A system enabling exhibitors and show managers to access a master property calendar of championships is on the drawing board at the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association.
During a Town Hall discussion Monday night, USHJA president Britt McCormick explained the idea is to enable people organizing their show schedules to “figure out a qualifying system and create a migration pattern that works for them.”
That means anyone can look at the calendar at the beginning of the year, plan where to go and “hopefully prevent having to choose between properties on the same weekend.”
Major national championships would be on the calendar’s first tier, creating blackout dates for regional championships and other properties “so we can be sure we’re not walking one property on top of another property,” Britt said.
A second tier of championships would include fixtures such as 3-foot, 3-inch equitation, various regional championships and properties that can possibly coexist on the same weeks, but in different parts of the country, while becoming blackout weeks for the third tier, which could include Outreach Festivals and some other programs at regular horse shows.
Britt reminded those watching the Town Hall that licensing shows is the responsibility of the U.S. Equestrian Federation (detailed in Chapter 3 of the rulebook), but noted USHJA does offer recommendations in terms of mileage exemptions.
Shelley Campf, a member of the competition management committee, said she would like to encourage USHJA leadership “to stay extremely involved,” with the date situation, observing that the organization should have “some sort of control” over hunter/jumper shows.
While the number of horse recordings and memberships with USEF have grown, in 2024 that did not align with the number of members showing as it typically does, she maintained.
“A lot of horse shows are having trouble sustaining themselves when they’re 60-80 miles from one another. I think it’s a very dangerous road,” Shelley continued.
Britt replied, “We had a reorganization with the channel system I think we have kind of let fall though the cracks. I think there are some answers in there.” He said participation numbers are steady but different as “the migration pattern seems to be in flux.”
He added USHJA is trying to get various task force and management committees together to discuss the show scheduling challenges and then bring those to the federation.
In other business:
- The Marshall+Sterling Insurance/USHJA National Championships Nov. 11-17 will run without FEI classes (read about that here) but it enables USHJA to use all three arenas at the South Point in Las Vegas, and will mean more riders can participate, said Britt.
- Three 1.40 meter jumper classes have been added, including the $49,999 Desert International Horse Park Grand Prix.
- Britt advised that the USHJA annual meeting, a celebration of its twentieth anniversary, will have a different format Dec. 9-12 in Tucson, Ariz., the location of the organization’s first annual meeting. The gathering will be more interactive, and look at “improving not only our sport, but our industry.”
- Forums will not overlap, so everyone can attend all the sessions if they wish.
- In the future, Britt announced, Town Halls will be offered quarterly rather than monthly. Comments Monday were sparse, with just a handful of people speaking during the 40-minute meeting.