United States Eventing Association

Collegiate eventing teams have been popping up all over the country since the USEA created the Intercollegiate Eventing Program. One of the newest teams to form lives in College Station, Tx at Texas A&M University.

Texas A&M is a land grant college founded in 1871. It started as an all men’s military school and remained that way until the 1960’s when participation in the corps of cadets was made voluntary and the first women were admitted as students. It is now the largest school in the state of Texas with a student body of almost 60,000 but the traditions still survive from its days as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.

Texas A&M has a very strong equine program and one of the top vet schools in the country. Our Equestrian Team has won nationals countless times and our men’s Polo Team just took home the national title this spring. Texas A&M also has a Rodeo Team, Stock Horse Team, Horse Judging Team, Horsemen’s Association and the Parsons Mounted Calvary, one of the last remaining Calvary units in the nation. With so many equine programs at the University it seemed only fitting for A&M to have its own Eventing Team.

Eventing has been growing in popularity in Texas within the recent years. With the American Eventing Championships (AEC) just finishing its three year stay at the Texas Rose Horse Park in Tyler, TX, more and more people are switching over to the sport. That’s been one of the cool things we’ve seen since the establishment of the team is the variety of backgrounds students have that are interested in Eventing. Our school’s programs are traditionally geared towards the traditional ranch horse so we have a lot of western converts and several hunter jumpers take an interest in the team.

We’ve also been very fortunate to have an outpour of support from the community. MeadowCreek Horse Park hosts several Horse Trials throughout the year and is owned by a former student of Texas A&M Robbie Peterson. Only an hour away from campus, Robbie has been great working with the team by letting us use her facility for schooling and we have plans to host clinics there in the future. Amanda Merritt, the owner of Anchor Equestrian, has also been a big supporter of the team. Amanda is a well-liked eventing trainer in the area that several of the riders on the team train with currently. She’s offered discounts on all her services to riders on the team, and we so appreciate having a trusted trainer involved with the program who can help introduce non-eventers to the sport.

Texas A&M Eventers Volunteer at the MeadowCreek Spring Horse Trials

Education has been one of the top priorities of the team so far. The competing members have been eventing for several years, but when we started this team we knew we wanted to create a program that appealed to riders of other disciplines. Because of this, our team focused on education in order to provide an inviting introduction to the sport. We volunteer at local shows, so our greener members can see exactly what Horse Trials are about, and fall in love with eventing the way we all have. Many of our traditionally western riders have caught the bug and have set goals for themselves to compete at the starter level by the end of the year. We even have several people running for officer positions that have never evented before but have taken an interest in the sport. So far we are thrilled with how our team is catching on around campus.

It’s been a crazy semester trying to get the team established. Not only did we have to become an affiliate of the USEA, but there was also quite an extensive process in order to become a recognized student organization with the University. As the spring semester comes to a close however we’re happy to report we seem to finally have our feet under us and have a strong foundation for the continuation of the team on into the next several years.

To learn more about Texas A&M Eventing, please visit their Facebook page. If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Team President Kate Boggan.

Photos Courtesy of Texas A&M Eventing Team.