By Gigha Steinman
Too Goodto beTrue? A SEARCH FOR GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS FOR EQUESTRIANS IN SPORT
A recent informal Facebook poll asked equestrians “what is something you never have enough of?” The overwhelming majority replied “money” and “time.” While we can’t help you find more time in your busy schedules, we can introduce you to a variety of sources that offer the possibility of ‘free money’ in the form of grants and scholarships.
To do that, we set out on a mission to discover if there tru-
ly were hundreds of thousands of dollars available to eques- trians to offset the ever-increasing costs to train and compete in dressage, eventing and the hunter/jumper arena.
Getting Started The good news is that indeed there are lots of grants and scholarships, ranging from a couple hundred dollars to sever- al thousand. We found grants for juniors, grants for amateurs, grants for High Performance riders, even grants for breed- ers and nearly everything in between—with the majority of financial help aimed towards juniors, young riders, amateurs or high performance riders. Most are available to individuals; some are available only to groups or organizations. The down side? Uncovering what grants may be available can be challenging, and the application process is generally time consuming. Many of the grants also have very specific prerequisites and/or qualifying criteria, as well as time limita- tions. Some grants come and go based on the funding avail- able to pay for them. For example, a particular grant offered in 2012 and 2013 may not be offered in 2014, or a new and completely different grant may become suddenly available. To the best of our ability, we have made this ‘free money’ search easier for you by compiling this list of what’s currently available, but we encourage you to stay alert for new grant opportunities. Nearly every grant and sponsorship requires the applicant
to be a current member of the national governing body for the relevant sport: the United States Dressage Federation (USDF), United States Eventing Association (USEA), United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) and/or the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF). So the first step is to make sure
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your memberships are current and active, and then see what your sport has to offer.
Dressage Dressage riders have access to perhaps the most diverse cor- nucopia of grants and scholarships—a total of nineteen. In addition to the grants and scholarships offered by the USDF, dressage riders can also benefit from the generous support of The Dressage Foundation (TDF), founded by Lowell Boom- er. TDF has awarded over $1,000,000 in grants and scholar- ships in the last 20-plus years and Executive Director Jenny Johnson estimates they have over $200,000 to award in 2014.
For Amateurs, Juniors and Young Riders The Youth Convention Scholarship is available through USDF and is funded by money raised via a silent auction held at the USDF Annual Convention. It provides financial assistance for USDF youth members to attend the Annual Convention—up to four scholarships per year may be awarded, for up to $1,000 each. The Captain
John H. “Jack” Fritz Young Pro- fessionals Grant is available through The Dressage Foundation. The grant pays up to $500 each to individuals to attend the USDF Young Rider Graduate Pro- gram—a week- end classroom education semi- nar for Young Rider graduates which in turn is supported by a $15,000 grant.
Christy Scotch, of Birmingham, Alabama, on board her Grand Prix mare Kontessa, was the recipient of the 2013 Renee Isler Scholarship.
Beatekuska
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