We’ve all seen gasp-inducing cross-country rides. Maybe it’s because someone was flying around at a reckless speed, repeatedly finding poor distances, or maybe it’s because they were arriving at fences so slowly their horse was struggling to get to the other side. 

In some cases, those riders appear fine on paper. They don’t have cross-country stops littering their record, or tons of rails in show jumping, and maybe they even keep earning the necessary qualifications to move up the levels. Their horse’s EquiRatings Quality Index rating, which statistically evaluates a horse’s risk based on previous cross-country faults, is green on the U.S. Eventing Association website, putting their risk within the normal range. But their rounds tell a different story. 

Rarely do bad rounds like those go unnoticed. Competitors talk while they’re happening, and the chatter extends to dinners among friends in the evenings. It was conversations such as those, with eventers wondering whether anyone was going to do something about questionable rides, that helped lead to the creation of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Eventing Watch List in 2008, according to Jon Holling, an upper-level eventer who is chairman of the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Eventing Sport Committee and a member of the USEA Safety and Equine Welfare Committee. With a formal list, officials at a rider’s next event were aware of potential problems and could more carefully observe those people. It was not intended as a punishment, said Holling. 

“People would be concerned—not gossiping—but, ‘Oh, that’s a problem; I wonder if the officials are aware?’ ” said Holling. “It came a lot from the competitors being concerned about riding in the sport. [It was] not like there was a huge problem, but you would see a horse or a rider and think, ‘Is everyone aware that this is a problem?’ And it’s difficult, I think, for officials sometimes, because a lot of times they come in from other parts of the country. They drop in; they are there for the weekend; they do the best that they can, but there are a lot of competitors to watch, and it’s hard for them to catch everything.” 

USEF director of eventing sport administration Allison Lloyd said the goal of many initiatives, including the watch list, is to promote safety and education. 

“The idea has always been that USEF wants to promote a safe environment at competitions, and as safe riding became a more serious focus, the watch list [was] kind of spurred from that and is one of the ways to hold athletes accountable and to promote a safe environment,” said Lloyd. 

Watch List Criteria

Over the past 16 years, the watch list has undergone several changes. Its most recent revamp went into effect in mid-2023. 

The latest changes expanded the scope of which behaviors place riders on the watch list, to include competitors that have received a Fédération Equestre Internationale yellow card or USEF yellow warning card for dangerous riding, or those who have been penalized at an FEI competition for dangerous riding. It also now includes riders who have lost qualification two times in a 12-month period, at any level. 

As in the previous version, if a rider receives an FEI recorded warning for dangerous riding or gets a dangerous riding penalty at a USEF-recognized competition, they’re automatically added to the list. 

The latest iteration also changed the process by which a rider is placed on the watch list, removing the “notifying agent”—an experienced eventing athlete who served as a point of contact for a rider who wished to discuss their placement on the watch list. People who served as notifying agents felt it was difficult to provide meaningful feedback if they had not seen the incident in question, Lloyd said, so that task is now handled by USEF. 

“There hasn’t been too much [change] for the reporting process for licensed officials; it was mainly on the athlete side of what happens when they are placed on the watch list,” she said. “That process was updated to be a little more effective and a little more clear.” 

But what else lands a competitor on the watch list? 

According to the USEF website, the watch list is “comprised of USEF and/or USEA members competing in the U.S. who have been identified as displaying potentially dangerous or unsafe riding.” 

Dangerous riding, which is defined in the USEF rulebook, EV113.1, as “instances when an athlete rides in such a way as to constitute a hazard to the safety or well-being of themselves, their horse, and/or other persons or horses,” can occur during warm-up or any phase of a USEF-licensed competition. This includes, but is not limited to: riding too fast, riding too slow, a series of dangerous jumps, continuing after three refusals, a fall or elimination, pressing a tired horse, endangering the public, jumping obstacles not part of the course, jumping the roping, and jumping from a standstill. 

Those added to the list remain on it for 12 months. While FEI recorded warnings and yellow cards are published on that organization’s website, USEF keeps its yellow cards and the watch list, including the number of riders on it at any given time, confidential. Only eventing officials can view the list, and they are instructed to check it against entries at events they are officiating. 

Riders of any level can be added to the list, even those competing beginner novice through training levels, who are not required to be USEF members. Though conversations regarding safety often surround the upper levels, where there’s an increased risk due to greater speeds and larger fences, dangerous riding penalties aren’t limited to that group of competitors. Riders newer to the sport may exhibit dangerous behavior out of lack of knowledge, said Gretchen Butts, a USEF and FEI judge and technical delegate. 

“I think at the lower levels, a lot of it depends on what their background is: what skillset they bring to the competition, how they’ve been coached, how they’ve been taught,” she said. “Sometimes, people will tell you, ‘You won’t believe what we heard in warm-up as far as how this one coach was telling this poor beginner novice [competitor] to keep riding faster and faster, and the poor beginner novice person was scared; they’re almost tearful,’ and unfortunately that happens more than you’d like to acknowledge.” 

A rider can be placed on the watch list by the objective standards listed above—getting yellow cards or dangerous riding penalties—but also because someone sees them at a competition and files a report. Making a watch list report isn’t a free-for-all, however, and your average rider can’t report one of their competitors. Only a USEF or U.S. FEI eventing technical delegate, judge or course designer, the U.S. FEI eventing steward, the U.S. eventing national safety officer, athletes who have represented the U.S. at Olympics, world championships or the Pan American Games, and instructors who hold a Level IV or V USEA Eventing Coaches Program certification can file a report. 

However, if a competitor does have concerns about someone else riding, they can approach an official. 

“We can’t see everything,” said Cindy DePorter, a USEF and FEI judge and technical delegate. “If people think they see dangerous riding in warm-up or cross-country, wherever it is, then they should contact the TD.” If officials are alerted to a potential problem, she said, they can try to observe the rider in question and determine whether to take official action. Alerting the technical delegate or president of the ground jury is something that’s discussed in jump judge briefings as well, and volunteers are told to radio if someone is struggling on course. In some cases, the TD or president of ground jury may elect to stop the rider. 

“If somebody doesn’t seem like they’re in control, you need to let our [cross-country] control know, so we can get an eyeball on this person as soon as possible, so we can make some decisions,” DePorter said. 

DePorter recalled one incident several years ago where she had a good view of a large portion of the cross-country course. A rider had a couple of bad combinations early on course but seemed to improve. But after a few more fences, the horse took off, and the rider never truly regained control. After a couple of failed attempts by jump judges to get the person to pull up, DePorter had to intervene herself. 

“I had to go out in the middle of the field in front of the person and really just get out and wave my hands, and the individual ended up circling around me four or five times before she was able to get the horse to slow,” she said. “It became a very clear thing to her too that this is not her day. And you hope that riders will understand that and just pull up and go home.” 

Officials aren’t required to speak to the rider they’re submitting to the watch list, however both Butts and DePorter said they usually try to start a dialogue about the incident. 

“If I see something, I’m not bashful about at least having a conversation to see how aware somebody is, and do they really feel it is a problem or not?” said Butts. “And if they do, great, and if they don’t then that’s a whole different issue and a whole different direction. Honestly with being a licensed official now, we have to be very careful as far as who else might be involved in that conversation, because then it turns out to be a he-said-she-said kind of thing, and that could get ugly in a hurry, even though the intention was never to have gone down that road in the first place.” 

Putting A Rider On Notice

For a rider to be added to the watch list, an official report of the incident must be submitted to USEF. People who aren’t working at the event can also submit their own reports—as long as they meet the proper qualifications—but Lloyd said the federation advises that they also notify the competition’s licensed officials of their intentions. 

“They can submit a direct report to us, but when we’re there at the competition it is going to be the licensed officials who are enforcing the relevant safety rules at that time, so we ask that they be notified,” she said. 

Just because a report is submitted does not mean a rider is automatically included on the list; USEF verifies the report first. In cases where official action was taken at the event, USEF verifies with the FEI or through event results that the rider received a penalty or elimination for dangerous riding. If that doesn’t exist, often Lloyd’s department will check with the reporting party or licensed official at the event. 

“Sometimes we’ll have follow-up questions with the person who submitted it, or if it wasn’t a licensed official, following up with that competition licensed official to see what they know,” she said. “And then seeing if there are any eyewitnesses or any other details we need to confirm. If there happens to be video—if it’s an upper-level event that happens to have livestream—looking at that. But it does depend on what the report is, and what is already included when it’s sent in to us.” 

After the report is reviewed, ideally within two or three days of receipt, the rider will receive a letter via email from USEF informing them that they’ve been placed on the watch list and will remain there for 12 months. 

“It’s human nature [that] if you have problems, you press on; you try to work harder to get through them, and sometimes that doesn’t always work out,” said Holling. “I think the idea was to try to catch this stuff before it becomes a major problem. Part of the whole watch list is that you do notify the riders that, ‘Hey, look, you’re going to be put on the watch list,’ and most of the time, just notifying them and having a conversation with them encourages them to go get help and sort things out.” 

While dangerous riding penalties or eliminations prevent riders from earning a minimum eligibility requirement at that event, it doesn’t preclude them from riding at the same level at their next event, or even from moving up. Being added to the watch list doesn’t come with any penalties, but Holling said in his experience, the dialogue with the rider is usually enough to encourage change. He noted it’s important to approach the discussion in a manner that suggests genuine concern over missing pieces in a rider’s education, rather than a “we’re watching you, fix it or else” attitude. 

“I know for a fact that sometimes people initially receive those conversations that are thinking, ‘Oh gosh, they’re out to get me,’ but I would venture to say that every time it has made riders be more self-aware, and go back home and work harder to do a better job so that either they can be safer or quite honestly sometimes, ‘I’m going to show those guys and do a good job so that they realize they were wrong,’ ” said Holling. “I think either way it doesn’t really matter. The result is that the rider goes back and thinks about the conversation and finds a way to improve. 

“I think it’s been very successful when people’s names have been put forward; I think the only issue is then people not being willing to put those names forward,” he added. 

If a rider continues to ride in a dangerous manner and additional reports are sent to USEF, that’s when further action may take place.

“They may be sent to the regulations department, who will do their own review of the reports,” said Lloyd. “At that time the athlete will have the opportunity to respond and defend themselves before any determination is made. Once the regulations department does their review, they will propose a resolution, which could include any of the penalties outlined in Chapter 7 [of the USEF’s rulebook]. That would be determined by them, but it will be a case-by-case basis depending on severity and the pattern of behavior within the report.” 

Though it sometimes feels like an “us versus them” situation with the officials on one side and riders on the other, Holling said it’s important to remember that the creation of the watch list was born out of a desire to prevent a rider, or their horse, from getting hurt. 

“People should know if they have concerns, they should voice them and bring them forward,” he said. “And then know that the people who are making those decisions are people who are just like them, going to an event. 

“It’s such a small sport. It sounds cliché, but we really, truly are all in this together,” he continued. “People who are in charge of the sport are the people who are competing in the sport.” 

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This article originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.