Lexington, Ky. - The United States Equestrian Federation is announcing an exciting contest for Saddle Seat riders, sponsored by Freedman's Harness and Saddlery. From today, May 1, through May 19, contestants are asked to create a short video that answers the question, "What would it mean to you to be on a Saddle Seat World Cup team?" From the submitted videos, a panel of judges will select 10 finalists. Those ten finalists will be announced on June 2, and for 15 days the general public will...

The 2014 Saddle Seat World Cup Team at Cascade Stables for their first training session (Betty Tucker) New Orleans, La. - In preparation for the 2014 Saddle Seat World Cup on July 22-26, 2014 in the United States, the U.S. Saddle Seat Team attended its first training session February 7-9 at Cascade Stables in New Orleans, La. This training session was the first time the riders and coaches could all come together to work and train as a team. It also afforded riders the opportunity to prepare for...

Lexington, Ky. - The first USEF/USET Foundation Dressage Pipeline Clinic wrapped up January 29th following two successful days of lessons with USEF Dressage Coaches and informative educational sessions. Thirteen of the United States’ most promising up-and-coming combinations took part in the inaugural clinic which was held at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival Show Grounds in Wellington, Fla., and generously Participants and Coaches from the USEF/USET Foundation Dressage Pipeline Clinic...

Karl Cook and Banba (McCool Photography) Las Vegas, Nev. - Brazilian course designer Guilherme Jorge is brilliant at asking just the right questions for the field. With sixty-six entries, Jorge created a course that tested the technique necessary to tackle tight turns and tidy tracks. It included an interesting option fence - a skinny 1.40m gate 'winged' by a simpler vertical on each side. Heading home as fence 4, the skinny was the quicker choice to rollback to 5a-b; and later going...

Andres Rodriguez and Caballito (McCool) Las Vegas, Nev. - Wrapping up the indoor season, the Las Vegas National offers the final FEI classes on the West Coast until February 2014. Fifty-six horse and rider pairs representing eleven different countries gave it a go in tonight's $33,000 EquiFit, inc. Jumper Classic. The course was technical and the competition fierce. Brazilian Guilherme Jorge set the track. Knowing he had a large field, he intentionally built a course with technical...

The 2013 IFSHA Friesian World and Grand National Championship Horse Show was held from October 2 through 6 in Lexington, Virginia. This annual celebration of the Friesian horse began on Monday the 30th of September when early arrivals made their way to the Virginia Horse Center and almost 60 of those came early to take advantage of the FHANA Keuring on the 1st, sponsored by the Mid Atlantic Friesian Horse Association. This was the 10th year that IFSHA has held a USEF Championship Finals Event...

Show season keeps moving forward and the scores keep coming in. At the last WSH show, the high score rider, Linda Coates-Markle, received a whopping 76% on NAWD Level 3 Test 1 (that is the western equivalent of USDF First Level) riding her Quarter Horse mare. Once again, this last weekend, shows featuring Western Dressage classes were held all over the country and WD riders on both sides of the nation received the highest Phyllis Ray and Starr in the warm-up (Darcia Drapeau) scores recorded at...

Eduardo Menezes flying on La Fleur 4 (McCool) San Juan Capistrano, CA - On yet another great day in Southern California, a small but stellar group of international competitors took on the challenge presented by world-renowned course designer Linda Allen in the $30,000 June Classic I Grand Prix, sponsored by St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort. Previous to this event, Hannah Heidegger dominated the final qualifier for the 2013 North American Junior & Young Rider Championships and young...

Amy Lewis and Sir Steinerman (David Honor) Lexington, KY - The final Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Training Session of Spring 2013 wrapped up Sunday at Oak Hill Farm in Lockport, Illinois. The two-day training session featured 11 horses between the ages of four and six and was once again led by USEF Young Horse Coach Scott Hassler. “We had a terrific training session at Oak Hill Farm in Illinois. There was once again a nice balance of U.S.-bred and imported horses,” said Hassler....

Aaron Vale dominated the Open Jumper divisions on the second day of the Tampa Bay Classic. He guided Kryptonite to the 1.40m victory in only 42.398 seconds (Kendall Bierer/PMG) Tampa, FL - The course was the talk of the day Thursday at the Tampa Bay Classic, as each consecutive rider was faced with a technical track that tested the best of their abilities. Riders gathered at the Covered Arena early this morning, and the cold weather only added to the mounting anticipation as some of the...