The 2011 US Show Jumping Young Rider Tour officially begins tomorrow! I am too excited to sleep. I spent the day in London with my family where we tried to fit all the essentials into 24hrs. We rode the London Eye, went to Harrods (where there is an equestrian department with tack and Pikeur gear!!), and ate at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants of course. They still have two more days in London, but tomorrow morning I am taking the Eurostar Train to Brussels to meet the horses at Bonheiden...

Hope Glynn and Sabrina Hellman's Woodstock. (Flying Horse Photography©.) Saugerties, NY - The Diamond Mills $500,000 Hunter Prix Final is the talk of the town this season and its key to qualifying, the Devoucoux Hunter Prix, continues to be one of the most popular offerings at the HITS Winter Circuits in Ocala, FL, Thermal, CA, and Tucson, AZ. Never before has a purse of this magnitude been offered for hunters, and never before have so many talented riders at all levels of their careers had the...

Lexington, KY - The University of California Davis Extension and the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) have teamed up to develop an online continuing education program in Equine Event Management that will premiere on January 18, 2011. The first of its kind, this specialized studies program brings together UC Davis' expertise in distance education and the expertise of USEF, the National Governing Body for Equestrian Sport in the United States. The inaugural course, "Competition...

Flying Horse Photography. (U.S. Chef d'Equipe George Morris and HITS President Tom Struzzieri.) Saugerties, NY - The inaugural Pfizer Million, with the richest purse in show jumping, scheduled for Saugerties, New York, on September 12th, will play host to a world class line-up of the country's best horse and rider combinations. That already glittering roster of stars got even brighter this weekend when HITS President Tom Struzzieri awarded one of the five coveted Manager's Wild Card picks for...

Courtesy KWPN-NA (KWPN-NA keurings are inspections of breeding stock. Both young horses and mature horses are presented. Pictured---Brooklynne and Jody Cunningham) Breeders devote their lives, energy and hopes to producing world-class sport horses that will compete at the top levels of dressage, eventing, jumping and driving. One of the best tools available to help breeders in their quest is the keuring, or inspection, of breeding stock. The 2010 KWPN of North America (Royal Dutch Warmblood...

Photo Courtesy JRPR (Lauren Sammis, left, won the FEI Test of Choice aboard High Field’s Casimirov, owned by Paula Runnells.) Courtney King-Dye and Grandioso III, owned by Hampton Green Farms, turned in an award-winning ride in the Intermediaire II class at the Wellington Classic Dressage Spring Challenge CDI. The class was sponsored by Sho Clothes, and King-Dye and Grandioso rode away with a beautiful scrim from the upscale dressage boutique in Wellington that specializes in the latest and...

Photo by Robbi Meisel (Aaron Vale and Platinum) The $25,000 Jacksonville A-Z Grand Prix sponsored by North Florida Hunter Jumper Association on January 30 closed out Week IV of competition with one of the most successful riders in show jumping, Aaron Vale, adding another win to his illustrious career. After a week of observation, course designer Allen Rheinheimer put all he learned about the starting field into a lengthy and technical 13 obstacle-16 effort test with a time allowance of 96 tight...

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...

Photo by Mike Ferrara (Champions, reserve champions and top tens will be crowned at this year's U.S. Arabian Nationals for the final time in Albuquerque, NM. ) The 41st annual U.S. National Arabian and Half-Arabian Championship Horse Show (U.S. Nationals) is set for one final farewell on October 18-27 at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM. Since 1967, Albuquerque has hosted the U.S. Nationals 19 times. Beginning in 2008, the U.S. Nationals begins a three-year contract in Tulsa, OK. Marking this...

(Lexington, KY) – The USEF has formed a Task Force to review current safety procedures at USEF competitions and to make recommendations to the USEF Safety Committee regarding possible changes to safety standards for licensed competitions, regardless of breed or discipline. “The USEF consistently monitors safety standards, they are not static, and they will consistently change with the growth of our sport and the technology available,” said Andrew Ellis, Co-Chairman of the Task Force and a...