Would you like to try out the United States Eventing Association (USEA) Young Event Horse (YEH) format, but worry about getting your horse ready by age four? The Florida Horse Park March YEH is offering a YEH competition for horses of any age.

The high value of an inexpensive and easy outing to let any horse or a rider "sample" eventing in a one-day jump-out setting, with real expert evaluation of potential of the horse tossed in, will be offered Tuesday, March 9, 2010, at the Florida Horse Park in the form of the YEH four-year-old test open to all horses. Scheduled mid-week between Red Hills Horse Trials in Tallahassee and Rocking Horse Spring Horse Trials, this venue offers excellent permanent stabling by the day, a well-established and modern facility for the test venue, and two of the most knowledgeable and helpful young horse experts available.

FEI Event judge Dr. Joachim Dimmek of Muenster, Germany, who judged the last two USEA YEH national finals, and Mike Huber, chief selector of the United States Equestrian Team, will collaborate to score the YEH qualifier at both age levels and also the experimental "Any Age and Just for Fun" division offered at the YEH four-year-old level only. Stand up conformation will be scored and the YEH dressage test will precede the most heavily-weighted jumping/gallop test. The dressage test is unique to YEH, easy to perform, not about perfect execution, but aimed at evaluating quality of gaits. The jumping test will be approximately at the level of beginner novice with perhaps several optional obstacles at novice heights. Thus, only a beginning level of training is needed for this. Useful judges' comments will accompany the scores, and are not at all about the rider's performance, rather entirely about the horse.

Any sound horse over age four is eligible. USEA safety rules and equipment requirements will be in place. The entry fee is $100, includes all but stabling, no fee to jump-out.

For much more information about the tests and about YEH, visit www.useventing.com/competitions.php?section=yeh.

For venue-specific details and entries, please go to www.newspringfarm.com/yeh/index.html.