Penny and Brian Ross of The Virginia Horse Trials in Lexington, Virginia are proud to announce the formation of the inaugural College Team Challenge (CTC) for Eventing at the fall competition scheduled to run on October 31st, November 1st and 2nd 2008.

We are inviting any college to put together a team of four riders to compete at any level that we are offering which is Beginner Novice, Novice, Training, Preliminary and Intermediate. The four team members may be at the same level or four different levels or any combination of levels (e.g. 2 novices and 2 Training).

The competition will run in accordance with the 2008 USEF Eventing, general and drugs/medication rules. All team riders are subject to the same rules and regulations that apply to all competitors of the VHT.

The winning team is the one with the lowest penalty points from their best three riders at the end of the competition. In the case of a tie the team with the highest third place score will win. A team member that fails to finish the competition will score 1000 penalties.

b)      Novice -  coefficient of 1.0 (a HT score of 23 is a CTC score of 23)

c)      Training - coefficient of 0.9 (a HT score of 23 is a CTC score of 20.7)

d)     Preliminary - coefficient of 0.8 (a HT score of 23 is a CTC score of 18.4)

e)      Intermediate - coefficient of 0.75 (a HT score of 23 is a CTC score of 17.25)

Another way to look at this is that to receive a CTC score of 36, a  BN rider needs a 32.73, a N rider a 36, a T rider a 40, a P rider a 45, and an I rider a 48.

Each team may enter up to five riders but must name the four team members by 6:00 pm on Friday October 31st. It is permitted for a team to start only three riders. Each team member will automatically be entered in the regular horse trials to be eligible for individual awards. We ask that all teams name a person/coach/trainer that is responsible for sending the team entries and stabling forms to the Virginia Horse Trials in one envelope prior to the closing date(October 14th 2008). Each team will be stabled together and will receive one free tack stall. We encourage the teams to have a team name.

To be eligible riders must be actively enrolled in a two or four year college, university or institute of higher learning. Those schools that are not able to field a full team may combine with another institute(s).

The USEA horse trial Entry forms are available in the United States Eventing Association omnibus. More information can be found on line at www.vahorsetrials.com .

For more information, contact Brian or Penny Ross:  540-348-1152; Virginia Horse Trials LLC, 1350 Decatur Rd., Fairfield, VA 24435;  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it