USEF Rule Change Brings Eventing Amateurs Back Into The Fold

For two years amateurs in eventing were allowed to make $2,500 riding and training, but as of Dec. 1 they’ll have to follow the general rule that forbids such compensation.

The amateur rider holds a well-established place in the hunter/ jumper world, but in eventing, officials and riders alike are still trying to figure out exactly where amateurs fit in the overall picture of the sport.

Two years ago, a rule went onto the U.S. Equestrian Federation books that gave amateur eventers more leeway than their hunter/jumper and dressage counterparts. You could still be an amateur eventer, even if you made up to $2,500 from activities forbidden in the amateur status rule, GR1306.

As of Dec. 1, 2008, eventers will be back to status quo, however, falling in line with the general rule, which doesn’t allow amateurs to make a single dollar from teaching, training or selling horses (see CliffsNotes sidebar, p. 18).

Unlike hunter/jumper competitions, events seldom offer amateur divisions. Yet as more and more eventers whose highest ambition is novice or training have entered the sport, they’ve asked for some form of recognition. The U.S. Eventing Association provides amateur classes at the American Eventing Championships and a leaderboard for amateurs from beginner novice to advanced as well as an overall amateur leaderboard sponsored by Stackhouse Saddles, but riders wanted more. They wanted a way to divide divisions so that riders with full-time jobs who never compete above novice level wouldn’t find themselves in the same division as someone who’d ridden at the Olympics. After all, you can’t get on an amateur leaderboard if you never place high enough in a division to earn any points.

The problem with using the USEF amateur rule to define who can and cannot enter a division is that the rule only addresses how much money you make from horses. It has nothing to do with how good you are. And it excludes people who really aren’t professional riders—but might make a few dollars a year teaching up-down lessons—from riding as amateurs.

“The general rule in the USEF Rulebook has always applied to eventing, but it doesn’t really work well for eventing. We were trying to find a way to make it work,” said D.C. McBroom, who participated in the amateur rule re-write.

At the 2003 USEA convention, members and officials tried to hammer out a rule that would address a rider’s professional status and the level at which he or she has ridden.

“No one in the USEA could agree on how they were going to define amateur,” said Malcolm Hook, chairman of the USEF Eventing Committee. “At the last Boston meeting [in 2003], Packy McGaughan had written what I thought was a very good rule. He presented it at the meeting, and the membership and some of the USEA officers said it was completely unacceptable.”