There are IHSA shows both for hunt seat and for Western riders, like 1988’s IHSA National Champion and Stock Seat Equitation Individual High Point Rider Meg Rothermich (Miami University of Ohio), shown with coach Ken Copenhaver. (Photo Courtesy Bob Cacchione/IHSA) The Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association ’s National Championships, which take place May 4-7 at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena in Lexington, also will commemorate the IHSA’s 50 th anniversary this...

Boyd Martin and Crackerjack competing at theRolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover in 2015. (Kasey @ Rare Air Photography) The path to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover can be winding and difficult, and few understand that better than owner Lucy Boynton. Her horse Crackerjack has done more than just take Boynton to the highest level of eventing on both sides of the Atlantic; he’s also given her an extended family and continued a path that her late...

Lauren Kieffer and Vermiculus (Kasey @ Rare Air Photography) Lauren Kieffer’s return to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover is particularly nostalgic, because her mount this year—Vermiculus—is a full brother to Snooze Alarm, the horse that brought Kieffer to her first Rolex Kentucky back in 2010. Bred in Indiana by Lawson and Jeanne Williams, Snooze and Vermiculus are Anglo-Arabians, by the Arabian stallion Serazim and out of the Thoroughbred mare Wake...

Good biosecurity practices are key to disease prevention when horses are grouped together at competitions. (Randi Muster/Mustphoto, Inc.) Ask horse owners to name their most-feared horse diseases, and chances are equine herpesvirus, or EHV, will be on the list. Recent reports of EHV in Texas, Louisiana, California, and Kentucky serve as a reminder that, with the spring competition season getting underway, it’s important for equestrians to be vigilant and take preventive measures, from...

San Juan Capistrano, Calif. - Always a test of mindfulness and skill, the four phases of the 2016 Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals - West illustrate the demands on a show jumper. Nineteen qualified riders began the finals on Friday, which after three phases were narrowed down to a final four who then demonstrated their abilities to ride a course on four different horses. Sitting on top going into the final phase, Peyton Warren (Rancho Murieta, Calif.) emerged as the...

Julie McCrady won the 2015 Third Level Freestyle Adult Amateur Championship with her Hanoverian mare Remanessa, and looks to return to Lexington again this year to try for a Fourth Level title. (Susan J. Stickle) Lexington, Ky. - “You bet I’ll be back. I’ve declared and I made my hotel reservations in Lexington months ago!” Every November since 2013, Julie McCrady and her husband have made the trek to Kentucky from Raymore, Mo. with their home-bred Hanoverian mare...

Mattias Tromp and Avon Win the $50,000 Longines Cup (Shawn McMillen) Bridgehampton, N.Y. - Mattias Tromp (USA) trumped the competition to win the $50,000 Longines Cup at the 41st annual Hampton Classic Horse Show riding Avon, owned by Beyaert Farm, Inc. Pablo Mejia Villa (COL) was second on his Reglisse Top and Catherine Tyree (USA) was third on Enjoy Louis, owned by Mary and Joseph Tyree. There is an important horse show scheduling update for Sunday. Due to weather forecasts, the horse show is...

Wayne, Ill. – Two divisions apart of the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions determined their champions on Saturday. Bebe Davis and Feivel Mousekewitz claimed the AGCO/USEF Young Rider Dressage National Championship title, while Jenna Upchurch and Greystoke earned top honors in the AGCO/USEF Junior Dressage National Championship. In the USEF Pony Rider Dressage National Championship division, Hannah Irons and Bohdjan took the early lead with a steady ride in the FEI Pony Team Test....

Rio 2016 continue to mess up a perfectly functional transport system, U.S. Dressage rider hits another Personal Best, and the Jumping horses have started leaping. All is good in Rio. The transport (to be more precise the Drop Off / Pick Up) debacle would be comical if it wasn’t so disruptive to everything that we (and other Nations) have been doing for the last two weeks. To then be told that it was our fault and that we, the Teams, were disobeying the rules was insulting and insane....

I started this blog this morning with the aim of completing by the start of the jumping competition and extolling the virtues of the Glorious 12th. However it is now evening and the blog is only just being started due to the time consuming shenanigans of the Annoying 14th. It has been one of those days that Rio 2016 have perfected the art of creating; frustrating and unnecessary. Casting my mind back to the Glorious 12th, I still get goosebumps combined with deep reoccurring nervous tension...