Lexington, Ky. - US Equestrian is pleased to announce the athletes who have been invited to participate in the 2026 Horsemastership Training Session, taking place January 2-4, 2026, at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival showgrounds in Wellington, Fla. The Horsemastership Training Series is designed to identify and develop the next generation of top U.S. Show Jumping team athletes and includes mounted and unmounted sessions with top industry professionals. This year’s clinicians for the...

Lexington, Ky. - The 2025 USEF Dressage Training Series came to a conclusion in October of this year, delivering comprehensive educational opportunities for dressage athletes of all levels across both coasts. Building on the success of the 2024 Pathway Program sessions, this year’s series featured expanded participation, new learning components, and deeper engagement with top professionals across all facets of the sport. This year, U.S. dressage athletes competing at all levels of the...

©Andrea Evan/US Equestrian US Equestrian appreciates the dedication of our competition managers to operating safe and fun licensed competitions. While we all work hard to prevent any emergencies, safety issues, and human or equine injuries in many different ways, preparation is still essential. That’s why we’ve just published an Incident Response Guide for Competitions, which is available at this link . This guide gives competition management a blueprint for how to coordinate...

Lexington, Ky. – US Equestrian is pleased to announce the 2025 Horse of the Year and Equestrian of the Year nominees. The International and National Horses of the Year will be announced at the 2025 SmartPak/USEF Horse of the Year Awards Dinner on Saturday, Jan. 17, and the International and National Equestrians of the Year will be announced at the 2025 Pegasus Awards Dinner on Thursday, Jan. 14, at the 2026 US Equestrian Annual Meeting in Louisville, Ky. Horses of Honor and Equestrians of...

US Equestrian is proud to announce the recipients of our 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, 2025 Junior Equestrian of the Year, and Youth Sportsman for 2025. Jan Decker will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for her work with the Arabian breed, while Arabian and 4-H leader Mikayla Clement has been named the 2025 Junior Equestrian of the Year and Youth Sportsman. Clement and Decker will receive their awards at the Pegasus Award dinner on Jan. 15, 2026 as part of the 2026 US Equestrian annual...

In 2023, the Federation appointed a Hunter and Hunter/Jumping Seat Equitation Judges Task Force, which was tasked with evaluating, analyzing, and improving the current hunter and hunter/jumping seat equitation judging system. Over the last two years, the Task Force, in collaboration with USHJA, has evaluated various concerns regarding judging and reviewed processes related to education, licensing, and judging systems. Through this process, we identified a need to evaluate and improve the...

©Leslie Potter/US Equestrian In the midst of the ongoing outbreak of EHV-1/EHM following the WPRA World Finals and Elite Barrel Race, US Equestrian understands that many horse owners are anxious to maintain their horses’ health and have a lot of questions about biosecurity and events. Dr. Katie Flynn, senior staff veterinarian at USEF, will be part of a webinar panel hosted by the American Association of Equine Practitioners on Nov. 25 . USEF will also be offering its own webinar...

US Equestrian has been made aware of an outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) associated with barrel racing and rodeo-type events in Texas and Oklahoma. Several horses displaying neurologic signs of Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) have been identified, with some horses testing positive on PCR. USEF is continuing to actively monitor the situation. As of November 21, 2025, the identified cases have been in the barrel racing/women’s professional rodeo subpopulation of horses. Any...

Thermal, Calif. – Ben Ebeling (USA) and Bellena stole the show in the inaugural US Equestrian Open Dressage Final, hoisting the impressive trophy to conclude the first year of the finals across the three Olympic disciplines. The partnership earned a personal best score of 79.903% for their freestyle composition to a mix of iconic female pop artists to stand firmly atop the podium. Felicitas Hendricks (GER) and Drombusch OLD took second place on a final score of 78.260%, while Anna Marek...

Kansas City, Mo. – With two nearly perfect patterns and dazzling rail work, Finley Wood and Seven Oaks Heir Show secured the 2025 USEF Saddle Seat Medal National Final champion title. Under the direction of trainer Shelley Fisher, Wood added the medal to her impressive resume in the sport of saddle seat equitation. Finley Wood and Seven Oaks Heir Show. ©Leslie Potter/US Equestrian Wood (Columbus, Ohio) and “Lily,” her 2012 American Saddlebred mare (Undulata’s Heir...