Courtesy Joanie Webster (Junior rider Natalie Kupperman astride her purebred Connemara gelding, Elphin Song Sparrow, winner of the Consummate Connemara Trophy.) The Annual West Coast Connemara Show, dedicated in memory of Larry Ervin, was held for the second consecutive year at Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, CA. Chris Knox of Chesterfield, ID, was the USEF-licensed Connemara Breed and Performance judge. Forty-six Connemara ponies along with some 'open' horses vied for ribbons in the...

The United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) will host a ribbon cutting ceremony August 20 at 6 p.m. to celebrate the opening of its new headquarters at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. Founded in 2004, the USHJA was established to promote the hunter/jumper sport, to provide broad-based education to its members and to provide the framework for the conduct of our sport. Since receiving approval as the Federation Recognized Affiliate for the hunter/jumper discipline, the USHJA has...

A record-tying win by Margie Engle of Wellington, FL, in the $75,000 Le Grand Prix Hermès CSI** highlighted the show jumping action at the 33rd Annual I Love New York Horse Show. Engle's win was her seventh Grand Prix win in Lake Placid, tying the record held by Leslie Burr Howard. After four of 23 horses qualified for a tiebreaking jump-off by riding without penalty over the 17-jump, first-round course at the North Elba Showgrounds, the first three accrued faults over the eight-jump,...

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...

Photo by Flying Horse Photography (Reuters Tiamo Trocadero ) Reuters Tiamo Trocadero certainly has nothing left to prove at age 23. The Hanoverian stallion has been winning at grand prix dressage since he was eight years old. He earned scores over 70% at top CDIs in Europe, was an alternate for the British Olympic dressage team in 2000, and took his American amateur owner, Karin Reid Offield, to multiple USDF year-end awards at the FEI level. Today, Tiamo is standing at Little Bit Farm in...

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) joins the global Olympic Movement in celebrating the two-year countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games on Tuesday, July 27. In conjunction with the London Organizing Committee's celebration activities, the USOC is sharing thoughts from some of its top 2012 Olympic hopefuls, organizing athlete appearances, distributing Olympic sport storylines and Games fun facts, launching an online feature series and commemorative video on a www.TeamUSA.org , and...

Photo by Hippoevent (Seventy-year-old Jan van den Broek, of The Netherlands, will defend his World title in Pratoni. ) The FEI World Single Driving Championships return to Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, July 28-August 1. Pratoni hosted the Single Horse Driving Championships very successfully in 2006, and the Italian Equestrian Federation is now welcoming the competitors on their site for the sixth edition of these championships. It was just 12 years ago that the first official FEI Single...

Photo by Diana Hadsall (Williams and Don Bailey at Dressage by the Bay. ) When asked what George Williams thought of the setting in the Grand Prix Ring on Friday night of the $5,000 Dressage by the Bay FEI Freestyle competition, one word summed it up—atmospheric. That's because a large crowd of dressage enthusiasts lined the amphitheatre-like arena to watch horses and riders perform choreographed routines to music. Williams earned the highest score of the evening (72.25%) on Betsy...

Photo by Flashpoint Photography (Jennifer Ramsey and Cielo B captured the $7,500 Open Jumper Classics. ) Mullet Hall Equestrian Center on Johns Island, SC, welcomed exhibitors to something truly special in horse showing. The Charleston Summer Classics, a Boutique Horse Show produced by The Classic Company, began its two-week run by offering lots of Southern Charms. Returning to the historical Low Country area for a second year, Bob Bell, Chairman of the Summer Classic continued the rebuilding...

"What a mare, huh?" said Penny Brennon of her winning mount in the $5,000 Speed Derby. The mare in question is Cowgirl, an eight-year-old Dutch Warmblood that owner Debi Connor imported from Holland several years ago. With Brennon in the irons, Cowgirl won the $5,000 Speed Derby during the Rocky Mountain Classic (July 14-18, 2010) at the Colorado Horse Park. It was the second week in a row the pair topped the Speed Derby. "This is an amazing horse," Brennon said. "I didn't think we could have a...