Week in Review - U.S. Equestrian

American Todd Minikus Places Second at the $150,000 CN U.S. Open Jumper Championship, Presented by Cosequin; Mario Deslauriers Takes the Title for Canada

In another action-packed day of horse sport, Canada’s Mario Deslauriers emerged victorious in the $150,000 CN U.S. Open Jumper Championship, Presented by Cosequin, held Sunday, March 11, in Wellington, FL.

A total of 39 riders attempted to win the final event of the CSIO5* CN Wellington Open tournament held as part of the Winter Equestrian Festival circuit. There were many thrills along the way as nine riders elected to retire after experiencing difficulties, and one rider, Argentina’s Max Amaya, was eliminated after falling off at the first fence.

In the end, only three riders—Todd Minikus, Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa and Deslauriers, were able to master the track set by course designer Jose Gamarra of Bolivia. The stage was set for an exciting jump-off as the three gentlemen are renowned for their competitive abilities, especially when speed is a factor.

The United States Equestrian Team (USET) placed third in the $75,000 FEI Nations’ Cup, Presented by CN, on Friday, March 9, in Wellington, FL.

Held during the CSIO5* CN Wellington Open as part of the Winter Equestrian Festival show jumping circuit, the 2007 edition of the Nations’ Cup saw six countries competing in the only team event held on American soil, and one of only two held annually in North America.

Last Son of Khemosabi++++// Wins Horse of Year Honor Through the Arabian Horse Association

Artesan+++// (Khemosabi++++// x Obsession JD), a nine-year-old purebred Arabian gelding owned by Susie McArthur of Kentfield, CA, ranked as the top horse among a field of more than 3,000 Arabians, Half-Arabians and Anglo-Arabians to become the 2006 Arabian Horse Association (AHA) High Point Horse. To reach this pinnacle, the gelding had to accumulate the highest number of points in the Horse Achievement Awards program during 2006. He racked up 457.5 points in his year of competing in dressage, sport horse in-hand and under saddle and show hack to win the award, as well as add three plusses and two slashes in Achievement Awards symbols to his name.

Pam Lane Joins USEF as Director of Vaulting and Para-Equestrian, Sara Ike Named High Performance Director of Eventing

Pam Lane has joined the United States Equestrian Federation as Director of Para-Equestrian and Vaulting effective March 5. She is located in the Gladstone, NJ, office and will report to Jim Wolf, Executive Director of Sports Programs.

Bob Bell, President of the Classic Company, announced, "It’s official," referring to the return of the John Deere-USEF Memberperks bonus program, which will award a new Gator to the high-scoring adult amateur hunter on the final week of the Atlanta Fall Classics in November.

Bell had pitched the idea for rewarding the adult group to the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) and various committees in late 2005. “I just felt this is a group of exhibitors that so often is overlooked and that their efforts should be recognized in a big way.” Not only did USEF agree, but John Deere took interest in the idea and generously offered a new Gator as the prize.

A steward or technical delegate has many duties at a show, including protecting the interests of exhibitors, judges and competition management; investigating and acting upon alleged rule violations; reporting any misrepresentation of entries; supervising time-outs; measuring of horses and ponies for competition and much more. It can be a very rewarding experience that includes making new friends and traveling to new and interesting destinations.

The Board of Directors of the American Shetland Pony Club announced that they will again offer a $10,000 scholarship to any registered American Shetland Pony who earns the title of Champion Small Pony Hunter at the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Pony Finals to be hosted in August.

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It has been more than 21 days since the last horse left the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (EMC) in Leesburg, VA, prior to a report of neurological equine herpes virus-1 (EHV-1) on the premises. On Tuesday, March 13, State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Wilkes announced that, except for four quarantined premises, the state’s horse community may resume normal activities.

The Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series kicked off this past weekend at the Red Hills Horse Trials in Tallahassee, FL, March 9-11. With a slew of prizes and prize money up for grabs, the nation’s top riders put in stellar performances to rack up the first points on the series leaderboard in their quests to become the 2007 “Keeper of the Cup.”

Beautifully Hand-Crafted USEF Leather Bags Made Exclusively by Freedman Harness, Canada

Call toll free today to order your USEF Leather Bags at (877) 256-7674 or visit www.freedmanharness.com.

Win a Free Trip to the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Finals in Las Vegas; Las Vegas Events, Inc., Animal Planet and EquiSearch.com to Award a Trip for Two to the Dressage and Jumping World Cup Finals

A free trip for two to the 2007 Rolex FEI World Cup™; Finals in Las Vegas will be awarded to one lucky winner of a contest being offered through the Finals’ producer Las Vegas Events, Inc., the equestrian website EquiSearch.com and Animal Planet, the cable television network that will broadcast coverage of the World Cup Finals.

The statistics regarding the American Saddlebred Registry (ASR) Sweepstakes nominations and continuing eligibility are encouraging, with increases in numbers across the board.

In the Three-Year-Old Sweepstakes, the rise in yearling nominations was a modest 2.58%. However, two-year-olds continuing eligibility rose 30.67% from 150 in 2006 to 196 in 2007, while three-year-olds continuing eligibility increased by 64 from 71 to 135, up 90.14%.

United States Eventing Association Future Event Horse In-Hand Class Pilot Program Launched; Symposium Planned For Yearlings, Two- and Three-Year-Olds

The United States Eventing Association (USEA) is introducing a pilot program this year intended to help breeders and owners of future event horses promote and market their young stock—from yearlings to three-year-olds.

A second, and critical, feature of this program is the creation of a database of records, results and pedigree information that will stay with the horse for its entire life. It is intended that the USEA’s database will eventually feed into a centralized national sport horse database administered by the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) and become a valuable resource for all equestrians as they will be able to track a horse’s competition record in all breed and disciplines classes, along with pedigree data from a yearling onward.

Riding last in a three horse jump-off, Mario Deslauriers kept the Canadian flag flying when he and Paradigm raced to the win in the $150,000 CN U.S. Open Jumper Championship CSIO*****, presented by Cosequin. Todd Minikus of the United States finished second with Pavarotti, while Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil and Coeur were third.

Global Champions Tour Presented by CN Worldwide to Host First Event in Florida

In their second year of competition, the Global Champions Tour (GCT) has grown in size, prize money and prestige. With over five-million U.S. dollars in prize money and one-and-a-half hours of live television coverage by Eurosport of each €300,000 grand prix, the Global Champions Tour is truly taking the sport of show jumping to the next level.

The Global Champions Tour covers three continents and involves eight of the world’s most prestigious independent outdoor show jumping events: Palm Beach (USA), Cannes (FRA), Monte Carlo (MON), Estoril (POR), Sao Paulo (BRA), Valkenswaard (NED), Arezzo (ITA) and Athens (GRE).

Meeting by teleconference, the 2007 directors of the American Saddlebred Registry elected officers on Tuesday, March 6. The nine directors are Joan Hamilton (Kentucky), David Howard (Tennessee), Dr. Rick Luft (Wisconsin), Spencer Mains (North Carolina), Mary Ann Pardieck (Indiana), Dr. Alan Raun (Iowa), Fred Sarver (Kentucky), Anne Stafford (Tennessee) and Judith Werner (Illinois).

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Watch All Eight Rings of the Winter Equestrian Festival Live from Wellington, FL, on Your Computer from Anywhere in the World

Productions East Video, Stadium Jumping, Inc., the United States Equestrian Federation® (USEF) and LiveBroadcast.TV will be presenting eight channels of live video webcasting of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) 2007 in Wellington, FL, and continuing in Tampa, FL, January 24–April 7, 2007.

This year’s Winter Equestrian Festival, the nation’s longest, consecutively running equestrian sporting event, celebrates its 35th year in Florida, and will offer more than $4-million in prize money.

The United States Equestrian Federation®, Inc. (USEF), 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 20 other breeds and disciplines of equestrian competition. As the country's largest multi-breed organization, the Federation has over 86,000 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.

The vision of USEF 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.