The United States Olympic Committee has approved the designation of two more competitions as Junior Olympic Events. The USA National Junior Eventing Championship for the Harry H. Peters Trophy will take place October 17-20, 2002 in Lexington, Kentucky and the USA National Young Rider Eventing Championship for the John H. Fritz Trophy November 1-4, 2002 in Temecula, California.

These two events join USA Equestrian's growing list of Junior Olympic events including the USA/Cosequin Junior Dressage Team Championship, the FEI North American Young Riders' Championship, the USA/BET National Junior Jumper Championship and the USA National Pony Jumper Championship.

The Junior Olympics is the largest grassroots youth development program in the United States. Junior Olympic programs involve over 3,500,000 participants annually. Two-thirds of the National Governing Bodies (NGB) for Olympic Sports have Junior Olympic programs. USA Equestrian and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) support the Junior Olympic movement because it believes that the Junior Olympics:

• Responds to America's culture and needs by providing additional recreational opportunities.
• Provide positive goals and options, which have tremendous public approval.
• * Presents positive associations in the minds of the American public, thereby drawing children and their parents and appealing to commercial sponsors, whose contributions support further development.

For more information, please contact Sarah Holt, Public Relations on (859) 225 6974 or via email at sholt@equestrian.org. USA Equestrian press releases are available on our web site - http://www.equestrian.org/ .

USA Equestrian Inc., as the National Equestrian Federation of the U.S., is the regulatory body for the Olympic and World Championship sports of dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, reining, show jumping, and vaulting, as well as 19 other breeds and disciplines of equestrian competition. As the country's largest multi-breed organization, the Federation has over 80,000 members and recognizes more than 2,800 competitions nationwide each year. It governs all aspects of competition, including educating and licensing all judges, stewards, and technical delegates who officiate at these shows.

VISION STATEMENT
The vision of USA Equestrian is to provide leadership for equestrian sport in the United States of America, promoting the pursuit of excellence from the grass roots to the Olympic Games, based on a foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare of its horses, and embracing this vision, to be the best national equestrian federation in the world.