The Equine Facilitated Mental Health Association (EFMHA) and NARHA (which was created in 1969 as the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) are excited to announce that a full integration of vision, membership and programs has begun. The integration is intended to: • Embrace, more fully, NARHA and EFMHA missions • More efficiently steward EFMHA and NARHA resources • Ensure inclusion After years of leading the way through innovation and organization of leadership in the fields of...

It’s not often that World and National Champion competitors from disciplines as diverse as cutting, dressage, reining, jumping, barrel racing, and driving as well as renowned trainers from other walks of horselife gather in one location to share their secrets. Even less often comes the chance to soak up all that learning for about what you’d spend on a movie ticket and a bucket of popcorn. Just $16 gets you an all-access daily ticket to the 2010 edition of our country’s most successful and most...

Lexington, KY – It wasn’t easy, but Chester Weber never wavered and netted his seventh straight USEF National Four-in-Hand Driving Championship at the Kentucky Cup and Lexington Driving Classic. Weber’s win also bodes well for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, as this event served as the test event for next year’s WEG also to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park. Weber beat long time teammate Tucker Johnson (and another driver going for a record seven wins) by 10 points, but the...

The USEF is pleased to announce that the Performance Horse Registry has a new book for American-bred horses only. Beginning December 1, 2009, the American Performance Horse (APH) will be open to all American-bred performance horses. The goal for the APH is to showcase performance horses bred in the United States. Q. What is considered an “American-bred?” A. For competition purposes, bred means foaled. If there is documentation that states the horse was foaled in the United States, then it can...

Besides delighting my readers with scintillating stories (we writers like to use words like "scintillating" because we think it makes us sound writerly), my main purpose for being at Sport Horse Nationals here in beautiful, damp Kentucky is to help out (in other words, provide slave labor for) my good friend and mentor, Patience Prine-Carr. This means that I get a lot of mane pulling and braiding practice every day. While it's good for me to get the practice, it's frustrating because...

All 16 Events Are Qualifiers for the 2010 $1-Million United States Grand Prix League Grand Prix HITS, Inc. is pleased to announce its grand prix schedule for the 2010 HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, CA. This year's schedule features 16 grand prix classes held over six weeks of competition, and $800,000 in total prize money will be awarded. There will be four FEI World Cup qualifying classes, and the grand finale is a $300,000 grand prix on Sunday, March 14. The 2010 HITS Desert Circuit Dates...

I'm here at the beautiful Kentucky Horse Park (KHP) in Lexington, Kentucky, for my third Arabian Sporthorse National (affectionately known as SHN)--although it is the seventh anniversary of the event splitting off from US Nationals to give sport horses a chance to shine all on their own. This year is the first that SHN has been held at the KHP, and boy are the gums flapping about the facility! Walking around the park, you'll pass one group oohing and aahing about how beautiful it is and...

Effective December 1, 2009, English Pleasure will now be a recognized division with the United States Equestrian Federation. The new division rules can be found on the USEF website at www.usef.org/documents/rules/ruleChanges/2010/RE12109.pdf . This means that you have the opportunity to offer "rated" English Pleasure classes to your exhibitors. The Federation is excited to add this division to encourage and reward yet another venue of equestrian sport. The English Pleasure division has three...

The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) and the World Games 2010 Foundation announced the NRHA’s sponsorship of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. With its sponsorship, the National Reining Horse Association makes possible, for the first time in Games history, an exhibition freestyle event to the overall event schedule. NRHA Executive Director Dan Wall commented, “NRHA is proud to announce our official partnership with the Games and is thrilled to have this special opportunity to...

The United States Equestrian Federation and The EQUUS Foundation have joined together to create an industry-wide award. The inaugural presentation of The EQUUS Foundation Humanitarian Award will take place at the 2010 USEF Pegasus Awards Dinner during the Federation’s Annual Meeting in January. The EQUUS Foundation Humanitarian Award (presented by the United States Equestrian Federation) is a celebration of the humanitarian achievements made by a member of the equestrian world. Specifically,...