The 2010 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) was full of top competition during week eight, held March 3-7, 2010. The week featured the USEF Selection Trials for the U.S. Show Jumping Team for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games #3, #4, and #5, presented by Fidelity Investments, and the $75,000 FEI Nations Cup, presented by CN, along with a full schedule of hunter, jumper, and equitation classes. The week eight title sponsor was CN. The $150,000 CN U.S. Open Grand Prix, CSIO**** was...

Photo by ESI Photography (Jennifer Alfano and Fantabulous in Sunday's $10,000 Devoucoux Derby at HITS Ocala. ) HITS Ocala celebrated another action-packed week of AA-rated competition featuring the best in show jumping, as the Ocala Tournament wrapped up on Sunday, March 7. Members from the Marion County Chamber of Commerce enjoyed an outing at HITS Post Time Farm on Thursday and had the opportunity to experience first-hand the excitement and energy that makes Marion County and Ocala, FL, an...

The line-up for the final of the 2009/2010 FEI World Cup™ Dressage series, which will take place at 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, March 25-27 has been revised. The USA and Canadian Federations have confirmed that, due to health issues for either horses or riders, there will be no representatives from the North American League, so the two available slots will now be taken by reserve riders Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven from Sweden and Poland's Katarzyna Milczarek, who previously applied for any...

The Washington International Horse Show (WIHS), the leading year-end championship horse show in the country, is pleased to announce the election of Gregory W. Gingery of McLean, VA, and Wellington, FL, as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The 52nd annual Washington International Horse Show will take place October 26-31, 2010, at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Gingery, who has been on the WIHS board since 2008, previously served as WIHS president (1994-1996) and vice chairman (1995-1996)....

Photo by Robbi Meisel (Catherine Rinehart and Primera) While Hollywood may be buzzing about Oscar nominees’ skills on the big screen, the fourth week of the 2010 Gulf Coast Winter was dedicated to honoring the talent and elegance of show hunters with two big events held at the Harrison County Equestrian grounds. Friday morning began with the $10,000 Chronicle of Horse /United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) International Hunter Derby presented by Dietrich Insurance. It all started with...

At the American Saddlebred Horse Association's (ASHA) 2010 Annual Convention and Youth Conference, two Saddlebred Youth Clubs shared the honor of being named ASHA's Youth Club of the Year. Each year before the ASHA Convention and Youth Conference, Saddlebred Youth Clubs submit yearbooks created by members, which show their activities throughout the previous year in the categories of history, membership, fund raising, meetings and programs, promotions, and community service. An award is given...

Mario Desluariers and Urico (Randi Muster/Mustphoto.com ) Dressage The prestigious Palm Beach Dressage Derby got underway on Thursday, March 4th with some of the nation’s top riders competing in Loxahatchee, FL. Tina Konyot and her Danish Warmblood Calecto V triumphed over the field of elite horse and rider combinations in both the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special. In the Grand Prix Freestyle Mikala Gundersen and Leonberg put in a winning performance with a score of 72.250%; Canadian...

Nicole Shahinian Simpson and Tristan (Randi Muster/Mustphoto.com) Wellington, FL – Twenty-two horses remained in the USEF Selection Trials for the US Show Jumping Team for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and they contested their fifth and final Trial as part of the $150,000 CN US Open at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival. A total of 55 horses tackled Guilherme Jorge’s course in the second feature event of CSIO Wellington week and the competition proved fierce. A difficult related...

Wellington, FL – The pace at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center continued to be rapid as the $75,000 FEI Nations Cup presented by CN got underway before sell-out crowds. The jumping was international with 11 countries fielding teams – the atmosphere was infectious and anyone that wasn’t feeling patriotic must have been watching something else. Of the 11 teams, seven came back for the second round of the eight that qualified and it appeared that it was going to be a fierce battle...

Randi Muster/Mustphoto, Inc. (Richard Spooner and Cristallo) Wellington, FL – The test of endurance which serves as the USEF Selection Trials for the US Show Jumping Team for the Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games continued with the fourth round of jumping in the International Arena at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. Twenty-six American horses jumped in the penultimate Trial and clear rounds continued to prove very valuable. There were four clear rounds and three that added...