A whirlwind 48 hours during which the eventing competition unfolded in a way that could give a storyline to the next Harry Potter movie. Quite unbelievable. Bronze for Philip Dutton - fantastic and so richly deserved. Perhaps the moral of the storyline to the last 48 hours is fight, keep fighting and never stop fighting until the Finish Line is disappearing in your rear view mirrors. The French have looked dangerous since the Europeans last year (where they had to secure Olympic qualification)...

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice (Shannon Brinkman Photo) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Cross-country, the heart of eventing competition, proved to be demanding for the 64 athlete-and-horse combinations who contested Pierre Michelet's technical course at the Olympic Equestrian Center at Deodoro on Monday. Only three entries finished double-clear, and only 26 crossed the finish without jumping penalties. U.S. veterans Phillip Dutton and Boyd Martin rode brilliantly and stand fifth and sixth,...

Exploding wine bottle, flooding hotel, horse inspection, surprise substitutions, interesting team running orders, lost & found luggage, and a Brazilian party in the Maracanã Stadium. Quite a couple of days. So where to start; perhaps with the job in hand. All the U.S. horses looked fit, well and beautifully turned out by the grooms and the horse inspection went without a hitch for the U.S. Running order declared (Boyd, Clark, Lauren & Philip) and the dressage horses having been...

Benjamin Meredith and Anabelle 28 (Lauren Baker/Phelps Media Group) Lexington, Ky. - Following an intense jump-off race during Thursday's $25,000 Hagyard Lexington Classic, it was Benjamin Meredith who bested the field of horses and riders to celebrate the win aboard Shader Sporthorses LLC's Anabelle 28. "She did a fantastic job tonight," Meredith said. "I was very impressed. I started riding her again at the end of Florida this season so it's only been about five months. This is...

Saturday Nights Lights events at the main International Arena at TIEC have attracted a large following. Mill Spring, N.C. - Mark Bellissimo, managing partner of Tryon Equestrian Partners, confirmed today that the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) in Mill Spring, N.C. is working with United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) to ensure that the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) remain in North America and USEF has communicated its support of the initiative to the FEI for the 2018...

Giavanna Rinaldi and Dulf Van Den Bisschop (Devaney Iglesias/Phelps Media Group) Wayne, Ill. - Giavanna Rinaldi was the last of four riders to qualify for the jump-off in the Finish Line $50,000 Grand Prix Saturday afternoon. When she entered the SmartPak arena aboard Dulf Van Den Bisschop she was aiming for a double-clear round, but did not anticipate having a two-second advantage over the top time to earn the victory. "I knew there was only one other double clear," Rinaldi explained. "I was...

Well wasn’t that just an interesting 36 hours… Sorry I have not been in touch for a while but Friday, for us was about finishing up at the venue and then trying to pull together a bunch of loose ends in other areas prior to a hydrogen bomb going off under our world of semi serenity – i.e. the Team and the horses starting to arrive. For other Nations, Friday evening through to Saturday morning marked the first horse flight arrivals at times that would have made the Special...

Laura Chapot and ISHD Dual Star on their way to a $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix win. (ESI Photography) Saugerties, N.Y. - Thirty-one riders and horses descended on the Grand Prix ring at HITS-on-the-Hudson for the fifth $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix of the season. The order-of-go was stacked with talent, including the likes of Kevin Babington and Manuel Torres ,but Neshanic Station, New Jersey equestrian Laura Chapot once again swooped in to steal away with not only the victory, but with second and...

Lexington, Ky. - Two teams of talented U.S. show jumping athletes will take on Nations Cup competition at CSIO5* Hickstead in West Sussex, England, and CSIO3* Samorin in Samorin, Slovakia, on Friday. At CSIO5* Hickstead, Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland will guide the Hermès U.S. Show Jumping Team of Katie Dinan, Lauren Hough, Lillie Keenan, and Paris Sellon. The Hickstead team has drawn fourth in the order of eight nations. At CSIO3* Samorin, Chef d'Equipe DiAnn Langer will lead...

Parker, Colo. - The 2016 Adequan®/FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by Gotham North saw the USDF North American Junior & Young Rider Dressage Championships Young Rider Team medals awarded Wednesday at The Colorado Horse Park (CHP), as three teams received the first round of medals presented during the weeklong competition. The Region 1 Young Riders took to the top podium, earning the Gold medal, while the combined team from Canada, composed of riders...