2005 North American Young Riders' Championships

NAYRC: Qualification Procedures

By Stacy Gormley

The North American Young Rider Championships is the ultimate goal for many riders between the ages of 16 to 21. The NAYRC offers three disciplines, dressage, stadium jumping, and eventing. Each discipline requires certain qualification procedures in order to make a horse and rider team eligible for one of the four coveted spots on their region’s, area’s or zone’s team.

Last year, I had the opportunity to represent Region 2 at the NAYRC in the dressage competition. Before signing up for qualifiers, I spent some time researching the NAYRC in order to understand what the championship was all about. I also spent a great deal of time reading all of the rules so I knew what to expect. Realizing that I didn’t have the knowledge from experience, I turned to some friends who had already gone to the NAYRC for their input and advice. I asked many questions and made many calls to the USDF when I had questions about rules or qualification procedures.

After many calls to Sheila Forbes, previous Young Rider team members, and a few cover to cover readings of the rule books, I was ready to make a bid for the team.

Before declaring, you should make sure that all of your memberships, including your horse’s memberships, are current for the coming year. You should also contact the USEF to apply for your FEI Passport, which you will need to have if you make the team, or wish to attend CDIs and use those scores.

March 1st is the deadline for declaration forms. You must declare your intent to qualify to the USDF by this date, and you must choose which region you wish to represent. Once you have sent in your declaration form, you can not switch regions.

The USDF states that each rider intending to qualify must compete at three or more designated NAYRC qualifying competitions. The exception to this is non-designated CDIs, which a rider may also take scores from to use. At these competitions, the rider must submit a declaration form, stating that they wish to use this show as a qualifier before the start of the Young Rider Team Test.

The USDF states that a rider must always use their Team Test score, but may choose between their Prix St. Georges score or their Freestyle score to use for qualification purposes. At the time of turning in their declaration to show management, the rider must also indicate which option they are choosing to use for scoring purposes.

The rules also state that a Young Rider must submit at least three Team Test scores, and must also submit at least one Prix St. Georges score as well as one Freestyle score in order to be eligible for team selection. A rider may attend more than three qualifiers and submit more than three qualifying scores, and the lowest score will be dropped. A rider could potentially submit as many qualifiers as they wish, but only the lowest one score will be dropped, all others average together. A rider’s average from their submitted scores must be a 60% or higher to be eligible for team selection. In addition, al least one qualifier needs to be ridden during the spring season, and at least one qualifier must take place within the region the rider wishes to represent.

After all of this has been completed correctly, the rider is eligible for team selection. At the official end of the qualifying season, the USDF will calculate each rider’s average, and based upon that average, will select the top four riders from each region to represent their region at the NAYRC. Once you have been selected to the team, you new goal becomes fundraising to help offset the costs of shipping your horse to the competition, entry fees, team attire, and the list goes on. Some fundraisers we came up with last year included teaching clinics to benefit the team, silent auctions, and finding patrons to sponsor our team.

The experience of the NAYRC is amazing. You are truly treated as an athlete and get a feel for what being on an Olympic Team might feel like. You are competing against the finest elite riders at a very advanced level, and the feeling of real accomplishment is huge. You have put so much work and effort into your riding education and your horse, and now it is all paying off.

The organizers do a fantastic job of planning the week to be tons of fun and go out of their way to promote fun, relaxing, team building activities to alleviate show nerves and stress. Your horse is treated like a star by the veterinarians and judged with huge respect from the judges.

It is a wonderful experience and is a huge accomplishment for an already accomplished Young Rider. The whole event is great fun and is well worth the effort to be a part of.