A new educational competition is giving West Coast riders another reason to eagerly anticipate this year's Galway Downs International Three-Day Event, which will be held October 30-November 2. Organizer Robert Kellerhouse will offer a training-level three-day event for the first time, alongside the headlining CCI** and the supporting CCI*. These three levels represent the ascending scale in the progressive education of event horses and their riders. The 10th renewal of this competition will be...

Kent Farrington of Wellington, FL, rode Up Chiqui to win the $50,000 Vermont Summer Celebration Grand Prix, the final event of the six-week Vermont Summer Festival held July 9-August 17 in East Dorset, VT. Twenty-four riders tackled course designer Pierre Jolicoeur’s track with eight jumping clear to advance to the jump-off where it all came down to the tightest turns. “I thought the first round was very friendly, just the right amount of riders went clear and we had a nice jump-off,” said...

Tuesday, July 22nd, @ 10pm, HBO Real Sports will air its story on Eventing. While we certainly hope the story will be balanced and accurately portray our sport, we are concerned by the preview HBO sports put out late last week. The story is entitled "Deadly Ride" and features among others, an interview with a mother who has tried to force her daughter to stop eventing. USEF President David O'Connor did a lengthy interview for the story with Real Sports correspondent Frank DeFord. In the...

This year’s prestigious Lexington Junior League Horse Show opened Monday evening, July 7, with a star-studded cast of the best American Saddlebreds in the world, among nearly a thousand horses and ponies entered for competition at The Red Mile. Two of the three reigning Saddlebred World’s Grand Champions, Grande Gil and CH Along Came A Spider, will meet all comers in the first jewel of the breed’s Triple Crown of competitions. Other shows in the Triple Crown are the Kentucky State Fair World’s...

Patrick Seaton wanted to win the $30,000 Golden Gate Grand Prix so he could claim the Woodside Jumper Accumulator prize of $20,000. Peter Breakwell wanted to win because he was tired of finishing second to Seaton. Macella O’Neill wanted to win because she is a fierce competitor and has a string of solid jumping horses. But in the end, a former Zone 10 Young Rider jumped a little higher, turned a little faster, and dared to leave a stride out to claim her first Grand Prix victory. Twenty-six...

Lexington, KY - The Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Selection Trials concluded the 2008 qualifying season with competitions held across the country in Illinois, California and North Carolina to select the U.S. representatives for the 2008 FEI World Breeding Championships to be held in Verden, Germany, July 31 – August 3, 2008. The first Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Selection Trial was held at CDI 3*/Y/J Wayne & Dressage at Lamplight in Wayne, IL, May 16 – 18, 2008. Champion Five-Year-Old...

The Adequan/United States Eventing Association (USEA) Gold Cup Series comes to the Woodside Horse Trials on May 23-25, and it will be an excellent opportunity for rising riders and their horses to earn valuable points in the year-long series at the advanced and intermediate levels of eventing. Modeled after NASCAR and other thriving sports series, the Adequan/USEA Gold Cup Series is based on a cumulative points system, with horse-and-rider pairs earning points, prize money and prizes at each of...

HITS is pleased to report that last week it received unanimous support from attendees of the 2008 USEF World Cup Riders Meeting held at The Oaks in San Juan Capistrano, CA, to once again host four FEI World Cup™ Qualifiers at the 2009 HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal. HITS has successfully run the World Cup classes at its West Coast circuit since 1991, giving riders on the West Coast an opportunity to qualify for the prestigious World Cups year after year right in their own backyard....

Romelia Calderon and her 2007 FEI World Cup mount Pernot captured the blue ribbon in Sunday's $25,000 HITS Grand Prix to conclude the Kachina Classic at HITS Arizona. Calderon, who won the first Grand Prix at HITS Thermal in 2007, got the best of 25 pairs in the first round and nine combinations in the jump-off to score $7,500 in prize money for Riley Stables. The Mexican rider was also eighth aboard John's Flight. Calderon and Pernot were first to go in the jump-off and set Great American Time...

Langer Equestrian Group, Inc., kicked off the 2008 show season with record entries and sunny skies at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center (LAEC) Season Opener, January 18-20, 2008, at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. Junior rider Laura Ware started off 2008 on a winning streak. She piloted Parker to the large junior championship, and then showed the gelding’s versatility by garnering wins in equitation as well. The pair captured both the USEF Medal and the ASPCA Maclay, as well as a...