The United States Eventing Association (USEA) had an incredible turn out of nearly 50 entries for the inaugural USEA Future Event Horse Championships, which were held in conjunction with the Morven Park Three-Day Event in Leesburg, VA, on Wednesday, October 3. The classes were split by age (yearlings, two- and three-year-olds) and sex, with the top two from each class going on to compete in the championship class. After an impressive run, Melissa Stubenberg's three-year-old Dutch Warmblood/Thoroughbred gelding Muggle (Obediah, by Fairplay, out of Isn’t She Nice, bred by Laurel Hill Farm in Unionville, PA) claimed the championship title with Diane and Peter Halphin's three-year-old filly Fuerst Aphrodites R (Fuerst Gotthard, by Kalypso, out of Kleopatra R, bred by Edgar and Susan Schutte of Lincoln, CA) earning reserve champion honors.

Judges Suzanne Quarles and Eileen Pritchard-Bryan had a full schedule judging the largest class of youngsters of the series, which began as a pilot program this spring, blossoming into nearly 10 qualifying events throughout Area II and Kentucky. Both judges said they were very impressed with the quality of young horses exhibited. Every single horse was turned out to the nines, and all looking sleek and happy. As an added benefit USEA CEO Jo Whitehouse served as the announcer throughout the day offering spectators a detailed history of each horse.

Many thanks to the judges for not only offering their expert opinions on these young horses but also for assisting the exhibitors—many of whom are still new to this type of class—on how to best present their horses in a competition setting. In addition many volunteers worked in unusually hot October conditions to ensure that the show was a success and the USEA is extremely grateful for their time and assistance. Of course, the USEA would also like to thank its generous sponsors who made this event possible—EMCO Stallion Services of Ocala, FL; Cynron CIPR Technologies, and Fleeceworks Saddlepads—as well as Margaret Good, chair of the Morven Park Organizing Committee, for graciously allowing the championships to take place during the hectic week leading up to the horse trials and helping to give the competitors a wonderful venue at which to show their horses.

A “Most Fit” award should have been presented to professional handler Bruce Griffin and his wife Staci who presented more than half of the horses in the competition.

The goal of this new USEA program is to help breeders and owners of future event horses promote and market their young stock from yearlings to three-year-olds. A second, and critical feature of this program is the creation of a database of records, results, and pedigree information that will stay with the horses for their entire careers. The hope is that the USEA's database will eventually feed into the Performance Horse Registry, a centralized national sport horse database administered by the USEF, and become a valuable resource for all equestrians, allowing them to track competition records in all breed and discipline classes as well access pedigree data for yearlings onward.

For more information on the series, including complete results of the championships, visit the Future Event Horse link on the USEA website at www.useventing.com.