Dear fellow USEF member, Last Saturday, I was formally elected to be President of the United States Equestrian Federation. I am deeply honored to have been elected to this volunteer position and am so excited to have been given this opportunity to help drive growth in equestrian sports in the United States. For those of you who don’t know me, the first thing you need to know is that I come to this position with 45 years of equestrian experience. And put simply, I love horses. Our family...

Wayne, Ill. – The 2016 Markel/USEF Young & Developing Horse Dressage National Championships continued today with the first round tests for the remaining two divisions. The combinations of Holger Bechtloff and Clapton JP and Endel Ots and Lucky Strike stood out amongst the fields to lead the Developing Grand Prix and Six-Year-Old divisions, respectively. Today’s tests counted 40% towards their overall scores. FEI Six-Year-Old Preliminary Test Fresh off competing in Europe, Ots...

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...

Chris Pratt and Concorde (McCool) San Juan Capistrano, Calif. - On a pretty Southern California afternoon, thirty-eight entries rode the track set by FEI course designer Anderson Lima in the $25,000 Markel Insurance 1.40m Grand Prix. With nine clean, fourth to go in the jump-off, Chris Pratt aboard Epic Group LLC's Concorde, couldn't be beat. Lima (BRA) had two goals with the 1.40m track he set today - one to challenge the open riders in the class and the second to test the Young Riders...

Saugerties, N.Y. - The final week of spring shows in Saugerties, New York, kicked off with Wednesday’s $10,000 Brook Ledge Open Welcome at HITS-on-the-Hudson III. After snagging the win in last week’s $15,000 KindredBio Open Jumper Prix, Jeffery Welles of Wellington, Florida, returned to the Grand Prix Stadium to capture another victory. This time, the winning title came aboard Freestyle 3, owned by Juan Bancalari. “This was my fourth time showing this horse, so I was very...

Grass Lake, Mich. – The 2016 USEF Para-Equestrian Dressage National Championships sponsored by Deloitte and Selection Event for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games wrapped up Sunday with Grade Ib athlete Sydney Collier and Western Rose being crowned National Champions in the High Performance Division. Grade III athlete Pamela Hardin and Quaterjack earned top honors in the National Division. Sunday’s Freestyle Tests accounted for the final 20% of the overall championship scores with the...

Grass Lake, Mich . – The 2016 USEF Para-Equestrian Dressage National Championships sponsored by Deloitte and Selection Event for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games wrapped up Sunday with Grade Ib athlete Sydney Collier and Western Rose being crowned National Champions in the High Performance Division. Grade III athlete Pamela Hardin and Quaterjack earned top honors in the National Division. Sunday’s Freestyle Tests accounted for the final 20% of the overall championship scores with the...

Grass Lake, Mich. – The 2016 USEF Para-Equestrian Dressage National Championships sponsored by Deloitte and Selection Event for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games continued Saturday with competitors performing the FEI Individual Test, the second of three tests in the competition. Maintaining her position atop the High Performance Division leaderboard is Grade Ia athlete Roxanne Trunnell and Royal Dancer with a score of 72.754%. In the National Division, Grade III athlete Pamela Hardin and...

Grass Lake, Mich. – The 2016 USEF Para-Equestrian Dressage National Championships sponsored by Deloitte and Selection Event for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games continued Saturday with competitors performing the FEI Individual Test, the second of three tests in the competition. Maintaining her position atop the High Performance Division leaderboard is Grade Ia athlete Roxanne Trunnell and Royal Dancer with a score of 72.754%. In the National Division, Grade III athlete Pamela Hardin and...

Heather Caristo-Williams and Cosmopolitan 30 on their way to a $10,000 Brook Ledge Open Welcome win. (ESI Photography) Saugerties, N.Y. - HITS-on-the-Hudson Week II kicked off with the $10,000 Brook Ledge Open Welcome. Thirty horses and riders tested the course designed by Oscar Soberon, but only one team would take home the blue-ribbon title. It was Saugerties, New York, equestrian Heather Caristo-Williams who stole the show on her own turf aboard Cosmopolitan 30, owned by Mr. & Mrs. Ralph...