I’m asking about the majority of rank and file membership that can not afford or simply chooses not to compete at USEF/USHJA shows two or three weeks every month of the year?
https://www.ushja.org/membership/why-join
These are the listed benefits. Mainly travel discounts - whether one finds them valuable or useful seems like it would be dependent on the person. For example, the travel/hotel benefits don’t have to be used at a horse show, but maybe you don’t travel much at all.
As both USEF and USHJA are competition-based orgs, the more you compete (or care about the “competitive opportunities” they offer), presumably the more “benefit” you will get from them.
ETA - per the recent email from Mary Babick, the USHJA has pretty recently created as-hoc committees to explore ways to make competition more accessible to more people. So the org and the benefits would still be competition-focused, just trying to get more people to the shows.
Let me give myself as an example, not showing this year. So, in terms of the direct transactional short term state, there’s no benefit at all.
However: that should not be confused with, do I benefit from USEF existing at all? Because there I think we all tend to take for granted a lot of stuff they do that has substantial long term benefit to horse activities as a whole.
Even if I’m not a member, I benefit from the fact that USEF trains and manages judges. For that matter it even benefits me when I don’t show, because that training filters into the coaching I can access.
I benefit from the fact that USEF does drug testing and enforcement. It sets basic expectations for how competitors will compete. It means there’s a higher possibility that a horse that I am shopping for has its show record free of banned substances. It sets more realistic expectations for horse behavior.
I benefit from the fact that USEF has a rulebook and puts it online and allows anyone (even nonmembers) to access it. Shows all over the country, including many that are completely unrecognized, roughly follow USEF rules on an informal basis.
USEF represents our sport when government has questions about us, is the liaison with the FEI, and is a general go-to for the public when they want to know “what is equestrian.”
This is just a short list because I have other stuff I have to go do now.
There’s no guarantee, and in some cases, no possibility, this stuff gets done if there is no USEF. And USEF has no guarantee of existing outside of the financial support of its members. If we all decide there’s “nothing in it for us” we all lose these benefits and access to a cohesive structure. Maybe it wouldn’t matter in the short term, but it would in the long.
That is not to say that USEF leadership is perfect or that the current leaders don’t make mistakes. It’s completely appropriate and fair to keep them accountable and to demand change when needed. I’m just here to recognize that there’s value in the structure and infrastructure that exists, and that it’s easier to change the course and mission of the organization than it is to build a new parallel one from scratch or to go without one. Any large group of people working together for a common goal will have conflict and compromise as part of its operation, and no one should believe that some new organization (let alone a lack of organization) would avoid that.
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