Spectators were treated to a spectacular display of harmony between athlete and rider with a one day equestrian vaulting demonstration competition during the 2009 Adequan FEI North American Junior/Young Rider Championsip Presented by Gotham North. Top Equestrian Vaulters from the US and Canada competed for honors with their Freestyle and Technical routines in the Van Lennep Indoor Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park. This marks the first time that Equestrian Vaulting was included in the...

Gypsy Woods Farm owners Charles (Chuck) and Joann Smith announce that the beloved, crowd-pleasing Westfalen mare Rocher (Rolls Royce) will retire from international competition. “Rocher took a dream and made it a reality,” stated Chuck. “She took us all over the world and filled us with pride. She has incredible character and inspired her fans wherever she showed.” Rocher came to the United States in 2000 to be ridden by George Williams for the Smith family and Gypsy Woods Farm. Her career was...

The University of Minnesota is performing a study on tying up in Morgan horses. One cause for tying up in horses of all breeds is type 1 Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM), for which there is now a genetic test that uses blood or hair roots. (For more information about the test, go to www.cvm.umn.edu/umec/lab/Advances_in_PSSM.html .) However, there are horses that appear to have a type 2 form of PSSM, which, at present, can only be diagnosed by muscle biopsy. The University of Minnesota is...

Lexington, KY— The United States Equestrian Federation® is pleased to announce the endurance team for the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games. Five horse-and-rider combinations and one replacement horse were selected to represent the U.S. at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, August 20-September 3. The endurance competition will take place on August 21. The USEF endurance team for the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games (in alphabetical order by rider) is as follows: -- Kathryn...

Wayne, Ill. – Friday at the 2023 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions brought cooler weather, a full day of top-level dressage competition, and three newly crowned dressage national champions. The Adequan ® /USEF Junior Dressage National Championship and the Markel/USEF Seven-Year-Old Dressage National Championship divisions both completed their final tests, and the USEF Dressage Seat Medal Final 13 & Under closed out the day with its two-phase competition. All competitors at this...

Wellington, FL - Dressage rider Tina Konyot, and her World Equestrian Games partner Calecto V, turned in brilliant performances in the Grand Prix classes at the Wellington Classic Dressage Spring Challenge CDI to ride into the winner’s circle. Konyot also rode away with the “Rider Wellness Award” from The Wellington Institute, awarded to a rider on the Florida dressage circuit who is healthy looking and physically fit. Calecto, a magnificent black stallion that represented the U.S. at WEG,...

Nick Skelton and Unique (Photo © Sportfot, Official Sport Photographer of the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival) Wellington, FL - The 2011 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) began its competition January 12 with opening jumper classes in the International Arena. To start the year off right, Nick Skelton (GBR) was back in the saddle and in the winner's circle with Unique, owned by Beverly Widdowson, in the $8,000 G&C Farm 1.45m Jumpers. The first week of the FTI WEF runs through January 16. The...

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced that it will open a new 1,120-acre horse sanctuary and rescue facility in Douglas County, OR—the organization’s fourth major animal care facility. The Duchess Sanctuary, the facility’s new name, is made possible thanks to a $3.5-million donation from the Roberts Foundation, the Ark Watch Foundation and its founder Celine Myers. Named in honor of the first horse owned by Celine Myers’ family and after Black Beauty’s mother in Anna...

Equestrian Sport Productions, LLC, announced Wednesday a preliminary plan for a new round of major improvements at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) to be completed by the "Celebration of the Horse" event in early December and well before the start of the 2009 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). The improvements are the initial next stage in the top-to-bottom rebuilding of the PBIEC that began last December when Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP) took over management of the...

Former editor and owner of The National Horseman Raymond E. Sheffield of Louisville, KY, died Saturday, June 9, 2007, at St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, KY. Sheffield began his career with The National Horseman in 1950, accepting a position as its advertising manager. The owner/publisher at the time, Henry Brown, groomed Sheffield to be his replacement, and when Brown died in 1955, Sheffield became editor and owner. Sheffield was a founding member of the American Saddlebred Pleasure...