The Fidelity Investments Jumper Classic Presented by Animal Planet is excited to announce that tickets to the event are now available online. By purchasing a ticket online before August 15, 2007, the buyer is automatically entered to win an opportunity to accompany one of the grand prix riders on the course walk to see firsthand what riders and horses face on this challenging show jumping course. Three winners will be selected—one for each ticket category: VIP, grandstand, or general...

Guests at the EQUUS Equestrian Idol Talent Show & Bash on Saturday, February 17, 2007, will choose the first Equestrian Idol from among performances by some notable grand prix riders and trainers, and others. Rumor has it that Mason Phelps will take on the judging job of the infamous Simon Cowell, along with Susie Schoellkopf as Paula Abdul and Gene Mische as Randy Jackson. Robert Dover has signed on as Ryan Seacrest, and Leslie Howard is organizing a band of female grand prix riders to go...

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) announced equestrian athlete Megan Benjamin as the female August Athlete of the Month, along with male swimmer Brendan Hansen. The USOC Team of the Month was awarded to the U.S.A. National Baseball Team. Benjamin of Saratoga, CA, won the Gold medal in women's vaulting at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, on August 27. She was the first American woman to win the title. The Germans have won 20 of the last 32 World Championships. Benjamin...

Riding Claim to Fame, 12-year-old Reed Kessler won the Small Pony Green championship title with a total score of 983 during the second day of the USEF Pony Finals National Championships. (PhelpsPhotos.com/USEF Archives) Lexington, KY – Despite an ominous black cloud and earth-shaking claps of thunder, three young ladies had a very happy ending to their day. In the 2006 Wild Horsefeathers/USEF National Green Hunter Pony Championship, 14-year-old Kaitlin Campbell cantered away with the...

A record number of 120 horses have been nominated to compete in the 2006 USEF/Markel National Young Horse Dressage Championships, which will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park, September 8-10 in Lexington, KY. Please note the complete nomination list is now posted on the USEF/Markel Young Horse Dressage Program page at www.usef.org/content/equestrianSports/disciplines/international/2004-YH-Program.php . As a reminder to all riders and owners of these nominated four-, five- and six-year-old...

Lexington, KY— The United States Equestrian Federation® (USEF) announced today that eight horse/rider combinations were selected to travel to England and train with Chef d’Equipe Captain Mark Phillips in preparation for the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games. From this list of horses and riders a complete squad of six horse/rider combinations will eventually be named. Four of the squad members were named today, as well as four replacement combinations. The two remaining positions on the squad will...

Kim Severson and Winsome Adante (A.K. Dragoo Photography, LLC) Allentown, NJ – On a day when most people would do anything to remain indoors in the air conditioning, 11 of the United States’ top eventing horse-and-rider combinations were at the Horse Park of New Jersey in 100+ degree weather performing all three phases of the mandatory short list outing for their spot on the team that will head to Aachen, Germany, for the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games. Amy Tryon and Poggio II were...

Garrison Latimer (Brooke Jacobs) Lexington, KY – Six was the magic number for Brooke Jacobs of Georgetown, KY. Jacobs has entered the USEF Saddle Seat Adult Amateur Medal Final every year since its inception in 2001, and this year she took home the Gold medal with a unanimous vote from the judges. Her mount was Callaway’s Show Me When, an 11-year-old American Saddlebred gelding owned by Werk Way Stables. The championship was especially sweet for Jacobs who was on home turf and had a large...

Chris Kappler of the United States opened the CSI-W Blainville Jumping International with a win on Wednesday, July 5. The international show jumping competition runs from July 5-9 at the Blainville Equestrian Park in Blainville, Quebec. Despite some wet footing in the grass grand prix field, 18 horse-and-rider combinations took advantage of the opportunity to jump the track set by one of the most revered course designers in the world, Conrad Homfeld. Both Kappler and Homfeld are Olympic Team...

Matt Mills and Easy Otie Whiz (Waltenberry) Lexington, KY – It was a night of upsets at the Kentucky Horse Park during the 2006 Adequan®/United States Equestrian Federation® Open Reining Championship, which was also the selection trial for the U.S Reining Team for this summer’s World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. Twenty-seven of the finest reiners our nation has to offer competed in what many believed was one of the most competitive reining competitions ever held. The...