Rich Fellers and Flexible rode to the winner’s circle over an impressive field this weekend to collect first-place honors in the $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix, presented by Zoetis, at HITS Thermal (Flying Horse Photography) Thermal, CA – Fifty-three horse-and-rider combinations took the field, but it was the reigning World Cup winners who ruled the day Friday, when Rich Fellers and Flexible rode to victory in the $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix, presented by Zoetis. The rider from Wilsonville,...

A new National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) coaches poll was released Wednesday and as expected, there wasn’t any shakeup among the top hree teams. The most notable change was Kansas State’s flip with South Carolina to No.4 and No.5 respectively. Coming into the spring season the top four spots were occupied by SEC teams. Though the conference still has a stranglehold on the top two, good showings by Oklahoma State and Kansas State, in conjunction with South Carolina and...

The U.S. team following the Opening Ceremonies (R. Millin) Parys, South Africa – On Thursday, December 6, competition got underway at the Saddle Seat World Cup. Riders in the Three- and Five-Gaited sections of the U.S. team competed in the initial stages of the rail and pattern work. Both sections of U.S. riders had strong performances on the first day of competition. The Five-Gaited section riders Hunter Chancellor (Evansville, IN), Angela Darrow (Hartland, WI), Drew Taylor Hewitt...

The twenty third in a series of blog post from Michelle Binder I began this Western Dressage Blog specifically as a blog for NAWD to help raise public awareness about WD groups other than WDAA. I saw a need for publicity specific to that organization. I also saw a need for a forum that presented the reality that other organizations with different missions and goals regarding WD existed. USEF has not licensed Western Dressage as an independent discipline so at this time there is no officially...

2012 is nearly over. Show season is winding down and Western dressage organizations are gathering feedback from judges and competitors alike about tests, rules, shows and all things western dressage. Late fall is time for annual meetings for everyone and WD is on agendas all over the country. NAWD and WDAA are busy analyzing data and perfecting tests and rulebooks before the 2013 show season starts so more news will be coming from these fronts very soon. USEF and USDF will have more information...

The FEI is delighted to announce that five countries are confirmed as bidders to stage the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in 2018. The five bid cities that have now taken on Official Candidate status are Rabat (MAR); Bromont (CAN); Budapest (HUN); Vienna (AUT) and Wellington (USA). Under the new bidding process put in place last year by the FEI for the FEI World Equestrian Games™, eight signed Expression of Interest documents were received from the National Federations of Australia,...

Hunt Tosh and Say Again earned top honors in the Green Conformation Hunters at the Tampa Bay Classic. (Elsie Vieira/PMG) Tampa, FL - The Tampa Equestrian Series, held at the Bob Thomas Equestrian Center in Tampa, FL, is off to a great start in its first day of competition. The hunter ring was especially prominent today with a consistent string of winning horse and rider combinations. It was Hunt Tosh who stole the show today, he swept the over fences in multiple divisions aboard his talented...

The U.S. Dressage Team's Gold medal never looked in doubt today at the 2011 Pan American Games. They started off confidently and with each ride, the margin improved. They stormed to victory and won their fourth consecutive Pan American Games Team Gold medal - a first in the sport of Dressage. Their combined average score of 74.421% left them well clear of the Canadians who won Silver with a combined average of 70.413%. Colombia put in a valiant late effort to surge into the top three with...

The USEF Communications Department provided wall-to-wall coverage of several events last weekend: Dressage: Steffen Peters' sixth win. Photo by SusanJStickle.com. Six USEF National Dressage Champions were crowned at the 2011 Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of Champions at the USET Headquarters in Gladstone, NJ. Steffen Peters swept both the Intermediaire I (meaning he will lead the U.S. Dressage Team to the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara) and the Grand Prix with his...

Tulsa, OK - A boutique group of fabulous American reining horses went head-to-head on Friday night, in Tulsa, OK, at the 2011 Adequan/USEF National Open Reining Championship, the featured evening event at the Ariat Tulsa Reining Classic. The National Championship title and top honors in the concurrent CRI3* ended up as a showdown between two teammates from the Gold medal-winning team at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. These two superstar reining riders were also the WEG Individual...