A competitor on course in the Purina Mills Horseless Horseshow. (Photo by Sarah Owen.) Ocala, FL - The annual Purina Mills Weekend, which featured exciting classes, a $50,000 Purina Mills-sponsored Grand Prix, and a series of special events, wrapped up the fifth week of AA-rated competition at the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit. Another round of beautiful weather provided picture-perfect conditions, and exhibitors were out in force to take advantage of an action-packed schedule, with several key...

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...

McLain Ward and his Beloved Sapphire at the 2009 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final (Shannon Brinkman for USEF) Gladstone, NJ -The USET Foundation is pleased to announce that the Whitney Stone Cup has been awarded to McLain Ward of Brewster, NY. The Whitney Stone Cup is awarded annually by the USET Foundation Executive Committee to an active competitor who displays consistent excellence in international competition, high standards of sportsmanlike conduct, while also serving as an ambassador for the...

Each October since 1973, Morgan horses, owners, trainers and exhibitors descend upon Oklahoma City for the Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show. This year's competition brought nearly 1,200 horses from 46 U.S. States, Austria, Canada and Great Britain to vie for titles in a variety of disciplines, including English pleasure, hunter pleasure, carriage driving, dressage and reining. The week-long show, held October 4-11 at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, included virtually...

The Adequan/United States Eventing Association (USEA) Gold Cup Series comes to the Woodside Horse Trials on May 23-25, and it will be an excellent opportunity for rising riders and their horses to earn valuable points in the year-long series at the advanced and intermediate levels of eventing. Modeled after NASCAR and other thriving sports series, the Adequan/USEA Gold Cup Series is based on a cumulative points system, with horse-and-rider pairs earning points, prize money and prizes at each of...

HITS is pleased to report that last week it received unanimous support from attendees of the 2008 USEF World Cup Riders Meeting held at The Oaks in San Juan Capistrano, CA, to once again host four FEI World Cup™ Qualifiers at the 2009 HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal. HITS has successfully run the World Cup classes at its West Coast circuit since 1991, giving riders on the West Coast an opportunity to qualify for the prestigious World Cups year after year right in their own backyard....

The United States Dressage Federation (USDF) has announced October 27-28, 2007, as the new dates for the 2007 FEI-Level Trainers’ Conference to be held at Starr Vaughn Equestrian Center in Sacramento, CA. The conference will feature Jan Brink who is currently ranked sixth in the world for FEI dressage riders. In addition to the two-day riding conference, a lecture will be held on Friday, October 26, with Brink and the sponsor of the event, Freedom Health, makers of Succeed digestive...

Meet the Beast.... The Beast is a very bad beastie as it has “done a leg” and gone on sit down strike a) right in front of our container and b) on the main horse walk in to the stables. To be more accurate, the Beast can easily be repaired if a) the AWOL driver could be found and b) the driver was given accreditation so he / she / it could access the venue and remove the Beast. I just hope that we are not contributing to the day rate for the Beast to be away from his / her Cave of...

Annville, Pa. - Summer is heating up and riders in the North American League (NAL) are gaining points that will take them to the top of the standings. The NAL qualifying season runs from September 1 through August 31. NAL qualifying classes are open to all competitors but only current members are awarded points. By joining the NAL, riders can accumulate the points necessary to make it to the National Finals at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg, PA, October 13-22, and the West...

Lexington, Ky. - USA Equestrian Trust has awarded $55,000 in grants to help fund four projects by equine non-profits. The awards come on top of nearly $210,000 awarded in May for 10 projects by equine non-profits. Since the inception of the Trust’s grants program, the organization has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants. The projects funded as part of the grants period ending in October were: American Saddlebred Horse Association ($10,000) to help redesign its database of registered...