USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Handbook

Updated December 2025

Introduction

In 2014, the United States Eventing Association (USEA) Board of Governors approved the creation of the Intercollegiate Eventing Program as an official program of the USEA. Originally proposed with input from the Intercollegiate Eventing League, the program was established to provide a framework on which eventing teams and individual competition could flourish at universities and colleges across the country. Collegiate athletic programs have been the training grounds for Olympians, amateur athletes and professional athletes for generations. Enabling students to train in the Olympic sport of eventing is a natural addition.

Since its establishment, the Intercollegiate Eventing Program has consistently realized its goals of expanding student involvement, retaining membership numbers for college students, growing the fan base, and encouraging event organizers to host Intercollegiate Team competitions. The program has experienced steady growth in both the number of students participating and in the number of colleges and universities that have joined as Affiliate members.

The mission of the Intercollegiate Eventing Program is to bring together students with a common interest and provide a supportive community through which students can continue to pursue their riding interests throughout their collegiate years. Furthermore, the Intercollegiate program is ready-made to help bring in new faces to the sport. The college years remain an ideal time and place for those who have always been interested in horses to have exposure to equestrianism, and the welcoming culture of eventing provides easy access. The USEA is dedicated to growing Intercollegiate Eventing in every USEA Area to make it a truly national program.

The annual USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship, held for the first time at Virginia Horse Trials in May 2016, is a year-end destination for collegiate teams. Participation is strongly encouraged. To be eligible for the Championship, a rider need only to be 1) enrolled in a college or university that is a current USEA Affiliate member, 2) a current USEA Full or Lifetime member, and (3) listed on the annual roster submitted by the school. At this time, there are no other qualifying criteria. Please read about future Championship dates and locations along with eligibility requirements for the Championship below.

University Affiliate

Any accredited college or university may register as an Affiliate Organization of the USEA. Once the institution is registered as an Affiliate, all current undergraduate students listed on the team's roster will be eligible to compete in the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship.

A faculty or staff representative of your college or university, the team coach, or team president needs to complete the USEA Collegiate Team Application Form and submit it to the USEA Senior Director of Membership Services, Jennifer Hardwick at [email protected] each year. A fee of $75 will be charged when the application is processed, and an annual roster of members will need to be submitted here.

Affiliate applications are due annually by February 15. Payment information for the $75 fee and the Collegiate Roster Form must be provided at time of submission for a complete application. This includes new Affiliates and renewing schools.

Collegiate Riders

Collegiate students must be Full or Life members of the USEA if they intend to compete for their college or university's team at the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship. Collegiate students whose names are listed on an affiliated school's team roster will be considered ‘collegiate members,' have their names appear on the Intercollegiate leaderboards and have the ability to participate in team challenges and the Championship. There is no age restriction on eligibility for current undergraduate students.

The Intercollegiate Leaderboards and USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship are exclusively offered for current undergraduate students. Post-graduate professional students or graduate students may be eligible to participate in Team Challenges and club activities at some schools, but they are not to be considered collegiate members of the USEA.

USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship

The USEA encourages all schools to send as many competitors as possible to the Intercollegiate Eventing Championship. Levels will be offered from Starter through Preliminary. See scoring information for the Championship below.

Championship Guidelines

There are no qualifications necessary for the Championship, but schools represented must be registered Affiliates of the USEA.

Students must be enrolled as undergraduate students and be active USEA Full or Life Members in good standing. * Exception: December graduates will be eligible to compete in the spring Championship.

Incoming freshmen, even if they are enrolled for the upcoming fall semester, are not eligible to compete.

A student can compete multiple horses at the Championships, however, they are only able to have one horse per three- or four-member team. Therefore, said student will be a member of a different team for each of their mounts.

Participants must enter the team championship as individuals through the event’s designated entry system. The team representative from each institution must then submit the team rosters for the Championship to the event organizer or designated team coordinator by 11:59 p.m. local time on closing date for the event. Alternates and scramble riders must be declared at this time. Alternates must be called up onto a team by no later than 12:00 p.m. local time on Monday of Championship week. Absolutely no changes can be made to team rosters after this time.

Alternates that are not called up to a team may be added to a scramble team the week of the event if space allows. Students may request to be on a specific scramble team and/or the organizer/team coordinator may design the scramble teams. A spot on a scramble team is dependent upon entries and not always guaranteed.

Individual collegiate riders who are eligible to compete but are not named to a team (i.e. scramble riders or alternates who are not called up to a team) are still permitted to participate in the competition and all collegiate activities during the Championship.

Intercollegiate Team Challenges

Intercollegiate Team Challenges are popular additions to recognized horse trials in the United States. Teams competing in events identified as Intercollegiate Team Challenges are able to self-identify to the competition organizer, and will compete in the regular horse trial competition as individuals. Combining their individual scores, their team scores will be tabulated and matched against other teams. Please visit the USEA website for a current calendar of team challenges.

See additional information on hosting an intercollegiate team challenge in the Organizer Guide below.

Scoring

The USEA would like to encourage all Intercollegiate Team Challenge host venues to use the following guidelines that are instituted at the USEA Intercollegiate & Interscholastic Eventing Championships. Teams can be made up of three or four riders. Teams can be made up of riders of different levels. To account for differences in level dsifficulty, each rider’s score is multiplied by a coefficient appropriate for their level, and then the individual scores are added together to determine the team score. Only the best three individual scores will count towards the team score, so teams of four will have one “drop” score. This information is provided as a guide, but at this time, there are no official requirements for scoring individual Team Challenges.

The coefficient system that will be applied at the Championships is as follows:

• Starter: 1.0
• Beginner Novice: .99
• Novice: 0.95
• Training: 0.90
• Modified: 0.85
• Preliminary: 0.80

• Intermediate: 0.75
• Advanced: .65
• CCI1*-L: 0.85
• CCI2*-S: 0.80
• CCI2*-L: 0.75
• CCI3*-S: 0.70
• CCI3*-L: 0.65
• CCI4*-S: 0.60

While most electronic scoring systems support team scoring at this time, the USEA has a scoring template in an Excel spreadsheet that can be utilized if needed. The USEA scoring template in Excel spreadsheet format can be downloaded here.