Toronto, ON - The 90th Royal Horse Show welcomes an outstanding lineup of international riders to Toronto. They will compete this week in matinee and evening competitions including the $100,000 Hickstead FEI World CupTM Grand Prix (Wednesday, November 7), the $50,000 Weston Canadian Open (Friday, November 9) and the $75,000 Ricoh Big Ben Challenge (Saturday, November 10.) The riders representing the home squad: Ten-time Olympian Ian Millar (Perth, ON), three-time back-to-back Canadian Show...

Lexington, KY - “Brio in the Bluegrass,” the Paso Fino Horse Association’s 40th Anniversary Grand National Championship Show & Expo, was acclaimed a great success in its first year in Lexington, KY. For almost two weeks, the Kentucky Horse Park paths and arenas were awash with the taca-taca-taca-taca of the Paso Fino horse’s smooth four-beat gait as exhibitors prepared to compete for the ultimate title—Grand National Champion—in the Classic Fino,...

The Jockey Club is happy to announce that the Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.) will be offered in 2013 after the completion of a successful pilot program in 2012. The Jockey Club launched T.I.P. to encourage the retraining of Thoroughbreds into other disciplines by offering sponsorship for Thoroughbred-only classes and divisions and high point Thoroughbred awards at open horse shows and competitions. We are extremely grateful to the horse shows that participated in 2012 and helped make T....

Lexington, KY – The second and final USEF Elite Youth Dressage Training Session for 2012 concluded Sunday in Chino Hills, California. The two-day intensive training session was made possible by a generous donation from Kristen McDonald and the Marquis George MacDonald Foundation. The gracious hosts of the Western U.S. session were David and Alisa Wilson, owners of W Farms. Participants in the USEF Elite Youth Dressage Training Session (USEF Archive) The invitation-only training session...

The twentieth in a series of guest blog posts from Michelle Binder This week is all about news, news and more news. Never a dull moment in Western Dressage! This just out via a press release from WDAA: “The WDAA has been guided throughout by the leadership, strategy, and policies of its Board of Directors and Advisory Board, both of which are volunteer positions and provide their services without funding. Each are comprised of distinguished professionals from all facets of the equine...

Alexandra Lawson is a 19-year-old freshman at Purdue University from North Salem, Indiana. She is a member of the three-gaited section of the 2012 U.S. Saddle Seat World Cup Team. I've spent most of my life in the small farm communities of Danville and North Salem, Indiana. My parents and maternal grandparents are grain farmers - farming about 5,000 acres in the surrounding area. When you grow up in farm country, you just naturally get involved with FFA and 4-H, and it was through 4-H that...

James Alliston and Tivoli (Amy McCool) Temecula, CA - Start calling James Alliston “Mr. Galway Downs.” The Galway Downs International Three-Day Event has offered a CCI3* for the last three years. Alliston finished third in 2010, finished first and seventh in 2011, and this year he finished first, second and sixth. Alliston, of Castro Valley, Calif., rode Tivoli to first place (53.4) Jumbo’s Jake, the horse he won with in 2011 and finished third with in 2010, to second place...

Jacob Pope completes the Final Test at the Alltech National Horse Show aboard Patrick to win the coveted ASPCA Alfred B. Maclay Finals (Rebecca Walton/PMG) Lexington, KY - It was another fairytale day for Jacob Pope of Columbia, MD, during the 2012 Maclay National Championship for the ASCPA Alfred B. Maclay Horsemanship Classes. The Alltech National Horse Show, 129th Edition, welcomed 152 riders for the prestigious event. At the end of the day, it was 18-year-old Pope whose horsemanship...

The USEF Hearing Committee heard recently a Protest filed against Elizabeth Mandarino by another USEF member. The Protest alleged that certain USEF rules were violated at the 2012 Devon Horse Show when Mandarino administered an injection to her pony, Humble, and thereby caused his death. The USEF Hearing Committee ruled that the Protest must be dismissed for lack of substantiation. The Hearing Committee noted in its Findings " . . . that the proof available at [the hearing] was not sufficient...

David Rudder and Phind the Treasure (Brooke Jacobs with Jacobs Photography) Lexington, KY - Saturday night at the 129th Edition of the Alltech National Horse Show, the American Saddlebred Divisions concluded their amateur division championships of Three Gaited, Park Horse and Five Gaited. The return of the Saddle Horses to the Alltech National Horse Show at the Alltech Arena in Lexington, KY has been met with much enthusiasm. Kentucky is a hub of some of the most celebrated trainers in the...