Sarah Nieman winner of the $10,000 Show Jumping Hall of Fame West Coast Championship (Amy McCool) Lexington, Ky. - Sarah Nieman of Coquitlam, BC, Canada and her mount Danton won the Show Jumping Hall of Fame Jumper Classic Series West Coast Championship, held at the Las Vegas National Horse Show. Prior to the Championship Final in Las Vegas, the 2013 West Conference regular season came to a close at the L.A. National Horse Show. Eduardo Sanchez Navarro and Virgo topped the Amateur-Owner...

Andrew Ramsay and Adamo van't Steenputje (McCool Photography) Las Vegas, N.V. - Saturday at the Las Vegas National was a spectacular display of show jumping at its finest, plus some sky-high entertainment. The first of two highlight events was the $10,000 SmartPak Winning Round Classic, with forty-seven entries and the top ten returning for a lightning fast second round. Later in the evening, the $50,000 Markel Insurance Grand Prix CSI-W had forty-two entries with eight pairs going clean,...

Karl Cook and Banba (McCool Photography) Las Vegas, Nev. - Brazilian course designer Guilherme Jorge is brilliant at asking just the right questions for the field. With sixty-six entries, Jorge created a course that tested the technique necessary to tackle tight turns and tidy tracks. It included an interesting option fence - a skinny 1.40m gate 'winged' by a simpler vertical on each side. Heading home as fence 4, the skinny was the quicker choice to rollback to 5a-b; and later going...

Andres Rodriguez and Caballito (McCool) Las Vegas, Nev. - Wrapping up the indoor season, the Las Vegas National offers the final FEI classes on the West Coast until February 2014. Fifty-six horse and rider pairs representing eleven different countries gave it a go in tonight's $33,000 EquiFit, inc. Jumper Classic. The course was technical and the competition fierce. Brazilian Guilherme Jorge set the track. Knowing he had a large field, he intentionally built a course with technical...

Montreux, Switzerland - HRH Princess Haya, President of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) led the applause tonight as the five winners of the FEI Awards 2013 went on stage in Montreux, Switzerland to receive their honours. FEI Award Winners 2013 (© FEI/Edouard Curchod) Master of Ceremonies Jonathan Edwards, Olympic gold medallist in Triple Jump and the current world record holder, described the accomplishments of the recipients of the FEI Awards to more than three...

Kristi Nunnink and Lod Lombardi won division A of the Training Level Three-Day Event at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event (Amy McCool photo) Temecula, Calif. - Kristi Nunnink and Katie Yozamp won the two divisions of the Training Level Three-Day Event at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event. Nunnink, of Auburn, Calif., won division A on Lord Lombardi (33.6), edging Lindsay Weaver on Sintra (34.1) and Joe McKinley on Lone Tree Farm’s Street Wise (36.8). McKinley also...

Wendy O'Brien (Mary Phelps-phelpsphotos.com) Pau, France - The 2013 FEI Pony World Driving Championships came to a conclusion Sunday with the cones phase and saw the United States secure a seventh place finish on a total of 452.1. The Netherlands capped off a banner weekend earning Team Gold on a score of 332.3, with Germany claiming Silver on 365.9, and Hungary cruised to a Bronze medal on a score of 388.3. In the Single Pony Championship, Tracey Morgan (Beallsville, Md.) led the way for the U....

Buck Davidson on Petite Flower, leader of the CCI3* at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event. (Amy McCool photo) Temecula, Calif., - Just as he was after dressage, Buck Davidson is still the leader of the CCI3* at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event. But it’s on a different horse. Following yesterday’s dressage phase, Davidson stood first on The Apprentice, second on Absolute Liberty, and seventh on Petite Flower. But on today’s cross-country course, The...

Stephanie Sedlacko and Jennifer Alfano rode to the first place finish in the American Saddlebred Hunter Challenge (Brooke Jacobs) Lexington, Ky. - It's not every day that you see riders compete over their first hunter course during a national championship, but when four world champion American Saddlebred trainers take the reins of a hunter and grand prix and professional hunter riders take the reins of an American Saddlebred, it makes for a night of fun and excitement. It was a...

Paul O'Shea and Primo de Revel (Mancini Photos) Wellington, Fla. - Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP) hosted its Fall III Horse Show this weekend on October 25-27, 2013, at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL. The first grand prix of the fall season was held on Sunday afternoon with a win for Ireland's Paul O'Shea riding the 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding Primo de Revel (Quinault x Lys de Darmen), owned by Michael Hayden. Skip Bailey of...