Lexington, KY - Who is the most beloved equestrian athlete in America? The clock is ticking. The buzzer sounds. Can you prove it? Actually, you can. All it takes is a $5 gift to The EQUUS Foundation and you'll be able to "play favorites" in the nationwide fundraising effort "America's Favorite Equestrian." The EQUUS Foundation and the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) jointly launched the charitable mobile texting game in celebration of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and...

Ocala, FL - February 18, 2011 - Yesterday’s $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health, was the largest Grand Prix starting field ever at the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit. One of today’s brightest stars in show jumping, Kent Farrington riding Up Chiqui, owned by Alex Boone, William Dobbs and Farrington, beat out 48 starters to take the top prize in the class. Thursday’s course was designed by Jack Robson of Coronado, California and saw only five teams return for the jump-off....

McLain Ward and Antares F. (Photo by Sportfot©.) Wellington, FL - February 10, 2011 - The fifth round of the $31,000 WEF Challenge Cup Series was held on Thursday afternoon at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center with a victory for McLain Ward (USA) and Grant Road Partners' Antares F. The pair was the fastest of three clear jump-off rounds in the class to win over 64 starters. Today's $31,000 WEF Challenge Cup grand prix was held over a course designed by Alan Wade of Co. Tipperary,...

Redha Gharsa on Neopolitano Primavera and Anthony Jackson on Pluto Pompea. (Photo courtesy Eric Martin.) Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain – Ten horses and eight riders braved a 16-hour plane ride to the Middle East to present the King of Bahrain with a demonstration of classical dressage. King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa staged the Bahrain Animal Production Show and brought in the Lipizzaner Stallion Show as the headliner. Also known as the Mara’ee, the agricultural show featured animal trainers,...

Lexington, KY- December 21 - Two first-place ties in this year’s “Favorite USEF Breeds Competition” attests to the competitive nature of the equestrian sport—and the success of the second running of the United States Equestrian Federation’s one-of-a-kind contest. In 2009, USEF announced the new contest designed to let members vote for their favorite breed competition while awarding and promoting USEF licensed breed competitions that ran a show so well that exhibitors wanted to call it their...

Fairfield, CT - The Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) has announced a realigning of its National Zones, compressing nine Zones into eight, and reflecting several new changes. In brief: * Former Zone 7 was absorbed into Zones 8 and 5 * Zone 9 was renamed Zone 7 * New regions were created in Zones 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 (former Zone 9) * Zone 1 sent a region to Zone 2 * Zone 2 shifted a region to Zone 3 * Zone 3 lost two regions - one to Zone 4 and another to Zone 6 * Zone 4 shifted a...

Beezie Madden Victorious in the $80,000 Syracuse Sporthorse Cup (Photo © 2010 Lauren Fisher/PMG.) Cazenovia, NY - November 7, 2010 - Beezie Madden piloted her horses Mademoiselle and Coral Reef Via Volo to the win in the $80,0000 Syracuse Sporthorse Cup presented by Copernicus Stables. She seems to own this Cup as she was victorious in 2006 and 2008 as well. The final Sunday event of the Syracuse Invitational Tournament in downtown Syracuse is always an audience favorite and today was no...

Michelle Parker and Reina at HITS Arizona (Photo by: © Brent Ericsen Photography) TUCSON, AZ - HITS, Inc. is pleased to announce that the 2011 HITS Arizona Winter Circuit will host six crucial qualifiers for both the $1 Million Grand Prix and the all-new $500,000 HITS 3’3” Hunter Prix Final that will take place September 10-11 at HITS-on-the-Hudson, in Saugerties, New York. The 2011 HITS Arizona Winter Circuit will get underway on Wednesday, February 2 and run for six consecutive weeks until...

SAUGERTIES, NY - Less than two weeks after announcing plans for a $100,000 Hunter Final for its popular 3’3” Devoucoux Hunter Classic, HITS has decided to quintuple the purse and make history again by offering the richest hunter class in the sport of show jumping. The $500,000 HITS 3’3” Hunter Prix Final will be a culmination of more than 30 Devoucoux Hunter Prix qualifying classes offered at all HITS horse shows from January 19 through September 4, 2011. The Final will be take place September...

U.S. Vaulting Team Wins Gold (Photo by Shannon Brinkman for USEF) Lexington, KY - The equestrian sport of vaulting has a new Team Gold-medalist - the FACE Vaulters of the United States. In a move that will forever change the interest level of the sport in the U.S., a sold-out crowd witnessed as the first ever Team Gold was won on a freestyle score of 8.779 and a final composite of 8.029. Led by California's Devon Maitozo (35) of Woodside, CA, the team consisted of Blake Dahlgren (26) of Santa...