Photo by Flying Horse Photography (McLain Ward and Phillipa) Two-time Olympic Gold medal winner McLain Ward raised the roof during the $50,000 Strongid® C 2X CSI-W Grand Prix when he rode Sagamore Farm's Phillipa to the triumph before an enthusiastic crowd that filled the indoor arena at the HITS Desert Horse Park in Thermal, CA. Ward traveled from Brewster, NY, to get a jump start on qualifying for the Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix that will take place at HITS-on-the-Hudson, in Saugerties, NY,...

The Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) honored top individuals, horses and organizations at the annual awards banquet held at the International Conference in Fort Collins, CO, at Colorado State University on October 10. Clinic Instructor of the Year Clinic instructors are the CHA Master Level Instructors that are clinic staff and certify instructors for CHA throughout North America. At the end of each clinic, participants write evaluations of the clinic staff. It is from these evaluations...

Perfect Qredit Claims Young Horse Championship on Day One Dressage at Devon, one of the most prestigious dressage and sport horse breeding shows in North America, kicked off its opening day with an impressive roster of some of the continent's best sport horses. Topping the select group of youngsters was Perfect Qredit, a yearling stallion by Quaterback, who claimed the Young Horse Championship and the Colt Championship, as well as the Yearling Colts and Geldings class. The trip to Dressage at...

Armani and Jeffery Welles in Action at the USEF Selection Trials for Show Jumping (Kenneth Kraus/PhelpsSports.com) by Joanie Morris Wellington, FL - The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Ad Hoc Committee on Selection has approved naming the horse/rider combination of Armani/Jeffrey Welles to the Show Jumping Short List for the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong August 8-24, 2008. As per the USEF Selection Procedure for the Show Jumping Team, the Selectors have the discretion to recommend...

Daniel Geitner, of Aiken, South Carolina’s DFG Stables, dominated GALA’s January Jazz II competition in Folsom LA, last week. The hunter champion and prominent trainer piloted his mount, Trading Places, to top honors in both the opening $5,000 Welcome Stake and the closing $25,000 Grand Prix on January 27. In the days following the Welcome, the weather in Folsom turned rainy and cold. Geitner, nevertheless, turned up the heat for the Saturday Prix, steering Places, an eight-year-old Argentine...

Stephen B. Macfarlane, 59, died following surgery in Louisville on January 11. Macfarlane had spent his lifetime as a multi-faceted horseman, winning championship titles in American Saddlebred, Roadster, Pony and coaching competitions. Macfarlane had just returned to Kentucky from his winter home in Ft. Meyers, FL. He had been taking blood-thinning medication for a diagnostic procedure scheduled later this week, when he suffered a head injury resulting in edema that could not be controlled...

North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) is proud to announce that nearly $50,000 has been raised for a fund to assist NARHA Centers in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida which were affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Seventy-pound toppled arena lights, flooded barns and several equine deaths are just a sampling of the devastation NARHA Centers faced in the wake of this year’s hurricanes. NARHA’s 2005 Annual Meeting and Conference was held in...

Oirschot, Netherlands – Five U.S. athletes and their ponies made the journey to the FEI Driving World Championship for Combined Ponies, which took place Aug. 30-Sept. 3 at Steenhof Stables in the Netherlands. The championship featured single, pair, and four-in-hand ponies with teams and individuals from nine countries competing for world champion titles. Katie Whaley. ©Krisztina Horváth/Hoefnet The U.S. contingent included singles drivers Amy Cross and Hilary Mroz-Blythe, pair...

Castelsagrat, France – U.S. endurance athlete Avery Betz-Conway (Kingsland, Ga.) and RAS Istanbul, a 2011 Arabian gelding owned by Estanar S. A., completed the 2023 FEI Endurance World Championship for Young Riders and Juniors on Saturday, finishing in 18 th place out of a field of 70 starters and 37 finishers. The pair finished the 120 km ride in a time of 9:39:27. Avery Betz-Conway and Istanbul. ©Claire Sapet “It was a very technical ride, but it was a lot of fun,” said...

Traverse City, Mich. – Two exceptional mares, two talented equestrians, and two zero-jumping-fault outings led to the first individual gold medals at the 2023 Gotham North/FEI North American Youth Jumping Championship presented by USHJA. Hailey Guidry and Ezmeralda EH Z finished five-rounds of competition in the Children category with zero penalties. Lauren Frandson and Golda completed their NAYC week with no rails down across five rounds and only 0.28 penalties from the first round....