Student Guide: Building an Intercollegiate Eventing Team

Updated December 2025

Introduction

Since its inception in 2014, the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Program – aimed to enfranchise and maintain the participation in eventing by the college-student age group – has experienced a notable increase in the level of membership and in competition entries as well as welcome new faces to the sport of eventing.

The USEA commends the students that have worked to create teams at their college or university and actively participate in educational activities and team building, providing a community of like-minded individuals interested in eventing and/or horse sports.

The USEA has formulated this guide to assist students in forming eventing teams at their college or university and become a registered affiliate with the USEA making them eligible for earning points on the Intercollegiate Leaderboard and participating in the annual USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship.

Becoming Official with your School

Contact your student activities council or the group in charge of student organizations at your school.
It may be helpful to find a faculty member willing to assist you in getting the team up and running. A faculty member can help you navigate all the ins and outs of school policies.
Make sure you check all of the requirements your school has for student organizations.
Some schools have the option of making your team an intramural or club sport. Get in contact with your school’s Recreational Sports department to determine if this is applicable for your team.

Growing your Member Base

Talk to local coaches in your area (including different disciplines) and see if any of their students go to your school.
Participate in orientation week recruiting events your school puts on.
Post advertisements at local feed and tack stores.
Let academic departments in your school know about your team. Many schools have email lists and bulletin boards available for student organizations.
Advertise to potential students through prospective student days and high schools. Having an intercollegiate eventing team may encourage some prospective students to choose that college and provide you with an excited new member.
Each Intercollegiate team should strive to include non-riding participants by encouraging friends and other college students to learn about the riding program and include them in Intercollegiate activities such as meetings and Team Challenges as grooms, other support positions, or just as general enthusiasts. There are multiple USEA membership options, including a Community Membership with benefits for non-riders.
Consider how to connect the intercollegiate program to other sports’ “booster” programs to help give Intercollegiate Eventing a consistent presence on campus as well as in the college sports roster.

Becoming Official with the USEA

Once you’ve become an official organization and have a solid member base, contact the USEA or download the Collegiate Team Application linked here to register your school as a collegiate affiliate.

Participating in Team Challenges

Contact local event venues and see if they already host team challenges, and if not, talk to them about adding one to their next event. Volunteer your team to help them add and run it.
Use resources available through the USEA to help organize and run your challenge.
Get in contact with other Intercollegiate Teams and invite them to events.

The following options are suggested for students/teams when signing up for an Intercollegiate Team Challenge:

When making an entry, include the college/university name on the stabling list and also email the organizer a team roster.
Make note of their college/university or team name on a paper entry.
Since team challenge participants are encouraged to stable together in order to promote team atmosphere and camaraderie, a team should indicate if it would like to avail itself of this stabling option.

Things to Consider When Transitioning Team Officers

Contact USEA with the new team president’s name and contact information. This way people can contact the team via the USEA website, and the USEA can also communicate with the proper team member whenever necessary.
Remember, official team rosters are due to the USEA Member Services Department by February 15 each year for students to be eligible to compete in the USEA Intercollegiate Eventing Championship.
Update all social media accounts with the new team president’s and/or team officer contact information.
It is helpful for officers to have a binder for their role. They can add notes about the position to the binder that can be passed on year to year.
Keep up with document sharing, like Google docs for a team, that way it can be shared year to year.
Turn over logo files and PDFs to the new team officers.
Stay current on the individual school requirements for teams or club sports. Re-register the team as necessary, update contact information for team officers, and communicate with associated faculty when changes occur within the team.

Note: Guidelines and requirements for teams and clubs vary between schools. Please contact the USEA to view several examples of existing team constitutions.