Great Britain dominated the second individual qualifying round at the FEI World Reining Championship presented by John Deere, held Tuesday at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The top qualifying score of 217.5 went to Great Britain’s Lee Rutter riding Setting Off Sparks, while his countryman Doug Allen with Don Julio Whiz had the second highest score of 216.5. Twenty horses had been given this second chance at qualifying for Thursday’s individual finals. Sixteen horse and...

The hillside overlooking the beautiful Grand Prix Ring at Flintfields Horse Park was packed with spectators on Sunday afternoon as Traverse City saw some of the country's top horses and riders compete in a $30,000 Show Jumping Grand Prix. After two exciting rounds of competition, Kim Farlinger of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, earned top prize with her athletic dark bay gelding Cordoba. The class featured a track set by renowned course designer Pierre Jolicoeur, and featured 17 horse-and-rider...

The roster of horses at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Bridgestone, reads a bit like this, “16-hand Thoroughbred gelding, 17-hand Thoroughbred-cross, 17.1-hand Irish Sport Horse, 17-hand Selle Francais, 16.3-hand Oldenburg, 16.1-hand Holsteiner, etc.” It paints a picture of a sport dominated by Thoroughbreds, Sport Horses, and Warmbloods. But one Half-Arabian gelding is also making his mark in the top levels of three-day eventing. Technically he is an...

The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) has concluded, following its 12th week of competition on March 31-April 4. The week featured the $50,000 Chronicle of the Horse /United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) International Hunter Derby, along with a full schedule of hunter, jumper, and equitation classes. The week twelve title sponsor was Lifestyle Lift®. Louise Serio rode to the biggest victory of her career when she piloted Castlerock, owned by Bryan Baldwin, to the win in the...

Lebanon, OH-based Wilhelm Genn has done it again, winning both the $25,000 Nordic Lights Grand Prix and the $25,000 Budweiser Grand Prix during the fifth week of the 2010 Gulf Coast Winter Classics. International great Dave Ballard took up the reins of course designing for the double prix week. For Thursday’s $25,000 Nordic Lights event the co-creator of the 2008 Olympic layouts built a 15-effort test full of curves that had some riders struggling to keep the horses balanced, add to this...

Faye Wuesthofen aboard Kiss of the Zodiac (Photo by Howard Schatzberg) In what many are describing as a historic event, the United States Equestrian Federation’s (USEF) Saddle Seat Medal Final came down to a workout of the top two riders—Faye Wuesthofen and Ellen Medley Wright—on exchanged horses. Add to that the fact the top two riders shared the same trainer, DeLovely’s Lillian Shively, and it was one for the record books. The arena erupted with excitement and...

Tracy Fenney earned top honors in the $25,000 Grand Prix of Dallas on Sunday riding MTM Centano, owned by MTM Farm. Sunday's victory marks Fenney's third consecutive Dallas Harvest Grand Prix win, as well as her eighth time winning the class overall. The 2009 Dallas Harvest Horse Show concluded on Sunday following a successful week of competition at the Texas Rose Horse Park in beautiful Tyler, TX. The Dallas Harvest Horse Show is a very active supporter of Habitat for Horses, one of the...

August, September, and October have been very busy months for the Oldenburg Horse Breeders' Society, a division of the Verband der Züchter des Oldenburger Pferdes. After having a successful Elite Foal Auction at the end of August, everyone headed to see many Oldenburg Horses and Weser-Ems Ponies crowned champions at the German Bundeschampionate. Oldenburgs such as the stallion Con Air, who won the six-year-old jumper division, and ponies such as the Weser-Ems stallion, Cyrill WE, who...

Ailish Cunniffe is crowned Equisport Insurance/USEF Pony Medal Championship Final winner. (USEF Archive/Randi Muster) Lexington, KY—By midday Sunday, the Kentucky Horse Park began to look vacant. Ponies were unbraided and cooled, loaded trailers rumbled toward home and the usually lively vendor row was filled with merchants striking their tents and packing their wares. After four days of fierce competition in the Pony Hunters and Jumpers, the whirlwind that is the 2009 USEF Pony Finals...

Maddy Darst (USEF Archive/Randi Muster) Lexington, KY—There is a lot that goes into the makings of a champion pony. Just ask Ohio’s Meredith “Maddy” Darst. She would know. And to prove it, two of her mounts—Rock the Boat and Brownland’s Mr. Mac—jumped their way through the over fences phase of the 2009 United States Equestrian Federation Pony Finals National Championships to take the Medium Green Hunter Pony and the Small Green Hunter Pony champion...