breed awards you could just skip it. They didn’t explain clearly that the bio forms were a prerequisite to winning any other award. The form itself ONLY says it needs to be filled out for the program and breed awards…
https://www.ushja.org/competition/hunter/sallie-b-wheeler/horse-bios
If the form was required to win ANY award, why not make the forms mandatory? Or say that on the form, at least?
The bio forms repeated a lot of the information on the entry blank but let you add some other random stuff mostly aimed at sale horses-- like height, state of breeding, whether the horse was for sale, etc.
There seemed to be some kind of animus going on in the background (which I have no personal knowledge of)… like the show organizers didn’t like this breeder or maybe didn’t like being told that they had made a mistake/didn’t like feeling like they were being told what to do by this breeder. There was more back and forth than just this press release.
At the end of the day, the breeder information was RIGHT THERE and this breeder clearly had the most points. So to double down and refuse to correct things and argue that the bio form was a literal prerequisite to an award seems silly.
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Adding that the person who was initially named the leading breeder is a really nice person and also very deserving for having terrific horses and if I was her, I’d be pissed at USHJA for letting this spin out of control rather than resolving it quickly and professionally.
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I am giggling a little bit at the SBW facebook group this morning where the representative for the show posted about the perpetual trophies saying bio forms MUST BE SUBMITTED to be eligible and the recipient noted the USEF statement that stated it must be “without creating unnecessary barriers to breeders” - I tend to agree that expecting breeders to keep up with all the horses they sell and nag the owners to submit bio forms is squarely in the “unnecessary barrier” camp when all the info required is already available. Just another example of them doubling down here.
I do think it’s worth the show making some kind of objective metric for how these awards are determined. For this case it was pretty clear since the winner had two class winners that she bred, but I could see more controversy happening later on if someone had, say, one winner and one third place, and another person had two horses in second and one in third - I was kind of baffled when I looked into this when it was all going on and there was no clear metric for it.
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I hadn’t really looked but how annoying that the takeaway from this situation is that they just need to be more rigid about the bio forms?!
I agree it should be stated but I would assume they calculate it the way they always calculate points and then add them up…
https://www.usef.org/forms-pubs/BswZWzdaak8/hunter-point-tabulation. Assuming 11+ horses at the show, the first is worth 10 and the 3rd is worth 4, so that breeder has 14. The two second places are 6 each and the 3rd is worth 4 so that breeder has 16 and wins.
I guess they need a tiebreaker? Though also they could just award two breeders as co-winners in the unusual event that happened.
I’m curious - who released that press release?
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Dr. Feiste. Sorry, I didn’t mean to obscure that. It was her “side” of the story.
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I didn’t think you were! I was just curious if she released it or someone else. Thanks!
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Why don’t the breeders impress upon the trainers the importance of having the breeder’s name attached to all entries? I’d be upset with the trainer who didn’t fill out any forms and discuss the issue with them. Obviously folks who are showing in the hunter breeding divisions are focused on that breeding - they should be responsible for filling out the correct entry forms and being sure the breeding and breeder are listed.
If I remember correctly, the USHJA corrected this issue last fall through a press release with Dr. Feiste listed as the high point breeder and mentioned engraving her name on the trophy.
