Beesd, The Netherlands - The 19th edition of the World Four-in-Hand Driving Championship, one of the major highlights of the driving season, opened impressively yesterday in Beesd, the Netherlands. The wonderful opening ceremony marked the start of one of the driving highlights of the 2008 season. Many enthusiastic spectators welcomed 59 competitors from 20 different nations, who were kicked off the competition with a presentation in the large stadium in traditional horse drawn carriages. Team...

Jarantow, Poland ­– Team USA set their goal after yesterday's marathon to improve their individual placing and team placing at the World Driving Championship on the last Team USA in Poland (Jacqueline Zimmermann) competition day. They succeeded! The USA Team climbed to 11th place in the final team standings, thanks to the very good results of the US drivers in the final and decisive cones competition. The last competition turned out to be a thrilling and exciting competition in...

Authentic (Shannon Brinkman) Hong Kong, China – Under the unsettled skies of the impending typhoon the individual medals were decided by not one but two jump-offs. America’s Beezie Madden and Authentic out ran six other combinations to be the fastest of the four faulters to win her first Indivdual medal. “In the Olympics there is usually a jump off for medals,” said Madden. “So we expected it. When it ended up being seven to jump off for the bronze it made for a...

Lexington, KY— The third day of the United States Equestrian Federation’s (USEF) 2008 National Pony Finals was an all day affair, starting with the pony hunters throughout the day then transitioning into pony jumpers in the evening. In true form, the pony jumpers added to the excitement of the day with the evening’s championship ending with Zone 7 on top with a total of 4 faults and the fastest team time of 188.037, winning the 2008 Adequan/USEF National Pony Jumper Team...

Hong Kong, China – Gina Miles waved the flag for the US tonight at Sha Tin, winning an Individual Silver medal with McKinlaigh. The duo jumped two textbook clean rounds, adding nothing to their two-day score o Gina Miles and McKinlaigh (Shannon Brinkman) f 56.1. “I always knew he was the best event horse in the world,” said Miles. “He had his day to shine at the Olympic Games.” The 14-year-old Irish Sport Horse owned by Thom Schulz and Laura Coats stepped around...

Hong Kong, China – It was an interesting cross-country day at the Beas River venue today as 70 horses took on Mike Etherington-Smith’s eight minute cross country course. Not one horse achieved the optimum Gina Miles and McKinlaigh (Shannon Brinkman) time, and Australia’s Shane Rose (riding All Luck) was the only pair to have single digit time penalties. The Germans, on 158.10, took a slim lead over dressage winners, Australia (162.00), in the team portion of the competition....

Gina Miles and McKinlaigh (Shannon Brinkman) Hong Kong, China – Gina Miles put in a personal best with McKinlaigh at her first Olympic Games to go into third place after the morning session of the first day of dressage. The Creston, CA rider and the giant Irish Sport Horse (owned by Thom Shulz and Laura Coats) had beautiful trot work, quality walk and canter and transitions. The pair received some nines, and would have scored even better but they made a couple of mistakes in their flying...

Becky Holder and Courageous Comet (Ken Braddick) Hong Kong, China -- Before the 2008 Olympic Games officially begin, the US Eventing riders had another important task at hand: all five American horses sailed through the first horse inspection. The horses jogged by team, in alphabetical order by horse. Connaught (Phillip Dutton), Courageous Comet (Becky Holder), Mandiba (Karen O'Connor), McKinlaigh (Gina Miles) and Poggio (at Olympic Games number two) all looked very fit and sound when they...

Oklahoma City, OK – Under the lights at the Oklahoma State Fair Park, Craig Schmersal bested some of the top reiners in the country to win the 2008 Adequan®/United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) National Open Reining Championship presented by Equine Motorcoach. Schmersal, an Oklahoma native, won the title along with his share of the $25,000 in added money. The USEF championship was part of the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Derby. This is Schmersal’s second time...

Peters and Ravel (Amy McCool) San Juan Capistrano, CA – Steffen Peters and Ravel were crowned Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Grand Prix Dressage Champions and won the USEF Selection Trials for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team in dressage with a spectacular performance in today’s grand prix freestyle. The pair finished with a remarkable score of 79.500%. Peters, Debbie McDonald and Courtney King-Dye finished in the top three places to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in...