Week in Review - U.S. Equestrian

NBC Special on 2006 FEI World Equestrian Championships presented by Rolex to Air this Sunday, 4:30-6:00 p.m. EDT

Circle the date and have your popcorn ready, this Sunday NBC will present 90 minutes of action-packed highlights of the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Championships, which concluded in Aachen, Germany, earlier this month. The broadcast airs from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. EDT. The show includes highlights of the five individual and four team medalists from the U.S. The broadcast is presented by Rolex, a major sponsor of the event in Aachen.

Veteran sportscaster Kenny Rice will anchor the broadcast from the Kentucky Horse Park. Multiple Olympic Games medalist Jimmy Wofford will provide the color commentary and NBC’s Donna Brothers, a specialist in horse racing coverage, will report on the action from Aachen.

Kastama Wins Individual Gold at the 2006 FEI World Carriage Driving Championship

With a score of 118.41, Diane Kastama of Arroyo Grande, CA, won the Grade 1 Individual Gold medal at the 2006 FEI World Carriage Driving Championships for Drivers with Disabilities in Mensport, Hellendoorn, The Netherlands. Kastama drove Jasper, her 11-year-old Welsh Cob gelding. They were first in the dressage phase and first in the cones phase. She and her teammate Mary Gray competed alongside athletes from 60 different countries. The event was held September 6-10, and occurs every two years.

Watch the Adequan/USEF National Junior Jumper Championships and the Pessoa/USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals presented by Becker College from the Pennsylvania National Horse Show Live on Your Computer

Productions East Video, in association with the United States Equestrian Federation® (USEF), GoMobileBroadband.com and LiveBroadcast.tv will present live webcasts of the Pessoa/USEF National Hunt Seat Equitation Medal Finals presented by Becker College and the Adequan/USEF National Junior Jumper Championship, as well as other classes from the Pennsylvania National Horse Show.

USEF High-Performance Dressage Committee Names Debbie McDonald As USEF Dressage Developing Coach

The United States Equestrian Federation® (USEF) High-Performance Dressage Committee has appointed Debbie McDonald to the position of USEF Dressage Developing Coach for the remainder of 2006 and through 2007. This appointment is one of many steps being taken toward expanding the USEF Dressage Developing Program. In this new role, McDonald’s responsibilities will include increasing awareness and visibility of the USEF Dressage Developing Program and furthering the education of riders, trainers and owners about specific aspects of proper training for competition at the high-performance level. Working in close cooperation with the U.S. team coach, the USEF director of high-performance dressage and the USEF dressage committees, she will also conduct training sessions and attend championships to observe and coach competitors, as well as identify prospects for further training and observation.

The two top teams from the 2005 Samsung Super League did a flip-flop from where they finished last year leaving Germany with the top honors this year, while Team U.S.A. came in a solid second after a long, tough battle, which ended with the eighth and final show in the Samsung Super League tour CSIO Barcelona, Spain (September 14-17). In Barcelona, all team points accumulated counted as double. Germany finished with a total of 65.125 points while the U.S. finished on 46 points.

Read More...

Cross Country International Offers Equestrian Packages to FEI World Cup Finals

Cross Country International (CCI), the world’s largest provider of equestrian vacations, proudly offers equestrians the chance to be on top of the action for the 2007 FEI World Cup Finals with the following packages, held in Las Vegas, NV, April 17-April 22, 2007.

The finals have already captured the attention of the equestrian world. Both FEI World Cup Jumping and Dressage Finals will be held at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. New for this year, CCI will offer both jumping and dressage packages, including hotel, VIP tickets and access to the private hospitality club suite.

The 60th Annual Buffalo International Horse Show is held at the historic Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center (BTRC). The ‘AA’ rated show is Buffalo’s most prestigious horse show and is used by many to prepare for the fall indoor circuit and zone finals horse shows.

The Grand Hunter Champion was a tie this year. The champion in the Regular Working Hunter division was Rock Star, ridden by Jennifer Alfano and owned by Jennifer Burger of Snyder, NY, and the champion in the Green Working Hunters was Talent Scout, ridden by Rob Bielefeld and owned by Robert Fisher and Brett Colter. The two had equal points in their divisions, so they will share the Grand Hunter Championship for this year.

The 2006 Wellpride American Eventing Championships (AEC) began Wednesday at the Carolina Horse Park in Raeford, NC. Riders from across the country have traveled to compete in championship divisions from beginner novice to advanced, for a chance to compete for a $50,000 purse, trophies and more than $100,000 in prizes.

Fifty horses are entered in the inaugural Beginner Novice Championship. Mary McKeon, 35, of Kirtland, OH, is in the lead with a dressage score of 24.80, riding Cindy Bank’s 11-year-old Cleveland Bay gelding Idlehour McHenry (Henry). She is followed by Margaret Simak on Cappuccino (28.0) and Fred McCashin on Private Pilot (30.3).

Karin Offield of Offield Farms Offers USEF Members Interested in Dressage Free Membership to DressageDirect.com

Offield Farms has the opportunity to introduce all American dressage-interested USEF members to www.dressagedirect.com. Dressagedirect is dedicated to promoting the sport of dressage throughout the world.

In case you are not familiar with Dressagedirect, the service aims to provide its members with all international dressage show results on the grand prix level, along with interesting facts of the dressage community. This information is sent directly to the subscriber’s e-mail box shortly after each event.

For the full letter, click here.

Four regional qualifying competitions for the ASPCA Maclay National Championship were held this past weekend on September 16-17, 2006.

The ASPCA Maclay class has been held since 1933, and its winners are some of the biggest names in equestrian sport. Previous winners include William Steinkraus in 1941, Frank Chapot in 1948, George Morris in 1952, Leslie Burr in 1972, Stacia Klein Madden in 1987, and Nicole Shahinian Simpson in 1992.

Woodside Horse Park Hosts Carriage Driving Event This Weekend

Horses and carriages from as far away as Massachusetts, Montana and Canada will converge on the Horse Park at Woodside, September 22-24, to compete in the inaugural Woodside Combined Driving Event. The event will mark the first time the Horse Park has offered advanced-level classes, the highest level of combined driving competition.

AAEP Annual Convention to Offer Quality Education for Veterinarians and Horse Owners

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) will continue its long history of providing premier continuing education for equine veterinarians when it sponsors its 52nd Annual Convention in San Antonio, TX, December 2-6. More than 4,000 practitioners, veterinary students and technicians attend the convention each year, making it the largest equine veterinary meeting in the world. The San Antonio Convention Facilities, located along San Antonio's famous River Walk, will be the primary location for convention events.

Grand National Morgan Horse Show Available Live Online

In cooperation with the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA), Morgan Horse magazine, WdA Video and Hawk Multimedia, organizers of the 2006 Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show are proud to announce their plan to bring this year’s premier Morgan horse show live to you via the World Wide Web.

Holling and Wallace On Top in Poplar Place Horse Trials Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series Divisions

Jonathan Holling and Direct Merger had their first Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series win in the CIC*** held at the Poplar Place Horse Trials in Hamilton, GA, September 1-3.

Holling, of Ocala, FL, and his 10-year-old Thoroughbred gelding started off the event in third place out of 33 starters, with Mike Winter and Kingpin taking the early lead. Winter and Kingpin, a 10-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by the Kingpin Syndicates, jumped clean on cross-country but accrued four time penalties, which allowed Holling and Direct Merger, who went double clear, to take the lead going into show jumping on a very slim margin of just 1.1 penalties.

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.