The Mid-Atlantic Lipizzan Association (MALA), based in the mid-Atlantic region, named Holly Covey of Greenwood, DE, to the MALA 2005 Trainer Appreciation Award for 2005. Covey has handled both the champion and reserve champion Lipizzans at the 2005 Dressage at Devon breeding show, and also handled the champion Lipizzan at the 2005 Fair Hill DSHB Show. In addition, she helped coordinate Lipizzan horse entries, groom and assisted MALA members in the barn area at the shows. ~~~

Lexington, KY – Ashley Alden, 17, of Deer Park, Illinois, riding American Saddlebred LA Blues, was crowned champion of the 2005 USEF Saddle Seat Medal Final, held November 19, as part of the UPHA/American Royal National Championship Horse Show in Kansas City, Missouri. Judges for this year’s final included Sandy Sessink of Eugene Oregon, Brent Jacobs of Georgetown, Kentucky, and Lewis Eckard of Hildebran, North Carolina. Smith topped the class of 24 entries in the two-phase...

There was only one clean round, and it was ridden by Richard Spooner on Quirino in the $50,000 HBO World Cup Grand Prix of Del Mar presented by Mary’s Tack and Feed, a World Cup qualifying event. Spooner rode three horses in the grand prix, but it was his outstanding clear round on Quirino, owned by Oscany, Inc., of Los Angeles, which won, and also gave Spooner valuable points towards a spot representing the United States in the World Cup Finals to be held in Malaysia in 2006. Mariano Alario on...

(Lexington, KY) – Adrienne Sternlicht on the seven year old gelding Vanity Fair, won yesterday’s 2005 Wild Horsefeathers / USEF Green Pony Hunter Championship. The championship was held as part of the USEF Pony Finals being held August 10-13 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. As champion, the twelve year old Adrienne and “Coco,” a large pony, walked away with the Brownland Farm Perpetual Trophy, a Royal Rider Dress Sheet, a ten-inch Revere bowl keeper trophy and a Pessoa saddle. Her...

On Saturday and Sunday of the Memorial Day Classic at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, Hap Hansen teamed up with Lauren Hester and Tammy Chipko to win the 2005 Memorial Day Equitation Challenge. This popular and highly competitive event is held over two evening sessions. The team returned to the final round in second place, but a score of 89 from Hansen matched with his teammates scores of 84 and 82 added up to enough to take home the tri-color. Hansen received an eight-day, seven-night trip...

When will reining be in the Olympics? We have all heard the question. As the only Western discipline approved for Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) competition, reining is on the threshold of Olympic inclusion. While the threshold won’t easily be traversed, reining received a substantial and very encouraging boost when the FEI, during its 2005 FEI General Assembly, April 5-10, in London, England, proposed recommending to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the addition of a fourth...

PBS hits the trail for the next series of experiential history television events with Texas Ranch House , an eight-part series that will challenge a group of 20 intrepid time travelers to experience the exhilaration and exhaustion of life in the Old West. Producers Thirteen/WNET New York and Wall To Wall saddle up once more, riding high on viewer and critical acclaim for previous projects. “ Texas Ranch House promises to take the hands-on history strand to a new cultural depth,” said Jody...

Wellington Dressage, the first of the three major dressage shows at the Winter Equestrian Festival, drew to a close on February 6 with the musical freestyle competitions and a special awards ceremony hosted in the Internationale Arena. Leading the musical freestyle winners, was show superstar, Ashley Holzer. Holzer won the $2,000 FEI Grand Prix Freestyle aboard her dynamic Dutch stallion, Imperioso, with a score of 71.583%. Holzer also won the $1,500 FEI Intermediaire-I Freestyle riding Pop Art...

Kansas City, MO —Kelsey Nicole Smith, 17, of Delafield, Wisconsin, was crowned champion of the 2004 United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Saddle Seat Medal Finals, held November 20, as part of the UPHA/American Royal National Championship Horse Show in Kansas City, Missouri. Riding Chimere (Chestnut American Saddlebred mare, Periaptor—RHR Fury’s Wild Flame), Smith topped the class of 31 entries in the two-phase competition that required both rail work and patterns in both...

Lexington, KY --The nations’ best reiners will be coming to the heart of Kentucky in 2005, as a result of the combined efforts of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA), and the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA). The USEF Open Reining Championship will be the headliner class at Fiesta in the Park—a new show that offers reining and hunter-jumper events, side by side in the Kentucky Horse Park. The show, slated for August...