How can you practice anything on your horse when there’s six inches of snow on the ground, it’s below freezing, the wind is blowing, and you’re not blessed with an indoor arena? Here in Colorado, we often have beautiful, sunny days where we can exercise our horses outdoors for hours. On other days, not so much. As a friend of mine said, "it’s not how you ride your horse; it’s how you live your life." He was referring to work you can do off your horse, such as...

Andres Rodriguez and Caballito wore a target on their backs throughout the Ridge at Wellington 1.40m Invitational Grand Prix IV at Mida Farm, riding to the victory with a speedy double-clear effort. (Emily Riden/Phelps Media Group) Wellington, FL - Andres Rodriquez and Caballito soared through the jump-off in Friday's class in The Ridge at Wellington's $175,000 1.40m Invitational Grand Prix series in a blazing time of 31.475 seconds. The first to go clean around the immaculate Top's...

Devon Kane, David Marcus, Mark Bellissimo, Allyn Mann, Matt Varney, and Michael Stone. (SusanJStickle.com) Wellington, FL -The 2013 Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) hosted its opening press conference Wednesday with a crowd of media in attendance to kick off this year's exciting line-up of top level competition. The AGDF circuit starts Thursday with CDI-W competition at the Wellington Dressage presented by The Dutta Corp. and includes another CDI-W, CDI-3*, CDI-5* and a...

Brianne Goutal and Onira (Sportfot) Wellington, FL - Week three of the FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (FTI WEF) concluded with an exciting $50,000 CSI 2* Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon held on the grass derby field at The Stadium at The Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC). The class saw a win for U.S. rider Brianne Goutal and Remarkable Farms LP's Onira in a four-horse jump-off. Todd Minikus (USA) and Macoemba finished second, Laura Kraut (USA) and A. Lebon's...

Tracy Fenney and MTM Timon have their sights set firmly on making an appearance in this year’s Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix at HITS Championship Weekend in Saugerties, New York in September. They are off to a great start during winter qualifying after a win in today’s $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health, at HITS Ocala. (ESI Photography) Ocala, FL – Tracy Fenney admits to having big plans for 2013, not the least of which include the Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix....

What is the next frontier in the equestrian world? According to Dr. Jim Warson, Equestrian Medicine Specialist and author of The Rider’s Pain Free Back , “its rider health and development. The horses are as good as they are going to be in our lifetimes, so this is where the action is. Rider health and conditioning make us worthy of the horses that we spend so much time and money on”. Dr. Jim Warson with his beautiful horse, Gallahad Golden Warrior, “Trigger” Dr....

Laura Kraut and Jubilee d'Ouilly (Sportfot) Wellington, FL - Laura Kraut and Jubilee d'Ouilly jumped to victory in the $33,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 2 on Thursday afternoon at the FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (FTI WEF) in an exciting jump-off of top competitors. Last to go in a 24-horse tie breaker with McLain Ward holding the first and second positions, Kraut and Jubilee shaved fractions off of the leading time to win in a dramatic finish. The second week of...

The winning women's team (Sportfot) Wellington, FL - Over 3,500 fans packed the stands at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) on the opening Saturday night to watch the women beat the men for the fifth year in a row in the $55,000 Nespresso Battle of the Sexes at the FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (FTI WEF) in Wellington. It was the closest race yet in the three-phase competition between the male and female teams, but the ladies pulled out another victory in the...

How do good ideas happen? By great people putting their minds together – and that’s what happened when Frances Carbonnel, Cliff Swanson, and Neide Cooley got together last August to work on the Educational Program for the Western Dressage Association® of Colorado. I had the pleasure of speaking with Frances about how the Train The Trainers clinic came into being. “We decided we needed some videos to help people understand what the gaits are for Western Dressage,”...

Press Conference Panel Laura Kraut, Dennis Shaughnessy, Mark Bellissimo and Nick Skelton. (ManciniPhotos) The 2013 FTI WEF hosted its opening press conference on Tuesday afternoon and a large crowd of local, national, and international media were in attendance to kick off the 12-week competition. The FTI WEF circuit will host thousands of the world's best horses and riders competing in the hunter, jumper and equitation disciplines starting January 9 and running through March 31. The press...