For more than 50 years, our equestrian athletes have represented the United States in international competition. They have distinguished themselves by winning 41 Olympic medals, 83 Pan American Games Medals, and 73 World Championship medals, clearly establishing a preeminent place for the USA among the world’s equestrian elite.
However, dedication, hard work and dreams alone will not bring home medals. The costs of fielding our international teams are enormous. Training, coaching and transporting our human and equine athletes around the world, where they must go to compete against the sports best athletes, is a daunting undertaking requiring a huge commitment of time and money.
Transportation is one of the biggest logistical and financial challenges. While most of the international teams against whom we compete need only travel a few hundred miles from country to country and competition to competition, our athletes, their horses and equipment must travel thousands of miles to compete abroad. In a typical year, transportation costs can exceed $2,000,000 for the 3 Olympic disciplines of Dressage, Eventing and Show Jumping as well as the 5 other international disciplines of Driving, Endurance, Para Dressage, Reining and Vaulting.
The Campaign for Continuing Our Competitive Excellence provides support to the United States eight international high performance discipline programs. The contributions made through the campaign will provide the critical funding needed to:
- Fully implement a comprehensive USEF High Performance Strategic Plan for each international discipline
- Increase the number of competition and training grants, thereby providing opportunities for our Elite and Developing athletes to compete against their peers internationally
- Expand the Developing programs to give our rising stars the chance to gain confidence and invaluable experience as a member of a “team” and to prepare the next generation of representatives for the United States Equestrian Teams
- Maintain and expand the current coaching programs, employing the world’s most qualified and experienced coaches with reputations and leadership skills to inspire our athletes to reach their fullest potential
- Preserve and protect the historic Gladstone, New Jersey Headquarters, archives and approved USOC multi-discipline training facility for current and future generations.
The dedication, determination and commitment of our athletes has positioned the United States among the world’s most respected equestrian powers. To maintain this tradition of excellence, to be the best in the world, we must provide the resources that will allow our riders, drivers and vaulters to earn medals in international competition and maintain the preeminent position which has taken us so long to establish.
Why are we having this Campaign?
We have three main goals with this campaign:
- To increase our annual grant to the USEF for this country’s High Performance programs
- To increase our endowment
- To engage those in the equestrian community; riders, owners, parents and other friends, in this and future campaigns as donors and advocates for our United States Equestrian Teams
How much money is the USET Foundation trying to raise in this campaign, and how much have they raised so far?
We have set an overall goal of $35 million. This is the biggest campaign in the Foundation’s history. The most recent Campaign, which ended in 2008, raised $21 million.
As of March 2015, the campaign has raised $32.1 million in gifts and pledges, more than half of our goal.
How long will the campaign last?
We expect the campaign to end in 2016.
