Irene Doo Champions ShowConnect at Crossgate Equestrian Center in Area V
Photo provided by Irene Doo.
Irene Doo is no stranger to the eventing community. She has been competing in the sport for more than 20 years in Area V, primarily at the Pine Hill Horse Trials in Bellville, Texas, where she quickly fell in love with volunteering as well. After helping in just about every role the event had to offer, Doo stepped up to manage the volunteers for the venue as their Volunteer Coordinator for over a decade, and now, she graciously gives her time to the USEA as a dedicated member of the Volunteer Committee. Doo was a key contributor to the creation of the Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP), the Volunteer Videos that describe many key positions at horse trials, and the new Volunteer Achievement Program (VAP).
One would think that this laundry list of responsibilities would keep her plenty busy, but when the owner of Crossgate Equestrian Center, Don Lee, approached Doo with an interest in hosting schooling events at his farm, she was happy to help. Now, Doo serves as the Event Organizer and Secretary for a series of schooling horse trials that are hosted at the center.
As an avid user of EventingVolunteers.com, the online volunteer management system of the USEA VIP, Doo was eager to learn more about the USEA’s new event management system, ShowConnect, when it was introduced several years ago. She contacted Margaret Marcus, Event Technology Operations Manager for the USEA, right away to request a demo.
ShowConnect is a community-based event management system that serves as a hub for all professionals involved in running both recognized and unrecognized events. The program was launched by the USEA to provide a user-friendly, cost-effective way to manage events, and it continues to grow year after year as more event supporters, like Doo and Crossgate Equestrian Center, utilize it.
While initially ShowConnect was not set up to accommodate unrecognized competitions, Doo reconnected with Marcus in the fall of 2025 and was thrilled to see the improvements that had been made. Before committing to running her events solely using the platform, she had the opportunity to test ShowConnect concurrently with her current software at their October 2025 and January 2026 events to get a feel for the enhanced program.
“I double entered everything, and [Margaret] held my hand every step of the way,” Doo exclaimed. “She met with me and my scorer, and she trained my scorer on the data entry process. She was really good at [our previous system], but with Margaret’s help, she figured it out, so moving to ShowConnect wasn’t a huge hurdle. ShowConnect has some significant advantages.”
Doo went on to explain the major advantages of ShowConnect for her event, including the financial model. While their previous event management system charged a fee per entry, Doo can utilize ShowConnect free of charge as a registered USEA Educational Activity. The cost savings are a huge plus for the small schooling events, but what Doo appreciates most is the ease of use of the ShowConnect interface for competitors, trainers, family, and friends alike.
“In the past, we received a lot of complaints that it was difficult for supporters of the riders to find their times and scores if they didn’t know what division they were competing in,” Doo explained. “But with ShowConnect, the front end is way better because you see it right there. It is beautiful! You can easily see the scores and the details of the scores. It’s just really slick.”
With new features on the horizon, like the ability to follow horse and rider combinations in an app to keep track of their ride times and scores throughout the event, Doo is excited for the future with ShowConnect for her competitors.
She also explained several ways that ShowConnect has made her job easier as Event Secretary. One major advantage is the program’s database of horse and rider records. “The database is very, very good,” Doo went on to discuss. “If I type in my horse’s name in the backend, he’s already there, and I can add him with just one click, and you’re done. With our old system, minor misspellings of names would make it impossible to find people and horses, and duplicate profiles or missing data were commonplace. It was a nightmare! Now, I have a better system, and I’m not moving back.”
Another benefit that Doo especially appreciates is that ShowConnect is always being improved. Doo regularly communicates with Marcus and USEA Lead Architect & Technical Manager, Seetha Seetharaman, about potential updates that could propel the program forward for all Event Organizers.
“The ShowConnect team is constantly making improvements. They are listening. One time, Seetha said to me ‘Oh, I notice you like posting Stabling Maps on your website,’” Doo recounted. “Then, a few weeks later, there was a place on the event page that allowed me to upload the Stabling Map for competitors to view. Maybe it wasn’t just me that mentioned that, but it felt like she really listened to what I needed for my event.
“We do schooling shows, which are intended for green horses and green riders to give them a really good introduction to the sport,” Doo went on to explain. “So, we have no time penalties at our lowest levels in show jumping or cross-country. In cross-country, this became an issue because when you enter the time to let the competitor know their elapsed time on course, it would automatically give them the penalties associated with that time. But, we don’t want to give penalties. When we switched to ShowConnect, I noticed that there was a check box that states 'Don’t Count Time Penalties' in the show jumping scoring. So, I asked Margaret, ‘Can I have that for cross-country, too?’ and she said she would take it to Seetha for development.”
Doo also appreciates that she can easily and efficiently add judges’ remarks in the dressage scoring, and in show jumping and cross-country, identify exactly which jumps on course incurred penalties. This provides more transparency in scoring and cuts down on appeals from competitors. Doo credits ShowConnect with being the most user friendly, even down to the color coded on the entry page, which visually cues if a rider still owes any information or payment to the event to complete their entry.
Doo concluded by saying “The support at ShowConnect is just unmatched. Margaret gave her direct number to Robin, our scorer, and told her to call anytime. During the event, she is online shadowing us in ShowConnect, and she checks in every so often to saying ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ or ‘I noticed this,’ or even ‘do you need some help?’ That has just been huge for us.”
Doo has already begun recommending ShowConnect to another event in her Area and hopes to see more project partners join the platform.
The USEA is proud to partner with Irene Doo and Crossgate Equestrian Center through ShowConnect. For more information and to view the entries and results throughout the event, visit showconnect.org/calendar.
About ShowConnect
ShowConnect has been designed with the future in mind. The system provides the critical features event organizers need to register, schedule, and score an event, but also provides many additional features to all sized events that would not be cost-effective by any other means. It’s designed to allow the flow of information, and in the future, transactions securely in real-time to and from the people and organizations who interact with your event.
ShowConnect facilitates the management of event entries by accepting manual entries and imports from Xentry, the USEA’s online entry system. Additionally, import options into ShowConnect are set to expand, enhancing its flexibility and ease of use.
ShowConnect provides one location with everything needed to run an event, state-of-the-art technology, enhanced scoring systems, real-time updates, easy accessibility, and support for organizers and secretaries when you need it most. Click here to learn more about ShowConnect.