The U.S. Hunter Jumper Association continued what USHJA President Britt McCormick has dubbed a “listening tour,” which started with in-person events in Wellington, Florida, and Thermal, California, earlier this spring, by hosting an online town hall Monday evening.

“The goal is just what it sounds like, to listen to the membership—listen to what you guys have to say; make sure that we are focusing the USHJA in the direction that you want to see it focused,” McCormick said at the start of the town hall. “We have internally been very, very deep in the inside workings of the organization for the last number of months, and so now I think we’re finally caught up. We kind of got our head above water and are able to open up some time for some more pertinent issues that those of us that are in the field on a daily basis are dealing with.”

You can watch previous town halls (the recording of this event should be available next week) and find the upcoming dates here.

Among the items discussed at this meeting:

Horse Welfare

In response to a comment sent via text from a participant who was unable to join the Zoom session, McCormick expressed continued strong support for a zero-tolerance policy regarding banned substances. He encouraged members to speak out if they see welfare concerns.

“We have to be willing to stand up to our fellow competitors and say enough is enough,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. It could be at the lowest level; it can be at the highest level. But the integrity of our sport is in danger, and the ability of us to compete these animals is in danger. If we allow even one bad actor out there to use prohibited substances, we could all be in danger of losing our livelihood, losing our industry, and losing our sport.

“I think it’s more than just the USEF coming down on somebody and imposing a lifetime sentence. It’s more than a multiple thousands of dollars of fines. It starts with us, you know,” he continued. “This is one of those things that, peer pressure is going to work. If you call somebody out because they’re cheating, do it. The rest of us are going to back you up. I, for one, am not going to tolerate it. As the head of this organization, I’m going to be the first one to stand up and say, if you get caught using some of these substances, you should be banned from our sport forever. [We] don’t want you in it. And until all of us are serious about it, it’s never going to get better, and it’s never going to stop. So we can have all the discussions about judging and everything else, but until we take care of this root evil that’s invading our sport, the rest of this doesn’t matter.”

Sally Collins, a professional from Washington, asked what USHJA and USEF were doing to limit the number of over-fences classes horses compete in.

“I completely understand how difficult this is, but we are seeing horses in 17 to 22 over-fences classes per show over five days, plus the warm-up,” she said. “I don’t know how we how we fix this, but I do think it’s a horse welfare issue.”

“That’s one of the topics that’s on our agenda for probably a future ad hoc, and trying to figure out which group to look at that, but that’s definitely on our radar,” McCormick said.

USHJA Education Director Lauren Klehm added that people interested in participating in that ad hoc committee can fill out the committee interest form at the USHJA website.

Tweaking The Channel System

Marnye Langer, a USEF “R” hunter/jumper/equitation judge in South Carolina, brought up several challenges facing Channel II shows, including difficulty finding course designers, the requirement for an on-site veterinarian at shows with more than 200 horses, and competition with large Channel I shows nearby offering lower-level classes.

“I understand that it’s more or less a different group of people [competing at Channel I and Channel II shows], but there’s enough crossover, because the big shows are allowed to have walk/trot and pole-on-the-ground hunters and crossrails. If my show loses 20 horses—and it does when that big show comes in, because there’s just that handful of people that are going to go over there—it really starts to impact the viability of my Channel II show,” Langer said. “If, for our sport and our industry, we want Channel II shows that are within the USEF and the USHJA umbrella, and to not just go completely rogue and out of the system, I think there need to be some some difficult conversations.”

USEF and USHJA are “working very closely together to try to reexamine and continually modify the [channel] system,” McCormick said, and that continued feedback is welcome. “In examining the environment all over the country, it’s a little bit different depending on where you are, so the more feedback we get, the more data we can get, the better decisions can be made, and then those rule change proposals can be put forward. So I would say, keep that coming, because that’s the way we get to better decision-making.”

New Judging Task Force

USEF and USHJA are convening a joint hunter and equitation judges task force, co-chaired by McCormick and USEF President Bill Moroney, that will start meeting in the next week or so.

A number of participants brought up issues related to judging, including trainer Jimmy Torano, who mentioned seeing the same judge multiple times during big circuits.

“If HITS is running eight shows in Ocala and Thermal’s running 10 shows there, and we’re running however many shows here in Wellington, I just don’t think that we should see the same face in the box three times in one circuit,” he said.

“I think there’s a conundrum between those of us that are in the field, wanting to be judged by our peers, wanting to be judged by horsemen,” McCormick said. “Well, those people, in our mind, are still in the field, right? So they can’t be judging all the time. But then you want people who are also professionals and very good at what they do. And so these are some of the topics that we’re going to try to tackle and find that sweet spot between seeing the same person every week or same people every week, and still maintaining the quality and the background and knowledge of the person in the booth.”

USHJA Amateur Hunter Championships

Amateur rider Eric Aho of Massachusetts brought up the new USHJA Amateur Hunter Championships, which will offer championships for the 2’6” low adults, 3’ adult amateurs, 3’3” amateur owners, and 3’6” amateur owners. The East Coast championship will be held during Split Rock Kentucky National, Sept. 16-21 in Lexington, Kentucky, and the West Coast championship will be at National Sunshine Series I, Oct. 29-Nov. 2 in Thermal, California.

“I think the time of the year is really tough,” Aho said. “I’m bringing it up now, even though I know this year is the first iteration, just because I know how much it takes to plan in advance. So I just wanted to put that forward, in my opinion, the problematic time of year.”

McCormick said he doesn’t anticipate the championship staying on the same dates in the future.

“We had to place this championship kind of where we could use this year to get it kicked off,” McCormick explained, adding that host applications for 2026 are now going out. “One of the things that we’ve done this next round is prioritized bundling of properties. And so as different management groups are looking at the different USHJA properties and championships, I think you’re going to see a definite change in the calendar over the next couple of years as everything kind of finds a home and finds a spot. But that one is definitely on our radar to come with another championship for sure, and that would, by definition, move it to a different time of year. So your point is well taken, and we’re on it.”

Host applications are open until June 1, USHJA Sport Department Managing Director Jennifer Osterman added.

Annual Meeting Schedule

Janet Fall, a USEF steward and jumper judge from California, asked whether the rules session at the USHJA Annual Meeting, to be held Dec. 8-11 in Orlando, Florida, could be moved from its current slot in the schedule on Monday. “For those of us that are going from west to east, we have to travel on Sunday [in order to be able to attend the rules session], which means we give up that week’s worth of work, and we give up the week of work while we’re at the annual meeting,” she said.

McCormick said that the session likely didn’t need to be held on Monday, and the USHJA would look at which day would allow the most participation.