Alexandra Green and Fernhill Famous (Photo Courtesy of Xpress Foto) Lexington, Ky. – Competitors have arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park for the Hagyard MidSouth Three-Day Event. Horses competing in the USEF CCI1* and USEF CCI1*-JR/YR National Championships this weekend were presented for the first inspection today. All horses competing in the USEF CCI1* Eventing National Championship passed the jog. This year, Alexandra Green (Loudon, Tenn.) and her seven-year-old Irish Sport Horse...

CH Extremely Fortunut is going for her sixth Devon three-gaited country pleasure championship with rider Molly Codeanne. (Doug Shiflet) The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair in Pennsylvania has been very good to the aptly named American Saddlebred mare CH Extremely Fortunut, who competes in the three-gaited country pleasure division at this show. Devon, a United States Equestrian Federation Heritage Competition that runs through June 4, also features top-class hunter, jumper, and driving...

Kasey Perry-Glass and Goerklintgaards Dublet (SusanJStickle.com) Gladstone, N.J. – Some of the country’s top dressage combinations have converged at the United States Equestrian Foundation (USET) Foundation headquarters at Hamilton Farm to compete in The Dutta Corp. U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions. From May 18-21, the historic venue will play host to three national championships: USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship, USEF Intermediaire I Dressage National Championship,...

Volunteers set flowers in the show-jumping ring. Following two demanding phases of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event (RK3DE) presented by Land Rover, horse and rider combinations will move on to the final leg of the competition, show jumping. The following is a glimpse of what you will see in the arena today: A packed Rolex Stadium: Football fans are not the only ones who can fill a stadium on a Sunday. Rolex Stadium will be overflowing with equestrian fans from all over the world as they root...

Courtney Cooper got into breeding with every intention of producing upper-level event horses. Colleen Rutledge simply wanted to dabble in breeding with no particular expectations. They each took a chance on the process, and the U.S. eventing athletes believe they are on the right track with their four-star, homebred horses. Cooper and Who’s A Star and Rutledge and Covert Rights (CR) will each compete together in the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover for the second...

Lauren Kieffer and Vermiculus (Kasey @ Rare Air Photography) Lauren Kieffer’s return to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover is particularly nostalgic, because her mount this year—Vermiculus—is a full brother to Snooze Alarm, the horse that brought Kieffer to her first Rolex Kentucky back in 2010. Bred in Indiana by Lawson and Jeanne Williams, Snooze and Vermiculus are Anglo-Arabians, by the Arabian stallion Serazim and out of the Thoroughbred mare Wake...

Madeline Backus and P.S. Arianna (Shannon Brinkman Photo) Madeline Backus and P.S. Arianna are first-time competitors this year at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover, but their partnership goes back years. “My mom’s farrier, Dennis Ackerman at Pendragon Stud in Colorado, actually bred her,” Backus said of the Anglo-Trakehner mare. “So I’ve known her for her whole life. It’s been quite an adventure.” Backus, whose mother Laura...

To the surprise of many, two-time Olympic team bronze medalist Steffen Peters entered the arena on Thursday to begin the FEI World Cup™ Dressage Final wearing a helmet. A traditionalist at heart, Peters made it his 2017 New Year’s resolution to drop the top hat and sport a helmet in Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) competitions. Steffen Peters sports his helmet at the FEI World Cup™ Dressage Final. (Shannon Brinkman Photo) “I hung on because of a...

Laura Graves and Kasey Perry-Glass snap a selfie before flight. U.S. Dressage riders Laura Graves and Kasey Perry-Glass were among the “flying grooms” accompanying horses as they jetted to the FEI World Cup Final in Omaha, Nebraska. The event will take place at the CenturyLink Center Omaha March 29-April 2; Graves’s mount Verdades and Perry-Glass’s ride Goerklintgaards Dublet both arrived at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield on March 27. The two were on the same three-hour...

Dr. John Steele (Kenneth Kraus) Acclaimed veterinarian Dr. John Steele was the linchpin behind the success of some of equestrian sports’ biggest names and their mounts. Up until his passing last month, one could find the 91-year-old Dr. Steele, or “Doc,” as many throughout the equestrian sport community knew him, hustling around show grounds, administering the utmost care to his equine clients. His tireless dedication to the horse and its rider made him one of the most...