USEF News - January 2009

From Vonita Bowers,
Director of Endurance Discipline
USEF - United States Equestrian Federation

Director’s Update January 6, 2009

The Athlete Elections have been completed. The following are the Athletes elected to the Eligible Athletes Committee 2009-2012:

Kathy Brunjes
Carol Giles
Valerie Kanavy
Heather Reynolds
Jeremy Reynolds
Stephen Rojek
Michele Roush
Christoph Schork
Meg Sleeper
Marcia Smith
Stephanie Teeter

Three of these Committee members will be elected by the members to serve on the High Performance Committee as Athlete Representatives.

The AERCI’s Technical Committee Recommendations have been forwarded to Mr. O’ Connor for appointment.

The new FEI Rules for Endurance have been circulated and are on the USEF Endurance page and the FEI website www.horsesport.org . There are also three other documents that are companions to the rules document. Those are posted just below the rules on both websites.

The procedures for the 2009 Pan American Championships are in their final stages of approval. The competition is April 24-26 in Costa Azul, Uruguay. It is a 120km race, and the qualification is the same as that listed for the Junior/Young Rider World Championships on the FEI website. There is no Athlete funding available. This information has been circulated to members of the Rider Ranking List.

The North American Planning is moving forward. The 4* Competition has been dropped, since there is no nations qualifying in the new FEI Rules. The Team Challenge CEI3* is planned for October 14.

The Endurance Committees will meet at the USEF Convention Jan. 16. The meetings are open. The primary agenda items are Selectors and Vet Panel for 2009-2010, Discussion of the past World Championship, and discussion of the High Performance Program going forward. The new Athletes committee will be seated. The new Technical Committee is not seated until March. Any of those new Technical members are invited to sit in on meetings between now and March. In addition to the meetings, the Youth Convention will be going on, and the Maggy Price Endurance Excellence Trophy will be awarded to Valerie Kanavy at the Pegasus Awards Dinner Saturday, Jan 17th.

The AERC Convention meetings will be Sunday Afternoon from 1 to 5:00.

The Officials Course will be held beginning Sunday evening and continuing through Tuesday. For more information regarding the course, contact Mary Smith at msmith@usef.org.