Lexington, KY – In preparing for a solid U.S. Vaulting Team for the 2006 World Equestrian Games, the USEF Vaulting High Performance Committee has announced three new hires, all vaulting professionals who will work tirelessly to prepare our athletes for the rigorous competition that awaits them in Aachen, Germany in 2006. This will be the first time that our U.S. High Performance Vaulters have had the advantage of such rigorous team leadership and instruction. Adrienne Stang has been named...

The West Coast Active Riders Organization kicked off the start of their World Cup qualifier season with the $50,000 Grand Prix of Showpark in Del Mar, CA, held on September 3, 2005. Mario Onate took top honors with his own mount, Banco Del Bajio Otelo. The United States riders who earned World Cup points include Gabriella Salick and her gray stallion, Sandstone Laurin, of Sandstone Horse Sales, LLC; Mike Endicott with Farrokh Moshar’s bay gelding, Lennongrad; and Joie Gatlin with Canyon...

In a brilliant display of skill and finesse, Sara Schmitt, of Glen Gardner, NJ, drove her Morgan stallion, High Country Doc, to one of only a few clean and clear rounds in the cones phase at The Laurels at Landhope and her first national championship. The last in the order of go on Sunday, September 11, Schmitt had some wiggle room. Ahead by only four points under the new rules where a ball down is now a three-point penalty instead of five. This gave her a small margin of error, one that could...

As an affiliate member of the USEF, the American Warmblood Society (AWS) always uses the rules and standards governing the USEF-recognized Sport Horse Breed Shows for their inspections. The AWS inspection judges are either approved USEF sport horse judges or working towards their USEF credentials. As full members with the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH), the goal and purpose of the AWS inspections is to assist with the education of sport horse breeders and sport horse...

Under the sweltering New Jersey sun, red hot Laura Chapot burned up the jump-off track and soared to a one-two finish in the $30,000 Stillwell-Hansen Grand Prix as the 110th Annual Monmouth County Horse Show came to a close at East Freehold Park. Forty starters went to the post in the 1:30 p.m. main event at the Stillwell-Hansen Arena. Blake Alder of Germantown, TN, designed the course. Memphis and Caitlyn Shiels led off the tiebreaker with a clear go and a jump-off time of 27.719 seconds to...

Lexington, Kentucky – Stonecroft Farm’s homebred I’m First (CF First Night Out x That Special Face) vindicated his owner’s and trainer’s longstanding faith in him by becoming the World's Champion Five-Gaited Stallion Monday evening under the guidance of Nelson Green. The chestnut stallion, foaled in 2000, is a graduate of the American Saddlebred Registry futurity programs. He won the Two-Year-Old Five-Gaited Stake in 2002. He also won the Three-Year-Old...

(Lexington, KY) – George Morris, Chef d’Equipe for the United States Show Jumping Team, has good reason to be both happy and frustrated after Hickstead and Dublin. “We won four classes in Hickstead and were second in the Super League Nation’s Cup, and won 3 classes in Dublin and were 3rd in the Nation’s Cup. I’d say those are very, very good shows but we didn’t win the Super League Nation’s Cup classes. I want to win. That’s just how I am.” In Dublin, the U.S Team finished third behind Great...

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is protecting Kentucky's multi-billion-dollar stake in its equine and cattle industries from an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis (VS) that has spread through four southwestern states. The Department has expanded its VS embargo to 20 counties in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Four counties were added to Kentucky's embargo on July 27 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed cases in La Plata and Mesa counties in Colorado, Rio Arriba...

The Youth National Arabian and Half-Arabian Championship Horse Show (Youth Nationals) is celebrating its 13th anniversary in Albuquerque, NM, at Expo New Mexico on July 23-30, 2005. The Arabian Horse Association (AHA) of Aurora, CO, produces the weeklong event that features top-level competition, a shopping expo, the annual youth convention and daily activities. This year's show features more than 1,000 horses from across the United States, competing in 124 classes in a wide variety of...

Sharn Wordley returned to the 2005 Woodside Summer Circuit and once again captured all three major jumper classes. At the Woodside Circuit Opener, held June 23-26, he galloped to the first three spots in the $10,000 Woodside Jumper Classic aboard Cody in first, Gorki in second and Octupus in third. During the Bay Area Festival, held June 29-July 3, Cody once again led the victory gallop in the $20,000 Bayfest Grand Prix. “He is just an awesome machine,” said Wordley of the 18-year-old grey...