the everything pony
who would really much rather eat all day
Dipping the toe in
Sadly, I have no horsey updates.
I didn’t ride yesterday because I had errands and a club meeting to go to; however, I did a lot of research on USEA, and relatively came up with more questions than I had answers. That of course always makes things less stressful. I printed out the rulebook and have been going through that (thank god it looks like I’m good for show clothes). But looking at all the information, I feel that to be honest I’m an amateur, I have to make a call to NRHA and make sure I’m good.
I gave up my amateur status in 2014 to show a few horses in some NRHA shows, but since then haven’t shown in anything NRHA Open since then. According to the rulebook, this year would mark the end to my ineligibility to apply for a Non-Pro card. Not that I’m planning to renew a membership with NRHA, but I feel that to really be considered an amateur in USEA to register for BN (if we ever get there), then I can’t be a “pro” in any organization.
I’m not planning on going BN anytime soon, and you and your horse need to be registered to compete in BN. But, do you need to be registered to compete in Intro? Or elementary, or perhaps pre-competition as it looked like a few places were calling it. It’s all just a jumble in my head as I sort it out, so it’s just going to be a process for me to get it all straight. But it was definitely exciting as I was looking through everything. I’ve been perusing venues I could potentially get to and will probably soon organize some lessons. Yay! Although soon for me could mean next month, so….we will see. For now, though, it’s continuing to work towards this show!
6 Comments on “Dipping the toe in”
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the everything pony 
No, you don’t need USEA membership to run Starter aka Intro aka wtf ever anyone wants to call it, although the event will charge you a non member fee (its 20 or 25 per show, I forget). As for amateur rules, default to USEF’s rule book. If you do end up having to declare as pro, I’ll say it actually matters very very little in eventing. There are no straight amateur classes vs pro classes, they’re sorted into Open, Horse, and RIder (if entries even warrant a split, which sometimes they don’t). It really only matters if you’re trying to get qualifications for something, which at Starter/Intro you won’t be able to do anyway.
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Ah okay thanks for the information! That is true that aren’t any straight pro vs non pro classes. Thanks so much tho! I appreciate it 😊
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honestly the usea stuff only actually matters if you’re doing a recognized event anyway. i pretty much exclusively do unrecognized events (aka “starter” or “schooing” horse trials) and have therefore never done a single thing in terms of registering with the usea. we’re lucky tho in my area that there are so many unrecognized options – i know other regions can be very different.
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That’s what I thought but it’s a lot of info to take in! Lol but thanks! There’s not too many starters around here but I’m looking!
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i have a USEA membership ONLY because a friend of mine writes articles for the magazine (Ahem the900facebookpony LOL) and i wanted to get it. Otherwise no worries. 🙂 I do like the website and the membership fee is not bad but like Emma and Amanda both said, unless you are going to do recognized no need. And we have like a zillion nonrecognized trials around us. It is insane. 🙂 You will be fine can’t wait to ‘read’ all about it! Amber looks impressed (NOT) 🙂
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Haha right? She was not impressed lol. Thanks for the info as well! Yeah I just am like that overprepared person that WHAT IF we somehow manage to do BN and I don’t want to be scrambling lol if nothing else I’ll wait a bit and should be good to go by 2018. And thanks! I can’t wait to start really getting into it lol
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