University of Kentucky Saddle Seat Team, 2011 ISSRA Champions. Photo by Tim Holahan. Morehead, KY - The Intercollegiate Saddle Seat Riding Association (ISSRA) hosted its 3rd National Championship Horse Show on April 3, 2011 at Morehead State University. Josie Forbes from Nicholasville, Kentucky served as the judge for the show. Riders from teams including Eastern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville and Morehead State University competed...

Waco, TX - The field is now set after the Varsity Equestrian Selection Committee chose the 2011 Varsity Equestrian National Championship (VENC) seeds. This year’s championship will be held April 14-16, 2011, in Waco, TX, and is expected to provide plenty of excitement throughout the competition as the top 12 teams in the country battle it out for the overall national championship title. In the hunter seat bracket, Auburn University was selected as the No. 1 seed, followed by The...

(Lake Erie College, Painesville OH)— Becket Run Equestrian Team of Hamilton, OH, won the Hunt Seat Upper School National Championship at the sixth annual Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) National Finals held April 18-20, 2009 at the Lake Erie College Equestrian Center in Ohio. Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School of Atlanta, GA, earned the Middle School Championship title. The Knights Equestrian Team of Hinton, VI, became the reserve champion team in the hunt seat upper school...

Horse lovers from all walks of life gathered in the Sundowner Arena to attend a series of three clinics given by World Champion horsemen Al Dunning and Bob Avila, presented by Farnam Horse Products, during the Ninth Annual Western States Horse Expo, held June 8-10 in Sacramento, CA. Through a unique blend of demonstrations, expert techniques and humorous banter, Dunning and Avila combined their considerable talents to provide the crowds with the proven methods for training reining horses. In...

Meet Molly. She's a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Katrina hit southern Louisiana. She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to Louisiana State University (LSU) for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes. But after...

Experts report that eastern tent caterpillars are now wandering and population levels are among the highest they’ve seen since 2001, when Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS) hit Central Kentucky particularly hard. “The eastern tent caterpillar populations are dramatically up this year—the highest I’ve seen since the MRLS crisis. The larvae are full size, many trees are totally defoliated and I’ve seen very large numbers of caterpillars moving along fence rails and wandering out many...

Elizabeth Hay, 2015 USEF/Cacchione Cup Hunter Seat Equitation champion (Al Cook Photo) Fairfield, CT – The 42nd Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association National Championships, April 30-May 3 at the Eastern States Coliseum in West Springfield, MA, saw a first-ever Collegiate Cup High Point Hunter Seat Team championship for coach Ashley Henry and the Savannah College of Art & Design Bees, while coach Margaret Knight and the Berry College Vikings repeated their winning ways with their...

Lexington, KY - The future of dressage was on full display over the holiday weekend in La Canada-Flintridge, California as talented combinations lined up in the 2013 Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Western Selection Trials. The rising stars of the sport were vying to earn both a qualifying score to represent the U.S. at the FEI World Breeding Championships for Dressage Young Horses in Verden, Germany in August and a spot on the Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Short List. Both the winner of...

This is a truly thrilling time to be a part of Western Dressage and the Western Dressage Association® of America! I recently had the opportunity to chat with Cliff Swanson, who has been instrumental in many facets of the program, including authoring and editing the new tests, working with the Rules Committee, developing the Train The Trainers™ Program and conducting a wonderful series of Skill Set Clinics. Cliff also sits on the Advisory Board for the WDAA. According to Cliff,...

Westport, CT - The EQUUS Foundation and the American Association of Equine Practioners (AAEP) Foundation joinly established the EQUUS Foundation Research Fellowship program in 2011 to emphasize the importance of equine research, to reward researchers for their contributions, and to meet the increasing need to train future equine veterinary researchers. Two equine researchers were presented with the 2012 EQUUS Foundation Research Fellows for their work to advance veterinary knowledge during the...