Today at Arabian Sport Horse Nationals (SHN), my fellow Arabian horse lovers and I were treated to a preview of the new Arabian Horse Galleries at the Kentucky Horse Park's International Museum of the Horse. The Purebred Arabian Trust funded a 9,000 square foot building to be added on to the existing museum, although they are still requesting donations to finish the exhibit. Those of us at SHN were invited to a special presentation (with a sales pitch artfully thrown in) to see what the...

When I'm at home, I generally have a pretty good sense of direction. Even when I don't know where I'm going, I can apply logic based on where the mountains are, what direction the freeway is, etc., and keep from getting lost. My husband gets lost often, but I probably shouldn't tell you that because he's reading this. Anyhoo...something about flying to Kentucky has thrown me completely off kilter. I can't tell which way is north or south, in what direction our hotel...

Besides delighting my readers with scintillating stories (we writers like to use words like "scintillating" because we think it makes us sound writerly), my main purpose for being at Sport Horse Nationals here in beautiful, damp Kentucky is to help out (in other words, provide slave labor for) my good friend and mentor, Patience Prine-Carr. This means that I get a lot of mane pulling and braiding practice every day. While it's good for me to get the practice, it's frustrating because...

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...

Oliver Townend of Great Britain is poised to achieve what only one other event rider in the world has ever done, claim the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. In September of 2003, Pippa Funnell of Great Britain became the first rider in history to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing when she rode Primmore's Pride to victory at the Burghley Horse Trials in England following back-to-back wins in the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in April aboard Primmore's Pride and the Mitsubishi Motors...

In observation of World Rabies Day, September 28, 2009, the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) urges veterinarians and horse owners to vaccinate horses annually for rabies. When a horse is infected with rabies, the outcome is invariably fatal. But taking the simple step of ensuring an annual vaccination for your horse will nearly eliminate your horse’s risk of contracting this deadly disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42 cases of rabies were...

"We were thrilled with the outpouring of community support and involvement," said Denis Glaccum, co-director of Plantation Field International Horse Trials. "In only our second year of international competition, we've seen a significant increase in attendance as more of our friends and neighbors turn out." Held over three days in Unionville, PA, the Plantation Field International Horse Trials are one of only a handful of prestigious three-day events in the region. More than 240 horse-and-rider...

One of the great things about any national show is that you get to meet people from all over the country. You get to see friends you only see once a year, or perhaps friends you've talked to online but never met in person. I'm facebook friends with all kinds of people I don't know at all, simply because we have mutual friends and interests. Some of them are pretty well known, so I always wonder if they think I'm some sort of weird Internet stalker. I'm not! I swear! Can I...

The American Bus Association (ABA) has announced that "A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse," an upcoming blockbuster exhibition in the Kentucky Horse Park's International Museum of the Horse, and the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games have been designated as two of the Top 100 Events in North America for 2010 by an elite tourism industry selection committee. Inclusion in the Top 100 list, published as a supplement to the September/October issue of...

Plantation Field will host its second international horse trials beginning Friday, September 18, 2009. One of only a handful of prestigious international competitions in the region offering CIC*, CIC**, and CIC*** divisions, Plantation Field will provide fierce competition for riders of all levels and exciting events and activities for spectators and families. "We're thrilled to enter our second year of international competition," said Denis Glaccum, co-director of Plantation Field...