Lexington, KY - From June 26-29 the U.S. Saddle Seat Young Rider Team will compete against Junior and Senior teams from the Republic of South Africa in three- and five-gaited saddle seat equitation competition. This second U.S. Saddle Seat Invitational of 2013 will be held at Cascade Stables in New Orleans, LA's historic Audubon Park. The U.S. Saddle Seat Invitational is an international Saddle Seat Equitation competition in which three- and five-gaited competitors ride unfamiliar horses in...

Katie Dinan and Nougat du Vallet (The Book LLC) North Salem, NY – Three teenagers and a veteran rounded out the jump-off in the $100,000 Empire State Grand Prix presented by The Kincade Group, and the first to go in was the one to return to the winner's circle. Nineteen-year-old Katie Dinan of New York, NY, and her energetic partner Nougat du Vallet were double clear to win the biggest class of the Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Shows, which ran May 7-12 and 14-19. Sunday's...

South Carolina riders Johnna Letchworth, Katherine Schmidt, and Kimberly McCormack won MVP honors and helped lead the Gamecocks into the first ever SEC Championship final. They will meet Auburn at 3pm ET Saturday. (Cory Burkarth) Auburn, AL - The host team will get a chance to win the first ever SEC Championship Saturday against a dangerous South Carolina team that's up and down season makes them upredicatble, but always formidable. The Gamecock's skill was on display Friday as they...

Lexington, KY- The United States will field two dressage teams for Wellington Nations Cup CDIO3* presented by Stillpoint Farm held April 11-14 in conjunction with the 2013 Adequan Global Dressage Festival. The U.S. teams will be composed of two Grand Prix combinations and two Prix St. Georges competitors. USA I Team USA I Team will be composed of the following four combinations. Grand Prix Heather Blitz (Wellington, FL) will ride her own Paragon. Paragon is a 10-year-old Danish Warmblood...

Despite not competing over the past two weeks ( since the last coaches poll was released ), and securing the No.1 seed in the SEC Championship next week, the Auburn Tigers lost the No.1 ranking to the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia was impressive in a win over Texas A&M on March 8, and apparently that was enough for voters. The Bulldogs aren’t No.1 by much, they were voted there by a trim one point margin, but they could have a chance to defend their ranking against Auburn in the finals of...

A new National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) coaches poll was released Wednesday and as expected, there wasn’t any shakeup among the top hree teams. The most notable change was Kansas State’s flip with South Carolina to No.4 and No.5 respectively. Coming into the spring season the top four spots were occupied by SEC teams. Though the conference still has a stranglehold on the top two, good showings by Oklahoma State and Kansas State, in conjunction with South Carolina and...

Lexington, KY - The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) wishes to remind all dressage competitors of the rule change to DR120. This change goes into effect on April 1, 2013 and necessitates the usage of protective headgear by anyone mounted on the grounds at all USEF dressage competitions. DR120 has been amended to require protective headgear as follows: From the time horses are officially admitted to the competition grounds by competition management, anyone mounted on a horse at any...

DRESSAGE OPTIONS FOR TESTS FOR U25 The Dressage Committee has made following clarification: Organising Committees will have four options for starting possibilities at CDI-U25 events: • Intermediate II – Young rider Grand Prix 16-25 • Intermediate II – Grand Prix Freestyle • Young Rider Grand Prix 16-25 – Grand Prix Freestyle • Intermediate II – Young Rider Grand Prix 16-25 – Grand Prix Freestyle Please be aware that there is no specific GP...

The twenty third in a series of blog post from Michelle Binder I began this Western Dressage Blog specifically as a blog for NAWD to help raise public awareness about WD groups other than WDAA. I saw a need for publicity specific to that organization. I also saw a need for a forum that presented the reality that other organizations with different missions and goals regarding WD existed. USEF has not licensed Western Dressage as an independent discipline so at this time there is no officially...

The twenty first in a series of blog post from Michelle Binder It was an exciting weekend for western dressage in the Pacific Northwest November 2-4. On Friday the Washington State Horsemen (WSH) voted to add Western Dressage as a new discipline on the roster of events offered by the organization statewide. WD has been added as a sub-category of dressage and will utilize NAWD Official Rules and Tests for the 2013 show season so WD classes may now be added to any WSH approved Dressage show...