Daphne Preece with Bon Orphco. (Photo courtesy of JRPR.) Wellington, FL - February 9, 2011 – Daphne Preece’s four-year-old Lusitano gelding, Bon Orphco, showed the judges he has what it takes to be a champion when he rode away with the High Score Lusitano Award at the Gold Coast Dressage Opener Festival CDI. Sponsored by the Lusitano Collection, hosts of The 2011 Lusitano Collection International Horse Auction, the High Score Lusitano Award is presented to the highest scoring Lusitano at select...

Lindsay McCall/PMG. (Kai Handt at the 2010 USEF Para-Equestrian Para-Dressage National Championships in Lamplight, IL.) Thousand Oaks, CA - In every equestrian calendar as the summer starts to disappear many national championship competitions begin to occur. This year included the 2010 USEF Pony Finals, the $100,000 2009-2010 The Chronicle of the Horse/USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals Presented by Dietrich Insurance, the Adequan FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships...

The Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix has been the talk of the town this winter as the excitement amongst the world's top riders is on the rise in anticipation of qualifying for this unprecedented event. Over the course of the HITS Winter Circuits, 159 top Grand Prix riders took advantage of 35 HITS Pfizer Million Qualifiers as they vied for $1.5 million in prize money and one of 40 coveted slots on the Pfizer Million Eligible Rider Rankings List. The Winter Circuits in Thermal and Ocala produced 45...

The Morgan horse breed was celebrated in Lexington, KY, at the 2010 American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) Annual Convention, held February 17-20. "The true measure of a successful convention is the satisfaction and feedback the Board and staff hear from attendees," said AMHA Executive Director Julie M. Broadway. "By all accounts, the 2010 convention was not only successful in terms of being educational and informative, but fun too! The convention committee did a great job with fabulous farm...

Photo Courtesy Rolling Stone Farm (Shakespeare RSF ) The 2004 dark brown Hanoverian stallion Shakespeare RSF by Sandro Hit, out of EM Acapella, by Arrian, was named Champion of his 70-Day Stallion Performance Test held October 4-December 12, 2009, at Silver Creek Farms in Broken Arrow, OK. Shakespeare is owned and bred by Maurine (Mo) and Jim Swanson of Rolling Stone Farm in Slatington, PA. Shakespeare achieved Class I status with a score of 130.53 points overall (this score reflects a 5%...

"Why did gorgeous horses like those need new homes?" is a question frequently asked by disbelieving park visitors about the stunning black Arabian horses that recently arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park. An Arabian stallion and mare came to the park through a partnership with the Kentucky Equine Humane Center (KyEHC) and will soon go to work promoting the park's next international blockbuster exhibition, the $2.35 million "A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian...

As every breeder has experienced, the process of breeding mares and raising foals has many highs and lows. So when those moments of success arrive, it is important to savor them. Anne Sparks, owner of Horses Unlimited, had 48 hours to remember when four of her young stallions earned prestigious accolades. Homebred Pikko del Cerro HU won the 2009 Markel/USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championship-Six-Year-Old. Two days later at the Rheinland Pfalz-Saar International (RPSI) inspection,...

The Arabian Horse Association (AHA) of Aurora, CO, has established an Arabian Horse Association task force on genetic diseases. The task force was created under the direction of and announced by AHA President Lance Walters. “The purpose of the task force is to have a group of AHA members regularly focused on genetic diseases. The end result will be an Arabian horse community that is educated about genetic diseases and knowledgeable about testing and disclosure. The task force will guide the...

The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) announced remarkable success for the very first NRHA Sire and Dam Program online auction. The online auction for 2007 breedings began November 15 and ran through December 2. The “eBay-style” bidding war took off during the 2006 NRHA Futurity at the Oklahoma State Fair Park in Oklahoma City, OK. It went down to the final minutes leading up to cutoff at 8:00 pm CST on Saturday, December 2. The online auction was created to give the NRHA membership an...

When the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) announced its 2005 champions, the list included Hilltop Farm's elite Hanoverian stallion Contucci as the 2005 USEF Leading Sire Dressage Breeding. Contucci's accumulated points of 766 were more than double the #2 ranked sire, who accumulated 331 points. The title of USEF Leading Owner Dressage Breeding was also awarded to Hilltop Farm, likely due to many of Contucci's offspring successes. Since 2004, Contucci has been represented in the USEF...