USEA Area 1 Town Hall Meeting: July 24, 2026

Location: Millbrook Horse Trials
Participants: 40-50 people
A good mix of adult amateurs, professional riders/coaches, young riders,
officials, organizers, parents, council members

1. Pathways Into the Sport
How riders traditionally got in and what is changing.

• Pony Club used to be a direct pipeline into eventing. Families no longer see that path, they now
  default to whichever barn is closest, which is increasingly a hunter/jumper (H/J) facility.
• No one at the meeting reported having school horses available.
• Access to a horse suitable to eventing is difficult unless owning or leasing which is often out of average family’s reach. Add to that the affordability of shows.
• Of the kids present, the vast majority got in through a lesson barn — but lesson barns (especially eventing-focused ones) are becoming rarer.
• It isn’t USEA’s job or purpose to revive lesson programs directly, but there’s a need to promote the sport better at all levels.
• Idea: Create a general guide describing how to get into the sport – right horse, right barn, right coach, what you need to consider, what can you achieve.
• If the only visible riders are 5* competitors, newcomers don’t see a place for themselves in the sport.

2. Why Hunter/Jumper Attracts Kids (& AA’s) More Easily

• Horses can be shared/used by several riders; more leasing options (half or partial leases).
• Lower cost of entry, one discipline, no need for both dressage and jumping tack.
• Lower cost of facility build and maintenance
• More handholding; less is demanded of kids early on (a coach can, quietly, help a student in the ring).
  • New benefit of the intro level
• An arena horse is a very different, less specialized animal than one safe to jump XC.
• Eventing doesn’t fit the culture of immediacy, H/J allows you to show up, ride, and leave.
• There’s effectively no low-cost “in” to eventing: it typically requires a truck, trailer, horse, and gear.

3. Lowering Barriers to Entry

• It was pointed out that finding a way into Eventing is not easy – very hit or miss finding a barn, program, trainer, etc.
  • Idea: Create a general guide describing how to get into the sport – right horse, right barn, right coach, what you need to consider.
• Interest exists in combined tests as an easier entry point, but many newcomers don’t
  understand what XC involves or how to ride it. Need to have clinics (Intro to Eventing) like the
  popular “intro to fox hunting” clinics to give people a little insight into the sport.
• Don’t necessarily need a professional trainer to teach these clinics, but they do need to understand the rules.
  • Area 1 has a strong network of professionals willing to collaborate on this.
• A bad first experience scares people off, the sport needs to find ways to make early experiences friendlier.
  • Intro level (new 2027) is potentially a very good introduction to the sport: Don’t need to be member, horse doesn’t need to be registered, Courses are very basic, very simple & riders can be coached as you go.
• Making competitions themselves more user-friendly doesn’t fix the more basic problem of getting people in the door at all.
  • Actively promote volunteering as way to experience the sport (with 4H, hunter/jumper riders, dressage riders, etc.)
• Figuring out how to enter competitions is genuinely confusing — where to go, what to sign up for. (This is also a problem on the H/J side, so it may mostly be a matter of better guidance/communication. Entries also generally handled by a trainer in the H/J world vs individuals in eventing)

4. Outreach & Marketing

• Idea: Create an exciting, high quality Video Ad/commercial to Promote Eventing at different equestrian events or equestrian centers.
• Idea: host info nights with trainers, framed so it doesn’t look like poaching their clients, and try to involve trainers as active participants.
• Open question: How can we reach Pony Club members, hunt club members, 4H and other interested youth and AA’s.
• Open question: what’s the best channel to reach people? Social media (Instagram especially) was flagged as most popular with younger riders; Area 1 is currently active across a variety of platforms.
  • Note: On recent Area 1 survey, Facebook was still listed as number 1 source of information.

5. Scholarships & Financial Awareness

• Open question: do people even know scholarship programs exist? A goal for Area 1 is to raise awareness of options via the USEA Area 1 website and USEF.
  • Idea: Would an FAQ document help increase awareness & understanding of what’s available through grants & scholarships – a lot there, difficult to sort through.
• Every aspect of the sport still comes back to needing a horse in the first place.
• Engagement on this topic was lower than expected. Some attendees suggested that by the time a rider qualifies for these scholarships, they may no longer need them.

6. Event & Schooling Show Format Ideas

• Mix-and-match formats: let newcomers see all three phases while only competing in the one(s) they’re ready for (e.g., dressage or stadium only).
• Market schooling shows directly to the H/J crowd — emphasize they only need to do one phase, not all three.
  • Goal: let newcomers see people having fun on XC and become curious about trying it themselves.
• Hunter paces are very popular, schooling shows should consider offering a similar “go out in pairs” option on XC.
• Lower-key schooling shows are better suited to greener horses and riders.
• One organizer (Laurie Hudson) runs both schooling and sanctioned shows on the same day, with similar entry numbers and a stable population on each side.
  • Idea: Consider increasing the number of schooling HT’s running concurrently with sanctioned HT’s (i.e., Hitching Post)
• Open question: Is there a clearly defined added value/benefit/reason for riders to move from schooling shows to sanctioned ones.
  • Suggestions included bigger ribbons, higher quality officials, course design, and safety standards, year-end awards, regional championships, AECs.
• Idea: Actively promote and expand XC derbies (“arena eventing” — XC-style jumps set up in a sand ring). Good, safe intro to XC in early-spring or late fall in Area 1, and there may be room to expand it.
• Idea: Potential partnership with HITS as they already run an arena derby at the Festival of the Horse; Area 1 (or USEA) could explore becoming a presenting sponsor.

7. International Comparisons

• Open Question: What’s happening in other countries? Is the sport growing (membership &/or maintaining entry numbers)? Where, how, why?
• In some countries horses are a bigger part of the general culture, with much greater availability and access.
• Entries in those countries are reportedly far less expensive overall.
• Open question: what about countries with no horse culture at all — are there lessons from how they built one?
• Idea: A participant mentioned a “be prepared” program (podcast) used in other countries to help riders get ready for a horse trial (HT).

8. Demographics to Keep in Mind

• Don’t overlook adult amateurs (35- to 50-year-olds) as a key demographic. They are the backbone of the sport. They often bring kids into the sport, or vice versa. A parent or family member coming to lessons is a potential client!
• This demographic are also one of the main sources for individual horse and rider sponsorships.
• Open Question: How can USEA do more to reach this audience and build excitement and support for eventing?

9. Facilities, Venues & Land Access

• Area 1 has far less, and more complicated access to competitions than Area 3 (example given by participant), and events in southern part of the area (CT, RI, NY) have fallen off the calendar, which is described as a major, ongoing problem.
• Participant asked if it was possible to consider recutting the Areas (i.e., Area 1 feels like it is 2 separate areas (western and eastern)? Would recutting the Area work for future?
• Almost all Area 1 events currently run on private farms owned by families who run the horse trials themselves, with very little succession planning in place.
  • The FEI schedule is noted as difficult to work around.
  • There are no corporate or public properties supporting the sport in the area.
  • Farms like Valinor and Huntington continue to invest because of their personal love of the sport, not necessarily economics.
  • Is there anything the USEA (or USEF) can do differently to support the family-owned, private farms that still run sanctioned events (e.g., find private farm sponsors)
• Open Question on Structural constraint: is there a way for a nonprofit to donate directly to a for-profit entity, (i.e., private farm business running an event).
• Open question: why aren’t there grants available for land use?
• Broader macroeconomic pressures — land costs, taxes, and the cost of installing jumps —compound the problem.

10. Funding, Membership & Advocacy

• USEA membership is roughly 10,000 people nationally — a relatively small pool to draw resources and volunteers from.
• There’s a need to raise awareness of just how much money and work it actually takes to support farms directly through donations.
• The American Horse Trials Federation was mentioned as a related reference point.
• Idea: produce a commercial for eventing that highlights the culture of the sport and its access to financial resources/support.