Event Coverage

The USEA has an exciting schedule of Future Event Horse Competitions planned for the 2010 season with new dates and venues being added all the time. Most recently The Event at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell, MT has decided to add a FEH competition to run alongside their Spalding Labs/USEA Young Event Horse Competition.

Twenty-nine of the most promising young stars of the eventing community competed in the 2009 East Coast IDHSNA/USEA Future Event Horse Finals in Lexington, Virginia at the Virginia Horse Center. Held in conjunction with the popular Virginia Horse Trials, the classes for yearlings, two-, and three-year-old young horses were quite competitive as an array of well-bred horses were presented to judges Carter Bass and Susan Graham White to be judged on their potential suitability as event horses.

Two teenagers from Washington dominated the classic-format CCI1*. MacKenna Shea, 16, of Tacoma, only added to the substantial lead she grabbed in dressage on Landioso, while Tessa Beckett, 19, of Snohomish, moved up to second place, even though she earned 4 penalties in show jumping today on Sound Prospect. Shea could afford to lower four rails by the time she started her round, but she said she still felt anxious. "I always put a lot pressure on myself to ride well, so I definitely still felt pressure," said Shea, who performed a faultless round.

Two riders from Washington State stamped themselves as the ones to beat during the first day of competition at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event. MacKenna Shea, of Tacoma, rode Landioso to an impressive nine-point lead in the dressage phase of the classic-format CCI1*, while Stephanie Cooper, of Hobart, guided Calvin to a much narrower margin of .2 points in the short-format CCI1*.