The Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) has officially announced that saddle seat is approved as an emerging discipline of the IEA, and teams are starting to form all over the United States. Hundreds of teams and thousands of members have enjoyed participating in IEA hunt seat and Western competitions for the past eight years, but this will be the first year for the saddle seat offerings. The mission of IEA is to introduce students in private and public middle and secondary schools...

Lexington, KY - The hunter discipline will make its debut on the international stage at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, September 25-October 10. Live, daily, one-hour hunter derby demonstrations will be featured October 4-10 at the WEG Equine Village Demonstration Arena. Participating riders in the demonstrations reads like a "Who’s Who" list of the sport. The participating riders are: Jennifer Alfano and Jersey Boy, 2009/2010 USHJA...

A dramatic win by Darragh Kenny of Ireland in the $75,000 Hermès Grand Prix CSI 2* for the Whitney Perpetual Challenge Trophy highlighted the 41st Annual Lake Placid Horse Show. Only five entries from the starting field of 24 succeeded in completing the 16-jump, first-round course designed by Olaf Petersen, Jr., of Germany without penalty. They returned for the nine-jump jump-off at the North Elba Showgrounds. First to go was Callan Solem of Chester Springs, PA, who set the mark to beat by...

Photo Courtesy Continental Divide Horse Show (Terri Rickford’s equine portraits are given as trophies in the Continental Divide Horse Show Championship classes and have proven to be extremely popular.) What is more beautiful than the northern plains of Colorado in late August with the snow capped Rocky Mountains as a backdrop. This is the scene that will greet the exhibitors of the 42nd Annual Continental Divide Horse Show. Continental Divide started out in 1968 as a Morgan horse show but as...

National Champs: (l-r) Chloe Gray, Kyndall Harper and Layla Choate (Waltenberry Photo) Oklahoma City, OK – It was a busy day in the Adequan Arena at the 2010 NRHA Derby as United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) National Youth Reining champions were crowned in very competitive fashion. Chloe Gray was happy just to be able to compete after her horse injured a suspensory ligament the day before the competition. Luckily her trainer's wife, Shannon Rafascz stepped in with a horse for her to ride...

Photo by Kristin Bednarski The build-out for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games has officially begun, and trucks carrying temporary seating and other structures dot the Kentucky Horse Park grounds as workers unload materials and prepare to begin construction. “These guys will probably be here until September,” said Sean Doane, venue manager for the World Games 2010 Foundation. Workers began erecting temporary seating on Monday, June 21, beginning with Stands A and C, which line the...

Thursday, June 17, marks 100 days to go until the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Still looking for a good reason to come? We’ve got you covered. We came up with 100 reasons to come to the Games. 100. You get to walk on the bluegrass. It’s pretty famous in Kentucky. 99. You know that saying “When pigs fly?” Horses actually do fly here...over jumps. 98. Because trail riding is fun, but horses do much cooler things at the 2010 Games. 97. You get to meet someone from a different country,...

The Portola Valley Training Center in Menlo Park, CA was the site of the June 5-6 Selection Trials for teams hoping to represent the US at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. It was a celebration of top vaulting and Woodside Vaulters' 20th anniversary as a vaulting club. Again, the team competition was fierce. All five declared teams were present and the top two repeated the last trial's placings. FACE topped the leader board with an impressive overall score of 8.272, an improvement of more...

Riders4helmets website aims to encourage more equestrians to wear helmets Leading equine digestive health product Succeed® has teamed up with helmet advocate Jeri Bryant to launch an online helmet awareness campaign— www.riders4helmets.com . The campaign is designed to educate equestrians on the benefits of wearing helmets. The Equestrian Medical Safety Association (EMSA) states that head injuries account for approximately 60% of deaths resulting from equestrian accidents. Approximately...

Rising to this year's "Let the Games Begin!" theme, the Wisconsin Morgan Horse Club (WMHC) had a winning presence at the 2010 Midwest Horse Fair. Preliminary numbers show that Friday's attendance set a record (18,500) and the total attendance for this year's three-day event exceeded last year's by 4,000 for a total attendance this year of 54,000. This is a great venue for promoting the Morgan breed. The WMHC booth was located near the front of Barn #1, so a maximum number of visitors had the...