Welcome to the fourth installment of a different kind of blog from WDAA! The purpose of this post is to allow the reader "into the heads" of both a trainer/judge/competitor, Karen Abbattista and her student, Deborah Herbert, a Florida WDAA member. We would like to share with you some moments in Deb's journey as she pursues her riding goals with her AQHA mare "GenuineArcticSpring", barn name "Belle". Please enjoy as you follow along with these posts that we consider interesting or...

The 2013 IFSHA Friesian World and Grand National Championship Horse Show was held from October 2 through 6 in Lexington, Virginia. This annual celebration of the Friesian horse began on Monday the 30th of September when early arrivals made their way to the Virginia Horse Center and almost 60 of those came early to take advantage of the FHANA Keuring on the 1st, sponsored by the Mid Atlantic Friesian Horse Association. This was the 10th year that IFSHA has held a USEF Championship Finals Event...

Springtown, Texas - It was a tale of two teams in Texas on Saturday as No.7 Baylor and No.8 Texas Christian met in an early season in-state clash. TCU had the better western team, and Baylor was the dominant hunt seat team. But the TCU reining team was the only squad able to secure an outright, 5-0, sweep. In doing so they made the difference in a hard fought 11-9 win. Baylor won equitation on the flat 3-2 and TCU edged out an equal 3-2 victory in horsemanship. TCU was able to pick up one point...

Leslie Berndl (Pics of You) Lexington, KY – A good crowd turned out at the Kentucky Horse Park Saturday to watch the marathon phase of the Kentucky Classic CDE. When the driving was done and the spectators had left Leslie Berndl had taken a big step into the lead in the single horse division. Berndl (Newcastle, California) started off hot Saturday morning with Dutch Warmblood gelding Umico and her consistent driving over the entire course helped her take the lead in the division. Berndl...

Valkenswaard, Germany - CSI Valkenswaard has been kind to U.S. riders over the last two days. Eight classes have seen Americans atop the leaderboard and they've been near the top in others. Below is a quick breakdown of CSI2* and CSI1* classes with links to full results. CSI1* Friday Alexandra Crown started things well for the U.S contingent with a win in the Special Invitational against the clock. She and her own Quadrant finished first, Alexandra Cherubini and Lovelite LLC's Equifit...

Kaitlin Campbell on Rocky W Devon, PA - This evening's open jumper class was the Idle Dice Open Jumper Stakes class. The class was named after famed jumper horse Idle Dice. Idle Dice was originally bred as a thoroughbred race horse, but he was discovered and retrained by Bernie Traurig who showed him as a hunter. He was later purchased by Harry Gill and shown as a jumper by Rodney Jenkins. Idle Dice won over $400,000 in his career (an amount that would triple if adjusted to the value of...

It's official. NAWD has applied for recognized affiliate status with the USEF. Supporters have until June 11th to let the USEF know that North American Western Dressage is the right choice of organizations to build the future of Western Dressage. NAWD President Jen Johnson states: “Western Dressage is coming. Over the past 3 years we have watched it grow at warp speed from the hint of an idea to not just one but three major organizations with very different ideals. Throughout, NAWD...

Meagan Nusz and Vesuvius (Rebecca Walton for Phelps Media Group, Inc. International) Lexington, KY - The Kentucky Spring Horse Shows came to a close Sunday with amateur rider Meagan Nusz claiming her second major victory. During the 16-horse jump-off in the $20,000 Bluegrass Classic, Nusz piloted Vesuvius to the winning clear time to lead the victory gallop during the Kentucky Spring Classic. Ramiro Quintana of Argentina was hot on her heels, qualifying three mounts for the tiebreaker and...

Carlos Munoz and Klouseau (SusanJStickle.com) Wellington, FL - Carlos Munoz (ESP) and Klouseau had a perfect end to their weekend with a first place finish in the FEI Intermediare Freestyle, presented by Peacock Ridge. Munoz and Klouseau, a twelve-year-old Trakehner gelding owned by Karen Blank, were the last pair to go in the class and scored an impressive 73.550% to leapfrog to the top of the rankings. Evi Strasser (CAN) and Rigaudon Tyme finished second with a score of 70.800%, Shelly...

Last week I gave you some wonderful numbers that show the tremendous growth we have seen in Western Dressage over the last year. Almost 200 shows and events are already scheduled for 2013… 200! All those events are the brainchildren of people who want to help develop WD in their area. Most riders start by going to audit or participate in a clinic first or by becoming familiar with different philosophies and approaches to western dressage via the FaceBook pages or investigating the...