Lexington, KY and Gladstone, NJ - April 29, 2003 - Lori Rawls, Executive Director of USA Equestrian and Bonnie Jenkins, Executive Director of the United States Equestrian Team, announced today that the process to elect Eligible Athletes to the new United States Equestrian Federation Board of Directors will commence this month.

As required by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), the newly formed Federation must include at least 20% representation by eligible Athletes on its Board and certain committees. In order to conduct elections properly, the Federation has developed and maintained a database of eligible athletes in two categories: those athletes who qualify to be elected per the USOC definition, and those who qualify to vote per the USOC definition.

Starting this month, the nomination process to elect eligible Athletes will begin. All athletes will be notified by mail of the details. Twelve seats on the 54-member Federation Board are reserved for Athletes and will be filled by athlete elections to take place prior to the new Federation’s first Board Meeting in July of 2003. There are two seats for each of the Olympic disciplines of Dressage, Eventing and Jumping, one seat for each of the FEI disciplines of Driving, Endurance, Reining, and Vaulting, one seat for a Paralympic athlete, and one seat to be filled by the equestrian representative to the USOC Athletes Advisory Council. Athletes respond with their nominations to the joint USET/USA Equestrian Athlete Nominating Committee, which will then meet to consider additional nominations. Ballots will be sent to all eligible Athletes in May for their votes, and will be counted in June.