Photo by Jon Kassel (Grand Prix Course at the sold out Alliant Energy Center Arena .) The 10,000 seat John Deere Coliseum at Madison's Alliant Energy Center was standing room only Saturday night as five of 38 entries passed the course's first test and were asked back for the tie-breaking round. Ultimately it was the feisty chestnut mare Happy Z and Ohio's Wilhelm Genn who laid down an unbeatable jump-off track for the win. Laura Linback and As di Villagana, competing last, also put in a...

Jennifer Wooten-Dafoe and The Good Witch (Mike McNally) Lexington, KY - It's that time again. Winter vanished and suddenly the 2010 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Bridgestone has arrived. Bigger than ever in 2010, the competition, which also serves as the USEF National CCI4* Eventing Championship, boasts many of the very best in the game both from the US and around the globe. The action gets underway at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington April 22, 2010. All eyes will be firmly...

Photo by Randi Muster (Victoria Birdsall and Baheera captured the Third Annual George Morris Excellence in Equitation Exhibition.) The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) is winding down as it finished its 11th week of competition on March 24-28. The week featured the highlight event of the season, the $500,000 FTI Consulting Finale Grand Prix, CSI*****, along with a full schedule of hunter, jumper, and equitation classes, including the prestigious Third Annual George Morris Excellence in...

Photo by Josh Walker/USEA (Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister at the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series CIC3* division at the Galway Downs International Horse Trials.) Overnight leader Tiana Coudray of Ojai, CA, kept her nerves in check to gallop home the winner aboard her Ringwood Magister in the CIC*** at the Galway Downs International Horse Trials. “He’s really grown up,” said Coudray, 21, of her handsome gray Irish-bred. “In so many places I gave him the opportunity to [be bad], and he wasn’t....

Photo Courtesy Jan Sharp (TS Black Tie Affair is one of four AHA Ambassadors.) The Arabian Horse Association (AHA) recently honored four outstanding horses with Ambassador Awards. Athena+++// (LS Zane Grey+// x Little Badger Baby), Gilet+/ (Gil x El Eta), TH Barbarian+ (Barbary+++ x TH Annimai), and TS Black Tie Affair (Tardar x EVG Lady Di) are all recognized for an outstanding achievement in representing the Arabian horse to the general public. To be named an AHA Ambassador, an Arabian,...

Photo Courtesy AHA/Conley Driediger (Conley Driediger with gelding, Winning Afire+//.) Alexis Starer Doughty of Cape Charles, VA, and Conley Driediger of Yarrow, BC, Canada, were named the Arabian Horse Association (AHA) Adult and Youth Amateurs of 2009, respectively. Doughty earned an impressive 646 points at 22 AHA-recognized shows in 2009, while Driediger earned a whopping 485.5 points from 17 shows. The AHA Amateur Achievement Award program began in 2002 and tracks the points of individual...

Photo by Robbi Meisel (Eirin Bruheim and NLF Trans Atlantic) Thermometers were up and down, weathermen forecasted gloom and doom with the supposed arrival of three inches or more of snow, and like all good businesses the managers of the Gulf Coast Winter Classics decided to aire on the side of caution by cancelling Friday classes. The good news was that aside from some nasty rain, it truly was a “non event” day as Bob Bell co-chairman had hoped. Saturday saw the return of warmer temperatures,...

Adrienne Lyle and Wizard at the 2008 Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of Champions (Amy McCool) Weekly Updates from the USEF High Performance Programs: Dressage: In the dressage world, sweeps were the order of the weekend. American Tina Konyot rode her own Calecto V to a determined performance in the Grand Prix for the Freestyle on Saturday; they were the only pair to break the 70% barrier – scoring 70.596%. Pierre St. Jacques was second with Lucky Tiger. Konyot then won the Grand...

HITS Shows is pleased to announce the dates for HITS Saugerties Spring and Summer Show Series, as well as the 20th Annual Marshall & Sterling League National Finals. Throughout the nine-week hunter/jumper show series, May 26-September 19, 2010, HITS Saugerties will host 14 Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix Qualifiers, giving riders the chance to accumulate the Grand Prix classes and the prize money they will need in order to try to qualify for the unprecedented Pfizer Million, which will be held in...

Steffen Peters and Ravel, Anky van Grunsven and Salinero and Isabell Werth and Satchmo joined 15 other horse-and-rider combinations Monday to prepare for the Exquis World Dressage Masters Palm Beach this week that kicks off the 2010 lineup of the globe's richest dressage competitions. Anky van Grunsven watched her first ever polo game Sunday at the International Polo Club Palm Beach, Isabell Werth worked Satchmo at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center while her sister, Claudia, wheeled...