Cob Jockey

On Sunday, we held our first "Amateur Hour" in quite a while, where a few of us get together on a Sunday afternoon for a jump "lesson" with Mary and socializing afterward. This time, we had some new additions to the cast of characters.

Barbara, Mary, Leah and Tricia

We have a new haul-in, Barbara, who keeps her horses at home 15 minutes from the barn, close to the state park with all the riding trails. We met through Facebook Marketplace of all places, and she's quickly becoming a treasured part of the group. She's an endurance rider, which is a sport I've always wanted to try, and we're already making plans for her to shepherd Connor and I through my first Intro or LD next summer.

Also new to the group, but not to me and Mary, is Mary and I's college friend Tricia who recently moved back to Indiana and specifically told her husband she wanted to live within commuting distance of my barn. Her horse is still across the country at her previous residence for the foreseeable future, but should be coming to board with us sometime next year.

Tricia on Connor

Me watching Mary perfectly and painstakingly walk out a related distance

Connor being his usual perfect self even though neither one of them had jumped since last summer, and neither one of them had jumped together before

This is way too much thought and effort for the Friday of one of the toughest weeks of work I've had in a long time. But I'm too emotionally invested in this USEF amateur rule stuff to let this sit til next week. So let's do it!

On Wednesday, the USEF held a second webinar on the 5 proposed changes to the USEF amateur rule. (To see the highlights of the first one and to learn about all 5 rules in detail, see my post here.)  The purpose of this one was to go over the results of the survey they held over the last month asking for the public's opinion on the rule.

To start: they got almost 10,000 responses! I don't know what the usual response level to a USEF survey is, but they seemed shocked and delighted to get that many, so I'm guessing it's nowhere near 10,000. 

I'm happy (and kinda shocked) to report that Dressage brought it and took the top spot:

Sorry for the crappy screenshots, I was at the barn waiting on my virtual lesson to start.

And even the Welsh people showed up, with 31 respondents:

The TL;DR here is that people generally had no issue with the things I thought might be controversial, and they had issues with the things I think are no brainers. Let's start with Proposal 1, which allows amateurs to be paid for grooming, lunging, tacking horses, etc. By the way, everything in P1 is ALREADY LEGAL (up to the $300 limit) except lunging, so this one isn't a huge change, and was the most well-supported out of all the changes.

Proposal 2, which would allow amateurs to teach up-down lessons with a laundry list of guardrails around it, was much less clearly supported.

And this gets even more interesting when you drill down into which disciplines did/did not support this one. Bet you thought H/J would hate it the most, right? Surprise!

The H/J people may have complained the loudest about this one, but the Dressage folks were the most evenly divided in terms of yes/no. You'll note that the breed disciplines covered on that slide were actually strongly in favor of it, and as a result, they are going to submit this proposal to the rules committee stating that this rule will only go into effect for certain breed organizations that want it, and the disciplines (USDF, USHJA etc) will look at how that works out for those breed orgs in 2022 and then make a decision for themselves.

I'm split on this one. On the one hand, I love this rule. I like that they're admitting amateurs have a lot to teach the next generation, and that teaching up/down lessons doesn't make you a GP rider, and that there's a not insignificant number of AAs that show open so that they can earn the money it takes to show at all. On the other hand, I think it's cool that they listened to their members and they're allowing different groups to show under different rules. More of that, please.

Next up, my pet rule, the social media ambassador rule. This one is complex in a way that makes sense to me, as someone who has lived this life and went pro (and then AA again) over it. I think they nailed the differences between a sponsored athlete, a brand ambassador and an influencer. As a reminder:

Just to clarify, because I've seen a lot of people get lit up about this for the wrong reasons, you CAN wear maker's marks (like the giant Fairfax plaque on my new bridle), or barn logos (a polo shirt with GP trainer's logo on it) at shows, you just cannot also be accepting renumeration to do so.

This one passed but not by nearly as much as I think it should have. I really don't get the negativity here, unless it's just jealousy or not understanding how brand ambassadorship works.  How on earth are you more okay with AAs making money for working with horses directly, but not okay with someone sitting behind a keyboard making money and staying an amateur? If this rule is all about leveling the playing field for non-pros, I really do not understand why the votes went the way they did here. I am not a better rider because I accepted some free boots a few years ago.

(I will not blame Boomers, I will not blame Boomers)

The last one to "pass" (not that the survey was a vote) was the one that will allow anyone under the age of 25 to try being a pro after they age out of juniors and then if they don't like it, go back to being an AA without the current one year waiting period. Straightforward, and got broad support:

Those four will be put to the extraordinary rules committee this December for the 2022 season. If they get approved, they will also have to (and plan to) strike the $300 limit entirely:

The only one that is entirely on hold is the rule moving the age limit for juniors up to 21. See my previous post for the absolutely hysterical H/J peoples' comments on how this will affect parents' ability to use their daughter's big eq horse "investment" to pay for college. Which is apparently 1. A Thing and 2. A Common Thing, or at least they made it sound like it was. As a risk-averse investor, let me tell you how that makes me feel, lol.

Anyway, this one brought out a lot of hand-wringing from people. I, personally, voted for it. Whatever we can do to keep kids in the sport through one of the toughest periods of their lives to stay in it, let's do it. But it's on hold for this year and will not be presented to the committee.

I wish they've have broken these out by discipline because this one really would have been dominated by the H/J folks for sure.

If you didn't get to take the survey but you want your voice to be heard on this topic, there will be a public comment period between these rules being added to the extraordinary rule change list and the vote that will happen in December, so keep an eye out for that (and I'll try to share it if I see it). Unlike the survey, you will have to be a USEF member in order to comment.

What are your thoughts on these rules?

As some of you may remember, several years ago I went pro in the USEF because I monetized this blog as an ambassador/influencer in order to help pay for showing costs at a time that I was making hardly any money at work. Earlier this year, I went through the process to get my Amateur Status restored, and am now legally showing as an AA again.

I say all that to remind you why I was so excited for the USEF's proposed Amateur Status change webinar last night, and I'm going to recap it with my thoughts below for you guys.

The USEF recognizes that three of the biggest challenges facing them are how to make participating in equestrian sports more affordable, how to attract new people to the sport, and how to keep people participating in the sport once they've started. To that end, they are proposing some early draft changes (that they know they will fine-tune over time, so get your comments in!) to help with those challenges:

Change #1: Allow amateurs to get paid for barn duties at home and at shows.
 

This change would allow amateurs to get paid for grooming, tacking, clipping, lunging, bathing, braiding, stall cleaning and tack cleaning, but they still couldn't get paid to ride. It would take effect this December.

USEF rationale: By eliminating the $300 rule and making these activities explicitly allowed, this would help amateurs defray some cost.

Change #2: Allow amateurs to teach up/down lessons for money without being a pro.

This change would allow amateurs to teach "introductory level lessons" at their "home barn" under the supervision of a professional. They would have to work no more than 20 hours a week in this role, would not be allowed to coach at rated shows, and would have to keep a work log book so that if they were ever challenged, they could prove they were compliant with the rule. It would take effect this December.

USEF rationale: This benefits the USEF because it gets more people teaching intro lessons, something that is sorely needed in many parts of the country, and it benefits the amateur because they can teach some lessons to defray the costs of riding as a side hustle.

My thoughts: I have friends in this exact situation, both friends that went pro to teach up down lessons and friends that are amateurs but would jump at the chance to teach up down lessons if they could. I do think this rule is the one most likely to get abused, but I applaud the USEF for putting a 1.0 version of this out there, because it's needed.

Change #3: Allow amateurs to act as social media influencers and brand ambassadors and receive money and free product.

First two would be allowed for amateurs, but you could not be a sponsored athlete.

This change would allow AAs to act as social media influencers and brand ambassadors, but not sponsored athletes. You could receive free product and commission checks from manufacturers and still be an AA, with no financial limit. What you can't do appear in actual ads for the manufacturer, have them foot the bill for your showing/etc directly, or walk around the showgrounds with a big after-market embroidered logo on your saddle pad (standard manufacturer's marks are okay though).

USEF rationale: We need to introduce more people to our sport, and that means taking advantage of publicity, including leveraging the reach of social media influencers. This benefits the AA because they can now accept an unlimited amount of money and product in exchange for promoting it.

My thoughts: It's about freaking time! I am so happy with the way they wrote this one. They very clearly laid out when an activity is "being sponsored" and when it's not. I've seen people pick apart this rule for being complicated, but as someone who has done this stuff, I think the lines are bright and clearly marked and make a lot of sense.

Change #4: Raise the age limit for juniors to 21

USEF rationale: They said they lose a LOT of people permanently when they go to college, when kids have to decide whether to buy a new horse in order to be competitive in the adults (sounds like H/J probs) or go to college, not both. They want to make it easier and cheaper for kids to stay in the sport longer, through a time in their lives when it's very hard to stay in horses.

My thoughts: This one had the least resistance from everyone in the chat, except - and I laughed my butt off at this - one Zoom commenter who said, "This puts undue financial strain on the parents who would normally sell their kids' eq horse to pay for college". That's the most risky college fund investment I've ever heard of, but okay!

All in all, I love these changes. I expected the USEF to be a lot less self-aware than they proved they were at least on this topic, and I think it's a great start. Since these topics affect us as bloggers directly, I strongly encourage you to send feedback both positive and negative to the task force at amateurtaskforce@usef.org.

What are your thoughts?