United States Eventing Association

Liz Brothers has played many roles in the eventing community, from horse owner and rider to co-owner of an upper level horse. Now she has another title to add to the list—VIP Volunteer.

Brothers fell into the world of eventing later on in life after she met upper level event rider Daniel Clasing through a mutual friend. While she had no prior eventing experience, much to her surprise, she wound up buying a share in the syndicate that owned MW Gangster’s Game, who competed at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2021. “I think I bought my horse in February 2017 and then bought into the syndicate for Dan's horse in May 2017, so it was kind of around the same time,” Brothers said. “It was an interesting experience, and it was a lot more affordable than I had thought owning horses for upper level riders would really be.”

Having traveled to events like Bromont (Quebec, Canada) and the Kentucky Three-Day Event as one of the Clasing’s owners, Brothers has truly seen all sides of the sport. She started volunteering at the same time she started eventing and currently tries to schedule time to volunteer at events in Area II at least once a month. Currently, she’s racked up nearly 30 volunteer hours in 2025 on the Area II VIP leaderboard.

“Volunteering has been fun, and it’s a good way to learn eventing,” Brothers said. “It's also a really good way to vet trainers and barns, just by seeing them out in the wild, in public. I try to volunteer once a month, because I think it's really important to support eventing as a whole, because it's a huge undertaking to put on a show.”

By chance, Brothers moved to one of the best areas for eventing before she even knew about the sport. “I live in Columbia, Maryland, so I'm within an hour of Loch Moy and an hour and a half from Fair Hill,” she said. “So it's a great place to be. I didn't know what eventing was, but I somehow, completely by chance, moved to the best place to be doing it.”

Volunteering is nearly part of Brothers’ DNA. She grew up giving back to her community through the Girl Scouts and spent part of her career in the military as well. “I think giving back to the community and being an active participant in the things that you would like to see succeed is a very important thing to do,” she said. “Eventing won't succeed if we aren't actively giving our time to it, right? There's no way that any of us would want to pay the show fees that you would have to pay to pay the staff to run a show.”

Working behind the scenes as a volunteer has opened Brothers’ eyes to the hard work that goes into running an event.

“Volunteering has made me a lot more appreciative of the logistics it takes to get an event to run smoothly,” she said. “I would go to shows, helping Dan and Kaitlin [Clasing], and I would kind of grumble that things weren't running as smoothly as maybe I would like them to. And then years later, I'm like, ‘Oh, it's because not enough people volunteered, and there's one person running warm up for this ring, or no one volunteered, and there's no dressage steward.' So it's very important to see a problem and then try and fix it. I think that has made me want to volunteer more.”

Outside of volunteering and owning several horses for Clasing, Brothers’ also rides and competes with her own horse, Artigo. “I bought him on Valentine's Day, so that'll be a hard gift for anyone to top,” Brothers laughed. “I had never owned a horse before him. He's an American-bred Irish draft horse. He was bred by the Fultons at Full Moon Farm.”

“I bought him as a 5 1/2-year-old, which I would not suggest for a first time horse owner—they're interesting at 5 1/2,” she continued. “He's by Brandenburg’s Windstar, which is Phyllis Dawson's old stallion who breeds things with very strong opinions, which is great. He's smart, and sometimes his opinions are very useful. Sometimes I don't really appreciate them. So he was perhaps not the easiest horse to buy as a first-time horse owner.”

Brothers and “Tigo” have been enjoying all the adrenaline-rushing fun that comes with eventing. But unfortunately, their eventing career hasn’t been without its ups and downs. As is the case with many horses, Tigo has been sidelined by a few minor issues over the years galloping cross-country.

“He, thankfully, really enjoys jumping and eventing, so he's been a good horse to have for that,” Brothers said. “But he's larger, and with larger horses, you end up having joint adventures. So it’s just one of those things where you have to learn to manage the body that your horse has been given, and make sure you're doing the correct work for him and the correct supportive work.”

When Tigo has to take a break from the sport, Brothers still stays involved with her local competitions by volunteering. “I was looking back at my volunteer schedule, and you can kind of map out when my horse has decided to injure himself, because that’s when I put in more hours,” she said.

Volunteering has helped Brothers become a better horse owner, rider, and competitor by offering her a way to connect with some of the most educated minds in the sport. Last year at the MARS Maryland 5 Star, Brothers volunteered as a scribe for dressage judge Jeanne McDonald.

“I really enjoyed dressage scribing for the Young Event Horse competition at the Maryland 5 Star last year,” Brothers said. “It's completely different from dressage scribing regularly. I had a lot of time to pick the brain of the judge I was sitting with, Jeanne McDonald, and she was lovely. You learn a lot from sitting there and watching 30 of the same tests.”

Outside of scribing for dressage, Brothers says that she’s learned a lot from volunteering in a variety of jobs and working closely with everyone from the cross-country steward to the technical delegates (TD).

“Volunteering is a good way to see all the aspects of the show,” she said. “You might not have the opportunity to talk to these people, like the steward or the TDs, otherwise. The TDs are a wealth of knowledge. I really enjoy talking to Muffin [Pantaze]. It gives you a very different perspective.”

Like many other equestrians, Brothers says that volunteering taught her the ropes of eventing when she first started in 2017. While she had done summer pony camp as a child, through volunteering she dove into the deep end of the horse world and explored all sides of the sport.

“There's definitely a volunteer job for everyone,” she said. “I've worked the awards. I've done jump judging, I've done control, I do kind of like running warm-up. It's like herding cats, but you get good at it, or you find a different job.”

Brothers’ story is a great example of what makes eventing more accessible than some other equestrian disciplines. Whether through volunteering, networking with friends, or competing, there are many ways equestrians can become part of the eventing community. While some may be expensive, volunteering is always free.

“I enjoy volunteering—but there's so many ways you can get involved in eventing,” Brothers said. “Volunteering is very easy. It's free! But I also think owning horses [for a rider] is not as inaccessible as people might think it is. Some of the syndicates are really expensive. Some of them aren't. So there's many ways to get involved, and volunteering is definitely a good way to start to get into things.”

Looking to give back to your local eventing community? Learn how to volunteer at an event near you here.

About the USEA Volunteer Incentive Program

Volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport—the unsung heroes, and the people who make it possible to keep eventing alive. In efforts to recognize the dedication, commitment, and hard work that volunteers put into eventing, the USEA formed the Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) in 2015. In 2017, an online management portal was designed for volunteers, organizers, and volunteer coordinators at EventingVolunteers.com, which is also available as an app for iOS and Android.

Volunteer incentives include national and area recognition, year-end awards, a top-10 USEA Volunteer leaderboard, and a Volunteer of the Year award which is given to the volunteer who accumulates the most volunteer hours on EventingVolunteers.com at recognized events throughout the USEA competition year. Click here to learn more about the USEA Volunteer Incentive Program.

The USEA would like to thank Horse Illustrated for their support of the Volunteer Incentive Program.