Photo by Randi Muster (Pablo Barrios and La Gran) The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) began their competition on Wednesday, January 14, with opening jumper classes in the International Arena. The first week of the FTI WEF is sponsored by G&C Farm and runs through Sunday, January 17. The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival has 12 weeks of competition that conclude on April 4, 2010, and almost $6 million in prize money will be awarded through the circuit. This week's course designer is...

Lexington, KY – You don’t have to be a record-setting quarterback, point guard or track star to letter in high school sports anymore. The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) is writing a new chapter in the recognition of high school sports — one that honors Equestrian athletes. The USEF’s High School Equestrian Athlete program will offer specially designed emblems and pins, exclusively for equestrian athletes in grades 9-12. “High school equestrians have...

The Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) honored top individuals, horses and organizations at the annual awards banquet held at the International Conference in Fort Collins, CO, at Colorado State University on October 10. Clinic Instructor of the Year Clinic instructors are the CHA Master Level Instructors that are clinic staff and certify instructors for CHA throughout North America. At the end of each clinic, participants write evaluations of the clinic staff. It is from these evaluations...

The premiere event of the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC), the annual National Championship ride, proved to be a weekend of celebration in Northern California on September 11 and 13. At the site of the annual Patriot’s Day ride in Greenville, CA, competitors arrived from all over the western U.S. and Canada to compete for AERC’s top prizes. The 100-mile championship ride, held Friday, was won handily by Lindsay Graham, a fourth-year veterinary student at the University of California...

Jumper champions Sydney Shulman and Set Sail (USEF Archives/Randi Muster) Lexington, KY—It was a day of champions at the 2009 USEF Pony Finals as ribbons and top honors were handed out in the Regular Pony Hunters as well as the Individual Jumper Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park on a sun-drenched day where the competition was as hot as the weather. Beginning early in the day was the Medium Pony Hunters where there was no shortage of graceful rides and impressive rounds from the ponies....

In this day and age, there are many medications available to both human and horses. While some of these medications are quite benign, most of them have varying degrees of side effects. Some of the side effects are relatively minor, while some are rapidly fatal. Recent national events have shown us that we must take great care in what we put in our horses. Obviously, horses can neither tell you where it hurts nor can they tell you what they feel like on a given medication. So, paying attention...

Protect yourself and your horse and ICE your cell phone. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. ICE is an international designation that emergency medical technicians and emergency responders will look for on your personal cell phone, in your Contacts, if you are injured and unable to speak, or respond to questions, as a result of any type of accident or debilitating illness. Take a few minutes to make the entries: ICE in your cell phone for yourself, and ICE HORSE for your horses. In the first...

The statistics regarding the American Saddlebred Registry (ASR) Sweepstakes nominations and continuing eligibility are encouraging, with increases in numbers across the board. In the Three-Year-Old Sweepstakes, the rise in yearling nominations was a modest 2.58%. However, two-year-olds continuing eligibility rose 30.67% from 150 in 2006 to 196 in 2007, while three-year-olds continuing eligibility increased by 64 from 71 to 135, up 90.14%. In the four-year-old sweepstakes, three-year-old...

Daniel Geitner, of Aiken, South Carolina’s DFG Stables, dominated GALA’s January Jazz II competition in Folsom LA, last week. The hunter champion and prominent trainer piloted his mount, Trading Places, to top honors in both the opening $5,000 Welcome Stake and the closing $25,000 Grand Prix on January 27. In the days following the Welcome, the weather in Folsom turned rainy and cold. Geitner, nevertheless, turned up the heat for the Saturday Prix, steering Places, an eight-year-old Argentine...

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) announced its 2007 National Awards Dinner will be held at John G. Sikura’s Hill 'n' Dale Farms on Saturday, September 8, 2007. This marks the first time that the event will be held on a Saturday. “Hill ‘n’ Dale is honored to host the 22nd Annual TOBA Awards Dinner,” said John G. Sikura, owner of Hill ‘n’ Dale. “We congratulate all the national award winners on their achievement. It is the contributory success of each state which makes TOBA...