Change Is In The Air

In just two months, you’ll have the opportunity to make your voice heard regarding our sport and rule change proposals which, if approved, will make significant changes to how our sport operates.

We all have opinions, and at every horse show you attend you’ll hear people expressing their views on what changes need to be made in our sport. Well, for all of you who have an opinion, Dec. 7-10 are the dates, and St. Petersburg, Fla., is the place to let the rest of the equestrian world and leaders in your sport know your thoughts.

Before reading further, it’s important to remember that this article addresses just a portion of the many rule changes proposed this year and that there are many additional changes that will have to be implemented to support some of the systemic changes coming forward.

Over the past five years that the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association has been in existence, we’ve heard a lot of comments regarding the mileage rule and the state of our competitions. More than a year ago, the U.S. Equestrian Federation sent the USHJA a letter directing the organization to review our current competitions with emphasis on addressing mileage, adequate competition choices for exhibitors and standards for competitions.

In order to properly complete the work with which we were tasked, the USHJA leaders formed a Competitions Committee comprised of geographically and constituency diverse representatives. All of these committee members currently serve in various roles as active participants in our sport. Additionally, Committee Facilitator Howard Pike and I traveled to several venues over the past year to speak with competitors, competition management, officials, vendors and other equine service providers.

As a result of our work on the road, the extensive data obtained and studied and the in-person retreats and teleconference calls, the USHJA Competitions Committee has proposed five rule changes that have a direct impact on our current system of licensing competitions. All of these proposals have been developed on a truly national basis and always with the goal of promoting what’s best for the sport and our equine partners.

They are available on the Federation website under reference numbers 607-09 through 611-09. In an effort to obtain feedback prior to the USHJA Annual Meeting, USHJA officials have sent a letter to competition licensees and management to draw their attention to these rule changes and to receive feedback prior to the convention and included announcements in our E-News. And, after all, many of the ideas discussed on our travels this year have been incorporated in the new proposals.

The Mileage Conundrum

To start, you’ll find proposed changes that will make more transparent the process for transferring authority and financial responsibility of a competition to another person and for obtaining permission to hold a competition within the mileage of another existing competition.

Another change simply adds the 2010 requirements for prize money to the existing mileage tables while introducing new rating nomenclature for hunter competitions (see sidebar). The new proposals replace our current system with a new competition system based on standards including number of entries for rating. The new hunter rating nomenclature will help you to understand the next proposal dealing with competition standards.