After a brief bone-chilling downpour early this morning at the Event at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell, Montana, the competition heated up on the first day of competition for the CIC3*, CCI2*, CIC2*, Advanced, Intermediate, a few Preliminary divisions, and the Training Three-Day. The chilly temperatures today made for some fresh horses, many of whom have been training in sweltering temperatures at their homes during the weeks prior to the competition. Many of the horses were a bit exuberant with the...

FRENCH STAYS OUT IN FRONT AFTER CROSS-COUNTRY by Louise Parkes Great Britain's Piggy French and DHI Topper maintained the lead they established in the dressage arena yesterday with a superb cross-country run at the Greenwich Park Eventing Invitational (CIC**) in London (GBR) today. They go into tomorrow's final jumping phase with more than a fence in hand over Sweden's Sara Algotsson Ostholt and Mrs Medicott, one of just five horse-and-rider partnerships to complete the 19-fence...

Lexington, KY - For the first time in the history of the Western saddle sport of reining, a collection of the world’s best reining athletes slid into the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, to contest the inaugural five-star reining competition known as the CRI5* - the Ariat Kentucky Reining Cup. When the dirt in the arena settled, it was Shawn Flarida and KR Lil Conquistador who laid down a spectacular pattern to take the title on a score of 226.5 in this the...

Badminton, UK - A trio of British girls head the leaderboard after the Dressage phase at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials (GBR), the first leg of the HSBC FEI Classics™ 2011. Ruth Edge (GBR), in pole position with the excellent score of 33.3 penalties on the 17-year-old Two Thyme, winner at Luhmühlen in 2007, is no stranger to the limelight in this phase – indeed, she regularly wins national titles in this discipline. “There’s always a lot of pressure on...

Lexington, KY - Week Two of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games is in the books and it has been one for the ages. It was an extremely busy week for competitors and spectators alike as six of the eight disciplines represented held competitions during the second week of the Games, with most days seeing at least two competitions going on at once. DRESSAGE Grand Prix Freestyle Simply put, it was the greatest night of dressage action in the history of the sport on American soil. For the...

Individual show jumping medalists Joelle Froese, Jennifer Waxman and Lucy Davis (Sportfot.com) Lexington, KY—The audience was in for a treat as both Junior and Young Riders laid it all on the line and put on a show during the CN North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by USHJA. In the juniors, it took two separate jump-offs to decide the winners of the Individual show jumping medals and all four horses and riders jumped their hearts out in an attempt to reign...

Las Vegas, NV – After defending Rolex FEI World Cup Champion Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum broke the timing beam at 32.04 seconds with Shutterfly at the 2009 Rolex FEI World Cup Final, the question remained: how do you beat this horse? US superstar McLain Ward tried with Sapphire, the pair looked phenomenal. Foot perfect, lightning fast and with some seriously bold moves, Ward went with two remaining in the 13 horse jump-off and there was reasonable consensus that Sapphire’s effort...

Elkton, MD – The weather blew through the Mid-Atlantic region on Friday night and cross country/ marathon day at the USEF National Championships at the Dansko Fair Hill International boasted perfect conditions and terrain. Phillip Dutton, the overnight leader in the CCI*** Championships had to wait until the very end of the day to maintain his lead with Ann Jones’ The Foreman and put on a cross country clinic with the 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding. The Foreman, who won the event...

Diana DeRosa (Mara Dean and Nicki Henley lead heading into cross-country in Rio de Janeiro.) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – The American event riders got off to a fantastic start on July 20 at the XV Pan American Games taking the lead in the team portion of the competition and sweeping the top five places individually. American combination Mara Dean riding Nicki Henley went to the head of a quality field of 27 horse-and-rider combinations riding before the ground jury of Barry Roycroft, Jo...

June 15th, the second day of the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of Champions, got underway with the Brentina Cup. Organized for young adults and named for Debbie McDonald's World Cup Champion mare, the Brentina Cup is open to Steffen Peters (phelpsphoto.com) riders 21-25 years of age. Performing the Intermediaire II test, the horses in the Brentina Cup are developing their skills for the highest level of dressage competition. The second horse of the day filled up the ring with...