Diana DeRosa (Karen O'Connor and Theodore O'Connor at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.) It is with great sadness that the United States Equestrian Federation reports that super pony Theodore O’Connor was humanely euthanized Wednesday, May 28, as a result of an injury sustained in an accident at Karen and David O’Connor’s barn in The Plains, VA. The 13-year-old eventing pony defied odds and gravity throughout his career. Standing only 14.1 hands, the...

Equestrian Sport Productions, LLC, announced Wednesday a preliminary plan for a new round of major improvements at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) to be completed by the "Celebration of the Horse" event in early December and well before the start of the 2009 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). The improvements are the initial next stage in the top-to-bottom rebuilding of the PBIEC that began last December when Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP) took over management of the...

Iron Spring Farm’s UB40 continues to make a name for himself in both North America and Europe. Two UB40 sons were selected for performance testing at the 2008 KWPN Stallion Keuring held in s’ Hertogenbosch last week. One three-year-old son bred by A.A. van de Koppel, Amigo out of Tolanda (Elite) by Krack C, finished in the reserve championship position in the dressage stallion category. Amigo is a beautiful, modern-type with a gorgeous head and neck and uphill build. The result is incredible...

Lexington, KY - The United States Equestrian Federation’s Eventing High Performance Committee has approved the following horse and rider combinations to participate in the Developing Riders Program to be instructed by World Equestrian Games Individual Bronze medalist Amy Tryon. The Developing Riders Program is available to riders of any age who aspire to compete at the highest levels of the sport. To qualify, each horse/rider combination must have completed a CCI** or above. Precedence is given...

The Swedish team will be coming out with all guns blazing for the final of the 2007 Samsung Super League with FEI series, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain, next Sunday. An unfortunate afternoon at the second-last leg in Dublin last month saw them bringing up the rear, and they go into Sunday's decider at the bottom of the series leaderboard knowing that nothing short of a strong performance can save them from relegation. Ironically it seems that the Irish, who lost out in a valiant battle...

At exactly 8:08 p.m. on August 8, the official one-year-to-go countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games was launched. Eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. In general, eight is an auspicious number for Buddhists. In front of 10,000 people gathered on Tianan’men Square, with the Forbidden City as a backdrop, a sumptuous ceremony took place where Chinese culture and traditions were clearly on show. The International Olympic Committee President handed out the official invitations to the...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – And then there were five. The gold medal eventing and dressage teams shipped out early Monday morning, leaving the five show jumpers alone in the U.S. wing of the stables at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With 17 countries represented, the most of the three disciplines, the show jumping will be very competitive. Florida’s Lauren Hough and Casadora are riding the crest of a very successful wave, having just won the valuable CN Reliability Grand Prix at...

Further tickets are on sale for the FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, for 2006. Tickets are even available for the extremely popular dressage and show-jumping finals. Up-to-date information can be obtained at www.aachen2006.de and tickets can be ordered from the hotline +49-(0)241-917-1111. "The web details are updated several times a day, so all of the information there really is completely up-to-date," explained Michael Mronz, member and spokesman of the Organizing Committee for...

The first four days of competition at the 33rd Paso Fino Horse Association Grand National Championship Show are now in the history books. The very first class of the show, Pleasure Schooling Four-Year-Old Fillies had a total of 48 entries and Dictadora de Flat Rock, ridden by Shaw Laney and owned by Paul and Ali Casey, topped the class. Fifteen national champions were crowned on the first day and 17 the second. Competition on Monday included the very first Pleasure Amateur Owner Geldings For...

The Westfalian-bred stallions Damon Hill and Florencio won the World Breeding Federation Sport Horses (WBFSH) World Championships for young dressage horses, held July 1-3 in Verden, Germany. Five-year-old Damon Hill (Donnerhall x Rubinstein), ridden by Helen Langehanenberg, scored a 9.02 in the finals, just ahead of half-brother Donnerball (Donnerhall x Alabaster) and FBW Dejavu (Dacaprio x Glueckspilz). In the six-year-old division, last year's five-year-old champion Florencio (Florestan x...