The Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) celebrated the successful return of the 19th Annual Hunt Seat National Finals on April 22-25, 2021 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry, Georgia. Complications of the COVID pandemic forced IEA to cancel their 2020 National Finals (then slated for Burbank, California) and re-group for the 2020-2021 IEA Season. Despite pandemic-related challenges faced by everyone, IEA leadership, coaches, riders and parents pulled together and safely hosted more than 900 individual horse shows from August to the present to qualify more than 400 riders from across the nation for the 2021 IEA Hunt Seat National Finals. 

APHA is pleased to offer special recognition to Intermediate exhibitors in 76 performance and halter classes at the 2021 APHA World Show. Intermediate exhibitors that compete in the listed classes and meet the new enhanced criteria outlined below are eligible for special awards and could be named Intermediate World Show Champion!

In 2020 alone, this included $119 million in horse earnings from 2,148 events and 26,365 classes covering all disciplines. If a show producer records the earnings of the horse and makes the results available, the event is recorded in the QData database.

NSBA News It’s time to get down to business! Exhibitors can now fill out stalls and entries for the 2021 NSBA World Championship Show and Breeders Championship Futurity online! Stalls- bit.ly/3xM7jRb Entries- bit.ly/33khazt Schedule- bit.ly/3eQPuaE Download the entry booklet- bit.ly/2PThRfZ

AQHA rankings are calculated by dividing the total entries by the number of shows within an event. The Florida Gold Coast saw competitors representing 37 states and 2 foreign countries, with 16,032 AQHA entires and 750 National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) entires, marking a total of 16,782 entries throughout the Florida Gold Coast circuit. For the last three years, the Florida Gold Coast has been named in the top three of AQHA annual events and circuits, and is thrilled to be ranked number one for 2020.

Five show rule changes passed at the 2021 Convention in February with early implementation have gone into effect as of April 5, 2021. The full text for each rule can be found in their respective areas of the online rulebook, as well as under the Rule Change Resolutions link on the Rule Book page of the website here, which also includes the list of all rules passed at the 2021 Convention.

World Equestrian Center – Ocala presents an exciting new Summer Horse Show Series featuring National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) sanctioned Hunter/Jumper competition at the new Florida venue. The 10-week series begins June 9 and offers competition of all levels. The World Equestrian Center – Ocala Summer Show Series features $238,000 per week in prize money and more than $2.4m in total money and prizes for the series.

With the World Show moving to the summer this year, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was modified to 3-year-old maiden horse Open classes–a revision that was announced in the fall of 2020. The program was recently analyzed for the 2022 APHA World Show and the following changes have been made to allow more 3-year-olds to be eligible for the $50,000+ purse.