Bacardi in his winning presentation with owner Caroline Moran and ringmaster Gustavo Murcia (Sportfot) Wellington, Fla. - Havens Schatt and Bacardi are already off to a good start in 2014. In the seven-year-old KWPN gelding's first show of his second green year, Bacardi and Schatt were champions of the Equine Tack & Nutritionals Second Year Green Working Hunter at FTI WEF on Thursday afternoon. Schatt piloted Bacardi to four blue ribbon rounds over fences and placed third in the under...

Shane Sweetnam and Cyklon 1083 (Sportfot) Wellington, Fla. - The 2014 FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival (FTI WEF) began its third week of competition, sponsored by Fidelity Investments®, on Wednesday, January 22, with a win for Shane Sweetnam (IRL) and Spy Coast Farm LLC's Cyklon 1083 in the $34,000 G&C Farm 1.45m FEI world ranking class. Week three continues through Sunday, January 26. The week will feature the $34,000 Ruby et Violette WEF Challenge Cup Round 3 on Thursday,...

Heather Mason and Zar (SusanJStickle.com) Wellington, Fla. - Heather Mason (USA) and Zar finished on top of the FEI Intermediaire Freestyle, presented by Everglades Dressage, with a winning score of 72.275% at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AFDF). Second place went to Leida Collins-Strijk (NED) and West Side for a score of 71.150% and Austria's Katharina Stumpf rounded out the top three with a score of 67.000% on Nymphenburg's Love. The FEI Intermediaire Freestyle was on the...

Lexington, Ky. - The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) has announced revised and new dressage tests that will come into effect January 1, 2014. The FEI has revised its Intermediate II, Grand Prix, and Grand Prix Special, which will be applied at the start of the 2014 competition season. Additionally, a Medium Tour has been announced to assist horse-and-rider combinations transition from the Small Tour to the Big Tour. The Medium Tour will utilize the newly introduced...

Auburn, Ala. - It was a match that lived up to its billing. Perennial NCEA and SEC forces Georgia and Auburn met as the No.1 and No.2 ranked teams in the country respectively. Georgia brought a 3-0 record into the Auburn Horse Center to face an Auburn team that looked a little shaky in an earlier loss to South Carolina. Though Georgia riders were awarded the Most Outstanding Player Award (MOP) in all four disciplines, the scrappy and talented Tigers jumped to an early lead, let it slip, then...

California's Akiko Yamazaki celebrated her success aboard "Matrix" in the Prix St. Georges Adult Amateur Championship on the final day of the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. (SusanJStickle.com) Lexington, Ky. - Emotions ran high as the final six champions were crowned Sunday at the inaugural US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® in Lexington, KY. Riders who traveled to the Kentucky Horse Park from coast to coast celebrated their championship experience with memorable rides and...

Kristi Nunnink and Lod Lombardi won division A of the Training Level Three-Day Event at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event (Amy McCool photo) Temecula, Calif. - Kristi Nunnink and Katie Yozamp won the two divisions of the Training Level Three-Day Event at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event. Nunnink, of Auburn, Calif., won division A on Lord Lombardi (33.6), edging Lindsay Weaver on Sintra (34.1) and Joe McKinley on Lone Tree Farm’s Street Wise (36.8). McKinley also...

Storyteller and Ashton Alexander (Shawn McMillen Photography) Washington, D.C. - The 55th annual Washington International Horse Show (WIHS) concluded competition at Verizon Center in downtown Washington D.C. on Sunday, October 27, with the presentation of championship awards in the pony hunter divisions. Storyteller, owned by Samantha Kasowitz and ridden by Barbara Ann Merryman and Ashton Alexander, earned the Grand Pony Hunter Championship. Daisy Farish was named Best Child Rider on a Pony....

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...

Dover, Delaware - The No.3 University of South Carolina continued to roll over NCEA competition on the first weekend in October. On Friday, against the University of Delaware in Dover, the Gamecocks started off strong and stayed that way. Their impressive hunt seat team jumped out to a 3-1 lead in equitation on the flat. Later they swept the over fences competiton 5-0 on the way to an 8-1 victory. The western team wasn't quite as dominant, but they left no one question which was squad was...