Photo by Robbi Meisel (Daniel Geitner and Sympa) The Atlanta Spring Classics series closed this Easter weekend under perfect blue skies and more heated competition among hunters and jumpers. Held at the Georgia International Horse Park, home of the 1996 Olympics, in Conyers, GA, the two-week event presented by the Classic Company came to a close with the announcement of division champions. “We’ve had two weeks of glorious showing here in Conyers with great weather, good rings, and some of the...

Sappire Wins Again for McLain Ward (Shannon Brinkman/ USEF Archives) Wellington, FL - March 27, 2010 - Tonight's $500,000 FTI Consulting Finale Grand Prix, CSI 5* drew the largest crowd in the history of equestrian sport in Wellington. More than 9,000 spectators came to see who would win one of the biggest show jumping purses in North America. Sapphire, ridden by McLain Ward (USA) and owned by Ward and Blue Chip Bloodstock, came home with the win and repeated their victory from last year over...

Photo by ESI Photography (Emma Kennedy, the owner and rider of Summer Hill, captured Sunday's $5,000 Pony Commotion. ) The Ocala Winter Finals wrapped up another exciting week of show jumping that included two of the four remaining qualifying grand prix classes this winter for the Pfizer Million at HITS Post Time Farm in Ocala, FL. Maryland’s Tracy Magness captured the win in the $25,000 HITS Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health, aboard Mr. and Mrs. John Barko’s Tarco Van Ter Moude for...

During the weekend of November 5-8, 25-year-old Kerry Tracey of Watkinsville, GA, led the victory gallop at the final SmartPak Equine/United States Eventing Association (USEA) Training Three-Day Event aboard her homebred Thoroughbred/Appaloosa gelding Chasing The Music. Although the entries were low for this long-format division, which was held in conjunction with the Rocking Horse Fall Horse Trials (Altoona, FL), the competition was fierce, and Tracey moved up from fourth after dressage to...

Mother Nature gave exhibitors a fine weather send off for the finale week of the Atlanta Fall Classics. And what a busy week it was with NCE Championships, a $10,000 Junior/Amateur Owner Jumper Classic, $10,000 Children’s and Adults Jumper Classic, and another $25,000 Grand Prix presented by EMO Insurance. The covered arena at the Georgia International Horse Park played host on Saturday evening to the Equestrian Travel sponsored National Classic Equitation Finals [NCE] with spectators enjoying...

Brazilian superstar Rodrigo Pessoa headed the winning line-up of international riders in Sunday's $75,000 Grand Prix de Penn National on the final day of the 64th Pennsylvania National Horse Show. Pessoa, Olympic Gold medalist and three-time World Cup winner, aboard Let's Fly, was the eighth rider on course and the first to navigate the course designed by Steve Stephens without a rail down. "I have been riding him for a little over a year and a half," said Pessoa. "I started him in the bigger...

The 2009 Washington International Horse Show continued on Wednesday with the best horses and riders in the country competing in jumper championships. There were three jumper classes in total, and the first class victory went to Spencer Smith and Markies in the $10,000 Children's Jumper Championship. Alissa Kinsey guided Grisset to first place in the $10,000 Adult Jumper Championship. Opening up the Amateur-Owner Jumper competition, Susan Knoblauch and Carneval won the $2,500 Time First Jump-Off...

Seventeen-year-old Jessica Springsteen was the biggest star at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show as her famous parents cheered her on. She bested 237 riders over two rounds of competition, and a four-ri Jessica Springsteen (Photo by Al Cook) der work-off to win the nation's top equitation prize, the Pessoa/USEF Hunt Seat Medal Final. Course designer Steve Stephens, in conjunction with judges Ellen Raidt and Leo Conroy, were very specific about the distances they required between related...

Lexington, KY – It wasn’t easy, but Chester Weber never wavered and netted his seventh straight USEF National Four-in-Hand Driving Championship at the Kentucky Cup and Lexington Driving Classic. Weber’s win also bodes well for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, as this event served as the test event for next year’s WEG also to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park. Weber beat long time teammate Tucker Johnson (and another driver going for a record seven wins) by 10 points, but the...

Lexington, KY – There were a handful of changes on the leaderboards today as the marathon proved a fair but demanding challenge at the 2009 USEF National Driving Championships at the Kentucky Cup and Lexington Driving Classic which is also serving as a test event for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The USEF National Four-in-Hand Championship remains in Chester Weber’s grasp, after a second place marathon performance – less than a point behind Australia’s Boyd Excell – was good...