Lexington, Ky. – The USEF Board of Directors met on Sunday, January 14, during the 2024 US Equestrian Annual Meeting in Louisville, Ky.
During the meeting, Tom O’Mara was elected to a second term as President by a unanimous vote of retention. This successive term will run from January 2025 to January 2029.
Additionally, the following individuals were elected to the board for a four-year term that runs through January 2028.
- Jacob Arnold – Athlete Representative
- Tom Brennan – Independent Director
- Will Faudree - International Disciplines Council Representative (eventing)
- Lisa Gorretta - International Disciplines Council Representative (dressage)
- Beezie Madden – Athlete Representative
- Melissa Moore – National Breeds & Disciplines Council Representative (American Saddlebred)
Jacob Arnold (Stamping Ground, Ky.), an athlete representative from the sport of driving, was welcomed back to the Board of Directors for a successive four-year term. Arnold has competed at five FEI Driving World Championships, including a win in the 2014 Single Horse Marathon. In recent years, Arnold has won four consecutive USEF Advanced Pair Horse National Championship titles from 2020 to 2023.
Tom Brennan (Charles Town, W.Va.) re-joins the board, this time elected as independent director. A hunter rider, trainer, and U.S. Equestrian Federation ‘R’ judge, Brennan began his career as a member of Stonehill College’s equestrian team. While earning his degree in psychology, he won two individual championship titles at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Nationals and captained his team to the IHSA team championship title in 2002–03. In 2012, Brennan’s horse Gramercy Park was named the USHJA World Championship Hunter Rider Program Hunter of the Year, and Brennan was named the WCHR National Emerging Professional Champion. In addition to teaching, training, and managing the barn, Brennan holds his USEF “R” licenses in Hunter and Hunter/Jumper Seat Equitation. Brennan has judged events including the USHJA International Hunter Derby Championships, the Pre-Green Incentive Championships, USEF Pony Finals, Maclay Regionals, and the New England Equitation Championships. He has been featured as a clinician in the Practical Horseman magazine and Today’s Equestrian, as well as a contributing writer for The Chronicle of the Horse and USHJA In-Stride. Brennan also serves on the USEF National Hunter Committee and National Breeds and Disciplines Council.
Will Faudree (Southern Pines, N.C.) was elected for his first term by the International Disciplines Council to represent the sport of eventing. Faudree is an internationally recognized 5-star event rider. Among many top international placings, he was a gold winning member at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was also a member of the 2006 WEG team in Aachen, Germany. Will was short-listed for the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games. Faudree was also a reserve for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics on Mama‘s Magic Way and is currently a member of the US training squad.
Lisa Gorretta (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) was re-elected to the board by the International Disciplines Council, representing the sport of dressage. Gorretta has been a licensed official for over 30 years as a Steward (retired), “R” Dressage Technical Delegate, and Level 2 FEI Steward for dressage. (She was a Steward at the 2015 Pan American Games and was the Deputy Chief Steward for dressage at the 2016 Olympic Games.) As a licensed official, Gorretta believes in making a conscious effort to have a connection with the full range of participants in her sport. In any given year, she interacts with members and non-members at competitions from a two-ring Level 2 dressage show to a CDIO in Wellington, the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions, or Dressage at Devon.
A 1976 graduate of the Ohio State University College of Agriculture, Gorretta started Paddock Products, a horse products manufacturing and distribution company, as a division of her family’s manufacturing company in Cleveland, Ohio. When the company was sold in 1984, she founded The Paddock Saddlery, a sport horse specialty tack shop, of which she was the president until she sold the business in 2013. Gorretta is the president and CEO of The Paddock Group LLC, a multi-faceted consulting services company she started in 2011, that works with retail, manufacturing, and wholesale companies in the equine industry.
Beezie Madden (Cazenovia, N.Y.) returns to the USEF Board this time filling an active athlete seat. Madden has set the standard for jumping in many ways. She was the first woman to pass the $1 million mark in earnings for jumping. In 2004, she became the first woman and the first American rider to reach the top three in the FEI Jumping World Ranking List. Madden is also the only four-time USEF Equestrian of the Year. In 2014, she became the first woman to win prestigious King George V Gold Cup at Hickstead with Cortes ‘C.’ Madden also became the first woman and one of only a few riders to achieve back-to-back victories in the King George V Gold Cup when she repeated the victory with Cortes ‘C’ in 2015.
In April of 2013, Madden won the FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden, aboard Abigail Wexner’s horse Simon. She is only the fifth woman ever to win the FEI Jumping World Cup Final. Subsequently, in 2013, Simon was named the 2013 USEF International Horse of the Year. Madden is an Olympic individual bronze medalist and a member of the two gold medal U.S. teams from the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, where she rode Authentic.
In 2006, she won both team and individual silver medals at the FEI World Equestrian Games aboard Authentic. In 2014, Madden returned to the FEI World Equestrian Games with Cortes ‘C,’ winning a team bronze and individual bronze. Cortes ‘C’ was also voted Best Horse of the Games. Madden was a member of the gold-medal-winning 2003 (aboard Conquest II) and 2011 (aboard Coral Reef Via Volo) Pan American Games Teams and an individual silver medalist with Coral Reef Via Volo at the 2011 Pan American Games. She returned for a third Olympic appearance at the 2012 London Olympics on Coral Reef Via Volo, owned by Coral Reef Ranch.
Melissa Moore (Versailles, Ky.) was re-elected to the board in the National Breeds and Disciplines seat, representing the American Saddlebred breed after having served a previous one-year term. Moore is an American Saddlebred trainer and owner of Sunrise Stables in Versailles, Ky. She debuted in the show ring at the age of six, and by 12, she had won her first world’s championship. However, being a professional trainer wasn’t something that her legendary parents Tom and Donna Moore wanted for their youngest daughter, so after graduating high school a year early, Moore left the barn and went to Brooks College, where she graduated top of her class and received the award for “Outstanding Student.” Following a hiatus from horses, Moore felt that the horses were calling her back, and eventually, she realized training was what she wanted to do. Moore has been quite successful with open and young horses, in addition to putting amateurs and junior exhibitors in the ring. American Saddlebreds, Hackneys, and Roadsters have all won world’s and national titles under her direction. She has personally accumulated more than 50 world’s and reserve world’s champion titles. Some of her recent stars include It’s Double O’Deuce, Callaway’s Aperitif, Go Daddy, Belle Reve’s Sgt Pepper, Indian Outlaw, The Rhumba, and Ringo’s Mega Buck, among others.
The board also recognized the following outgoing board members:
- Matt Brown - Athlete Representative (eventing)
- Carol Kozlowski - International Disciplines Council (eventing)
US Equestrian would like to thank both Matt and Carol for their dedicated service to the Federation.
Additional Actions Taken by the Board of Directors at the 2024 Annual Meeting
- Board of Directors renewed an existing resolution regarding the hunter jumper licensing application process for the 2025 first trimester in Florida with changes made to the application date to expedite the process.
- The Board approved an update to the Penalty Guidelines for violations of the Prohibited Substances rules and added a violation of the 12-hour injection rule (GR414.1 & .2) to the list of Category II violations. The updated Guidelines can be accessed here.
- The full listing of approved extraordinary and FEI rule changes can be accessed here.
- The 2024 Executive Committee was named and its members include Tom O’Mara (President), Judy Werner (Vice-President), Judy Sloan (Secretary/Treasurer), Max Amaya, Jacob Arnold, Ellie Brimmer, Ali Brock, Deborah Johnson, and Jon Kreitz.
Additional Notes:
- United States Equestrian Team (USET) Foundation Treasurer Phillip Richter provided a report to the Board and stated the relationship between the Foundation and USEF remains strong noting continued collaboration and communication. Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the Foundation has awarded approximately $56 million in direct support to equestrian athletes since its inception in 2003.