In honor of Presidents' Day, we sat down with US Equestrian’s own President, Tom O’Mara, to ask a few questions about his time with the organization. O’Mara recently began his second term as president that will run through 2028.
Q: US Equestrian’s main initiative, and theme of the 2025 Annual Meeting, was “It’s All About the Horse.” So, what does that mean to you?
A: Equestrians love horses. That’s why we’re equestrians! “It’s All About the Horse” is a message we hear loud and clear from our members, and they always want us to have the horse front and center with everything we do in our sport. So, that is what “It’s All About the Horse” means to me. It’s a reminder for us all that every day, whether you’re heading out to the barn or a show, whatever you are doing in your life, to keep in mind that it truly is all about the horse. Our members have asked us, as the National Governing Body of equestrian sport, to be sure that we remember this every morning when we look in the mirror. We must continue bringing this topic to the forefront of every conversation for two reasons: one, there are some people who don’t think about it maybe as often as they should; and two, there are also people who aren’t equestrians. So, as we grow and connect with more equestrians and non-equestrians, we bear a responsibility to stand for the horse in front of everyone.
Q: What is your favorite part of being a horse show dad and husband?
A: My favorite part about being a horse show father and husband is watching the interaction my family members have with horses, which was a remarkable thing to see as a non-horse professional many years ago. My children did other sports, and I watched them all as a sideline dad, but when I saw them riding a horse, I thought it was just amazing. Whether it was at a competition or taking a lesson at home, to see them work and interact with a horse, and the fact that the horse was listening and happy to be riding was simply remarkable. To see one of my young children sitting on the back of a 1,200-pound animal and being able to work with the horse as a team, whether it was a lesson or they were competing, it wasn’t about winning. It was about watching them succeed. I always say it’s a team sport. There are two beings out there on the team, and they may not speak the same language, but they are communicating with each other to do amazing things, and that is remarkable to have the ability to do that.
Q: How did you initially get involved with US Equestrian?
A: It really happened when my kids were approaching college age, and I was investigating what they could do with the sport that they spent most of their time on. That’s when I started looking into all the different college equine programs, and I learned about all the great ways people could continue riding while they’re in college. Throughout my research, I contacted several organizations and asked what they were doing for all of the junior riders now that they were going to college, and quite frankly, thought they could all be doing more. To me, there was a gap in the middle which actually led to some ideas about connecting with fans.
Anyway, I contacted the then-current US Equestrian president Murray Kessler, and Bill Moroney, who was then the interim CEO at this time, and set up a meeting with them to discuss what USEF does for college age riders among all the disciplines. We talked for several hours, and that ended up leading to my seat on the Board of Directors. Two years later, with my skill set from my finance background, I was the secretary/treasurer where I started working on a lot of different projects. Then, when Murray decided to not run for a second term, it opened the opportunity to become President. I talked with my family about it, and my son asked me, “Dad, why do you want to do it?” I told him, every day you wake up, no matter how old you are, you have to be willing to learn something new. Through my role, it’s interesting because I really do learn something new every day, which makes this role really exciting.
Q: You were elected to a second term as president that will run from 2025 until 2029. What would you like to focus on during your second term as USEF President?
A: At the end of my first term, I went through our strategic plan and asked myself how much of it we accomplished. Of course, there were some exogenous events like COVID and EHV (equine herpesvirus) that slowed certain things down, but we accomplished a lot during my first term, and a lot of those things were building blocks for other future projects that I’m still excited about. So, number one, I want to finish the jobs that we didn’t do, and I’m really excited to see how they play out.
We have a new strategic plan for the next four years, which we presented during the General Session at the 2025 Annual Meeting, so as a Board, our plan is to execute on that. Our focus continues to be to connect non-equestrians with our sport and bring the joy of horse sport, and I like to focus on the second part of our mission, to as many people as possible. As a horse show dad, I want to share what I’ve learned about the industry with others, and when I would bring, for example, my extended family, to a show, they loved it. Even just watching someone ride leads to more people riding horses eventually.
We’ve planned some exciting things for the next four years regarding media and partnerships and new products, including the US Equestrian Open, which takes place across the three Olympic disciplines. Speaking of Olympics, another neat thing about my time as President is that I will have been President through three Olympic cycles. Because of COVID, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed by a year, so they fell into my term, and then I attended the Paris Olympics this past summer, and am looking forward to LA 2028. These are all huge events for our sport and I’m looking forward to accomplishing these goals throughout the next four years.
Q: How has US Equestrian grown and changed since you became president in 2021?
A: We’ve seen that participation in sport underneath the Federation’s umbrella has definitely grown in participants, numbers of horses, and numbers of rounds, and there’s a lot of things that contribute to that. There’s the whole equestrian ecosystem, like the great trainers around the country, the show organizers, and people who have invested in the sport. I think when they see that there is a vision for the sport to not be as inward looking, but to be outward looking as well, that is more enticing for new investors. Just think of some of the new facilities that have been built, and some of the new shows that have occurred in the last four years, and the ones that are being planned for the future. People see that the sport is connecting with more people. To me, reaching one million fans should be easy, and it’s one of the things we focused on in the last four years. There were points of time during exogenous events that we couldn’t focus on actively growing fans as much as we would have liked, but we continued to connect with organizations who want to bring their people in as fans, to watch our sport and learn. So, we’re working on a lot of educational programs like the USEF Network and the Learning Center so fans can further connect with the sport. So, I don’t think it’s too lofty of a goal and I think we’ll have well over a million fans at the end of this next four years. But of course, we have over a million people following us either on one of our 20 different social media channels or through the Network. They may not be fans or competing members right now, but to me, they are fans if they are following along with our sport. We’re consistently reaching more people more frequently, and that’s a big part of the growth; understanding what our sport is all about.