Boyd Martin Jumps to the Win with Neville Bardos (Shannon Brinkman) Elkton, MD - Wind substituted for four days of relentless rain for the finale of the 2009 Dansko Fair Hill International but Boyd Martin was not to be blown of the top of the leaderboard. In an impressive performance with Neville Bardos, Martin had one rail down, but landed his first USEF National CCI*** Championship on the strength of the only double clear cross country round on Saturday. “I just wanted the horse to jump...

Photo by Diana DeRosa (Hunt Tosh and Fine Kiss) Hunt Tosh went into the first round of the 15th Annual Professional World Championship Hunter Rider (WCHR) Finals for the 2009 American Hunter Jumper Foundation (AHJF) Professional WCHR title, as if it belonged to him. He negotiated the highest mark in the first round and never looked back. Four rounds later he won the highest honor for a professional rider for his very first attempt in this prestigious class, which took place on October 2 at the...

Six USEF National Driving Championships Draw Quality Competition to the Kentucky Horse Park Lexington, KY – For the first time ever, all six USEF National Driving Championships are running con Chester Weber Leads USEF National Four-in-Hand Driving Championship (Picsofyou.com) currently, and the first day got off to a fantastic start at the 2009 Kentucky Cup and Lexington Driving Classic which is also serving as a test event for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. All six FEI...

Las Vegas, NV – After defending Rolex FEI World Cup Champion Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum broke the timing beam at 32.04 seconds with Shutterfly at the 2009 Rolex FEI World Cup Final, the question remained: how do you beat this horse? US superstar McLain Ward tried with Sapphire, the pair looked phenomenal. Foot perfect, lightning fast and with some seriously bold moves, Ward went with two remaining in the 13 horse jump-off and there was reasonable consensus that Sapphire’s effort...

Hong Kong, China – It was an interesting cross-country day at the Beas River venue today as 70 horses took on Mike Etherington-Smith’s eight minute cross country course. Not one horse achieved the optimum Gina Miles and McKinlaigh (Shannon Brinkman) time, and Australia’s Shane Rose (riding All Luck) was the only pair to have single digit time penalties. The Germans, on 158.10, took a slim lead over dressage winners, Australia (162.00), in the team portion of the competition....

Peters and Ravel (Amy McCool) San Juan Capistrano, CA – Steffen Peters and Ravel were crowned Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Grand Prix Dressage Champions and won the USEF Selection Trials for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team in dressage with a spectacular performance in today’s grand prix freestyle. The pair finished with a remarkable score of 79.500%. Peters, Debbie McDonald and Courtney King-Dye finished in the top three places to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in...

Diana DeRosa (Mara Dean and Nicki Henley lead heading into cross-country in Rio de Janeiro.) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – The American event riders got off to a fantastic start on July 20 at the XV Pan American Games taking the lead in the team portion of the competition and sweeping the top five places individually. American combination Mara Dean riding Nicki Henley went to the head of a quality field of 27 horse-and-rider combinations riding before the ground jury of Barry Roycroft, Jo...

Hickey Heads to Brazil (Phelps Photo) Gladstone, NJ – Storms threatened but the sun hung on Sunday June 17 at the final day of the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Festival of Champions and so did Christopher Hickey and Regent making them the final champion of the Festival and putting them at the top of the list of four named for Pan American Games Selection. The top three combinations from today’s competition are named were named to the team pending the USEF High Performance Working...

June 15th, the second day of the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of Champions, got underway with the Brentina Cup. Organized for young adults and named for Debbie McDonald's World Cup Champion mare, the Brentina Cup is open to Steffen Peters (phelpsphoto.com) riders 21-25 years of age. Performing the Intermediaire II test, the horses in the Brentina Cup are developing their skills for the highest level of dressage competition. The second horse of the day filled up the ring with...

Beezie Madden and Authentic made the final four cut in show jumping's Rolex World Championship. (Bob Langrish) The show jumpers returned to day four of five in a hotly contested race to the medal podium. America’s Beezie Madden and Authentic have dazzled the legions of show jumping fans that have traveled to Aachen to witness the very best of the best. Today’s two-round go was the decisive test of which four horse-and-rider pairs were asked to return for one last round on Sunday....