Photo by Carole Dwinell (F.A.C.E.) El Sueño Equestrian Center near Camarillo, CA, was the site for the the fourth of five USEF Selection Trials on the road to this year’s 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) for American vaulters. Translated from Spanish, El Sueño means "dream." This new facility represents four years of hard work and upgrading efforts at the recently purchased property. Owner Gina Atton-Thomas has now hosted upper-level dressage clinics, a hunter/jumper series, and...

Photo by Lauren Fisher/PMG (Kate Bomgaars and Kirikou AC Z) The second week of hunter/jumper competition at the 2010 Horse Shows by the Bay Equestrian Festival continued on Thursday with the Five-/Six-Year-Old and Seven-/Eight-Year-Old Young Jumpers competing in the Grand Prix Ring at the Flintfields Horse Park. Coming out on top in the day's qualifiers were six-year-old Imprimis, owned by Windswept Farm and ridden by Laura Pfeiffer, and seven-year-old Kirikou AC Z, owned and ridden by Kate...

FireandEarthPhoto.com. (Rigo, Shawna Harding, Lois Yukins, Dr. Ulf Moeller and Tim Dutta at the USEF National Developing Horse Dressage Championship presented by The Dutta Corporation and Performance Sales International.) Wayne, IL - Eventful nights continue but Saturday evening was not about the recurring thunderstorms, instead the excitement at Lamplight Equestrian centered on a huge tree that fell on one of the stabling tents. Happily there were no injuries sustained, but crews worked...

The Portola Valley Training Center in Menlo Park, CA was the site of the June 5-6 Selection Trials for teams hoping to represent the US at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. It was a celebration of top vaulting and Woodside Vaulters' 20th anniversary as a vaulting club. Again, the team competition was fierce. All five declared teams were present and the top two repeated the last trial's placings. FACE topped the leader board with an impressive overall score of 8.272, an improvement of more...

Volunteers from Kentucky and surrounding states flocked to Lexington on June 1 for the very first volunteer training session in preparation for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. This marks the beginning of general volunteer training which will span the month of June. “It went fabulously,” said Erin Faherty, director of volunteer services, about the first session. “The volunteers are very excited and they are beginning to realize that they not only represent themselves, the local...

Riders4helmets website aims to encourage more equestrians to wear helmets Leading equine digestive health product Succeed® has teamed up with helmet advocate Jeri Bryant to launch an online helmet awareness campaign— www.riders4helmets.com . The campaign is designed to educate equestrians on the benefits of wearing helmets. The Equestrian Medical Safety Association (EMSA) states that head injuries account for approximately 60% of deaths resulting from equestrian accidents. Approximately...

The F.A.C.E. Team Wins at the USEF Selection Trial (Carole Dwinell ) The race is on! For the first time this year, the five vaulting teams declared for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games met in competition. While this is the second of the five scheduled trials, it is the first where all the teams were present to compete. Individual numbers were up as well for a day of exciting competition. With an overall final score of 7.589, coach and lead out vaulter, Devon Maitozo of the winning F....

Photo by James Leslie Parker (Kelsey Thatcher and Milous De Fontaine.) Kelsey Thatcher had a fantastic weekend competing in Valencia, Spain, with Pony Lane Farm stallions Klotaire Du Moulin and Milous De Fontaine. Traveling through Europe along with the Global Champions Tour, Thatcher showed three days at the Gran Premio de Espana CSI** in Valencia on May 7-9, 2010. This was Thatcher's first time competing overseas, and she rode both of her horses to top finishes throughout the weekend. On...

"Why did gorgeous horses like those need new homes?" is a question frequently asked by disbelieving park visitors about the stunning black Arabian horses that recently arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park. An Arabian stallion and mare came to the park through a partnership with the Kentucky Equine Humane Center (KyEHC) and will soon go to work promoting the park's next international blockbuster exhibition, the $2.35 million "A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian...

Michael Blowen, the Founder and President of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm in Kentucky, is pleased to announce that the satellite facility, Old Friends at Cabin Creek: The Bobby Frankel Division, will be the new permanent home of Bobby Frankel-trainee Gigli and famed New York-bred stallion Thunder Rumble. The first Old Friends auxiliary farm, Cabin Creek, is located just outside of Saratoga in Greenfield Center, NY, and is owned by Joann and Mark Pepper. In 1992, Thunder Rumble...