To enhance the safety of horses and those who travel with horses, USRider has worked with Drs. Tomas and Rebecca Gimenez, experts in large animal emergency rescue, on a research project to gather and analyze data about horse trailer accidents. Conclusions and recommendations from this study will be released to the public soon. However, during the course of the study, USRider and Drs. Gimenez noticed a hazardous trend involving gooseneck horse trailers, of which they want to caution the public...

The United States Dressage Federation (USDF), in conjunction with the United States Equestrian Federation® (USEF), will host a weekend educational seminar for recent graduates of the USDF Young Rider Program. The seminar will be held October 20-22, 2006, at the USDF National Education Center at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. Seminar participants, ranging in age from 21 to 25, will include amateurs, professionals and future high-performance riders in the sport of dressage. The purpose...

Georgetown College President William H. Crouch, Jr., and Kentucky Horse Park Executive Director John Nicholson cut the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the Equine Scholars Center, which will serve as the central offices for Georgetown College’s Equine Scholars Program. The ceremony also honored Larry Smith, who recently retired as the volunteer executive director, for all of the time and hard work he contributed to make the program a success. The program, which pairs students’ academic...

The United States Equestrian Federation is excited to announce the appointment of Scott Hassler of Colora, MD, as the USEF National Young Horse Dressage Coach. Pursuant to this appointment, USEF will be immediately putting together two young horse training sessions in March--one in Wellington, FL, and another in Burbank, CA. Applications are now being accepted for four-, five-, six-, or seven-year-old young horses for this exciting training opportunity. Application deadline is Friday, March 3,...

As a reminder to all riders and owners of four-, five- and six-year-old dressage horses, scores for the 2006 USEF/Markel Young Horse Dressage Program may be earned at USEF/USDF-licensed dressage competitions. For your convenience, USEF has compiled a list of official "qualifying competitions." These competitions have notified USEF that they will be offering Young Horse Tests in accordance with 2006 USEF/Markel Young Horse Dressage Program Selection Procedures during the qualifying period of...

If your competition offers the Young Horse Tests and you would like to draw more interest from Young Horse competitors, become an official "qualifying competition." By simply using the title of the program (and logo if possible) in your prize list and/or show program, your competition will be placed on the Markel/USEF Young Horse Qualifying Competition list on the Young Horse page of the Federation website. Exhibitors will refer to our new list of qualifiers when planning their show schedules,...

Hilltop Farm announces an exciting addition to their International Frozen Semen Program for 2006: Cyrano de Bergerac, a very successful show jumping stallion under Franke Sloothaak. Cyrano de Bergerac (Coriano-Ricardo-Labrador) is a Baden Wurtenburg stallion with a star-studded pedigree and ample international success as a show jumper. As a young stallion, he won the qualification for the German National Championships (the Bundeschampionat) with a score of 9.0, under Franke Sloothaak. The pair...

The Arabian Horse Association (AHA) has totally revamped its International Arabian Breeders Sweepstakes (Sweepstakes) program to rally excitement surrounding the breeding and showing of Arabian, Half-Arabian and Anglo-Arabian horses. Sweepstakes was initiated in 1983 and has served a broad spectrum of the Arabian horse industry, providing almost $4 million in annual prize money at regional and national shows and financial incentives to stallion owners. The new program expands Sweepstakes role...

The Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) has recently developed a new certification program -- the Equine Facilities Manager (EFM) program. This program is done as a 2.5 day clinic to certify four levels of stable employees: - Stable Worker- Qualified to work in a barn under the supervision of a manager - Stable Manager- Qualified to manage a small private stable of up to 10 head and 1-2 employees - Herd Manager- Qualified to manage a public equine facility of up to 35 head and 3-4...

The Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) and the American Vaulting Association (AVA) have combined efforts to create the Recreational Vaulting Certification program. Vaulting is gymnastics and dance in harmony with the moving horse. As a competitive sport, it is stylized and disciplined. As a recreational activity and teaching aid it is enormously adaptable in scope and application. The goal of the Recreational Vaulting Coach (RVC) certification clinics are to provide the vaulting community...