The U.S. Equestrian Federation announced on Aug. 3 the approval of hunter/jumper competitions to be added to the calendar for the first trimester of the 2023 competition year in Florida; this includes 32 approved mileage exemptions set to occur over a period of 18 weeks.

The Board of Directors approved a resolution permitting USEF to contemporaneously review all mileage exemption requests for hunter, jumper and hunter/jumper licensed competitions in Florida occurring within the first trimester of the 2023 competition year, similar to the resolution which was approved and successfully implemented for the 2022 competition year. This review provided the Federation with the most universal consideration of the hunter/jumper competition landscape at that time of year in that region due to the concentration of horses in Florida during the first several months of the competition year caused by the seasonal migration of competitors.

The mileage exemption requests received were processed in accordance with the approved resolution and USEF rules. USEF collected and reviewed materials relevant to these requests, including applicant mileage exemption requests, recommendations of priority date holders, feedback from USEF recognized affiliate U.S. Hunter/Jumper Association, feedback from the applicable USEF department(s), the existing hunter/jumper competitions on the calendar in the first trimester in Florida, historical horse density and migration data, and applicable Federation rules and mileage exemption criteria.

The approved draft 2023 competition calendar can be found here. Once the licensing agreements have been executed and the FEI has approved the FEI events, these competitions will be added to the USEF competition calendar which can be searched by clicking here.

The goal at USEF is to provide a competition environment that meets members’ needs for the development of equine and human athletes, horse and human safety and welfare, athlete protection, and a fair and level field of play.

All members are encouraged to participate in the evaluation process for competitions they attend. The evaluation forms can be found at www.usef.org/compete/competition-evaluation/select-competition or through the “Member Tools” section of your member dashboard.