By KIMBERLY LOUSHIN
On Friday, Oct.24, riders entered in the USHJA Adult 3’3″ Jumping Seat Medal Finals-West received a message from the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association announcing that the class, which was scheduled to take place Oct. 29-Nov. 2 during the National Sunshine Series I at the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, CA, had been canceled. Upon learning about the news from one of her students, Northern California trainer Nicole Norris reached out to USHJA to find out the reason behind the cancellation and was told it was due to a lack of entries, as only three riders had entered at that point.
“It was definitely one of the goals that she had set for the year, her and another one of my students,” said Norris. “Being from California, they chose not to travel east for the finals, so this was one of the finals they’d chosen to work towards this year. It was a year-long goal, so it was unfortunate that that would be canceled.”
While speaking with the USHJ representative, Norris tried to explain that, “at least here in California, while entries will be submitted to the horse show before the closing date of the horse show that many trainers or riders have gotten comfortable with entering the classes at the beginning of the show week, if not the night before.”
Norris was told the closing date for entries was Oct. 15, but she pointed out that the prize list only listed Oct. 15 as the closing date for the show, not for the class itself, and to her knowledge, no one had been told otherwise.
While the prize list does state that all USHJA Adult 3’3″ Jumping Seat Medal Finals horses must jog 24 hours ahead of the start of the competition, it also specifically mentioned the finals in the add/scratch/change policy as requiring all entries to be finalized by 4 p.m. the day prior to the start of the championship. Norris said that if the organizers wanted to put a strict entry deadline for the class itself, such as what is done at the ASPCA Maclay Final and other major equitation finals, that it needs to be clearly expressed in the prize list, as no one she spoke to who had participated in the final previous years recalled there being an issue with waiting until the week of the show to enter that class specifically.
After the phone call, Norris took to Facebook, sharing about the cancellation and encouraging others to call to express their interest in entering the final and making sure the class happened. Norris credited Ashley Keeler, the chief administrative officer and show office manager at DIHP, as being instrumental in helping communicate the need for entries and with USHJA about the desire to have the class run.
Over the weekend, entries grew to 11 riders total for the final, and USHJA confirmed that the final would take place as originally scheduled.
“I’m really glad that they made the decision to reinstate the class. That’s the most important thing,” said Norris.
