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...

Western horses jog. English horses trot. Dressage horses trot. Everyone knows that. What does that mean for the western dressage horse? The western jog was a gait that could be ridden for long distances over the range or on the trail that horses could sustain without exhaustion and which could be sat comfortably. The trot is a gait that covers more ground at a reasonable tempo. To deal with the dynamics of the gait and to unload the horses back, some riders learned to post. Western riders bred...

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...

Todd Minikus and Uraguay (The Book, LLC) North Salem, NY – Todd Minikus and Legacy Stables' Uraguay won the highlight event of the first week of the Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Shows, the $50,000 Old Salem Farm Grand Prix presented by Suncast. They were fastest in the jump-off to beat Darragh Kerins (IRL) on E-Muze Yek and Christine McCrea (USA) with Romantovich Take One. Along with top show jumping, there were Grand Hunter Champions awarded, as well as Classics for the Medium 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...

Tim Gredley and Unex Valente jump 7'6" (Sportfot) Wellington, FL - The $10,000 Puissance high jump competition was held on Friday evening at The Stadium at PBIEC prior to the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle presented by Horseware Ireland for the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Great Britain's Tim Gredley and Unex Valente and Germany's Johannes Ehning and Salvador V went head to head over the wall in four rounds of competition with Gredley winning at a final height of 6'11" (2.10m). The...

I have been promising to update readers on current trends in the Western Dressage world. One way of keeping track of what WD is doing, where it is going and who is doing it is to track events. NAWD, CD and WDAA all maintain calendars of clinics and shows around the country. By analyzing those calendars we have a simple method of tracking what is happening. The information is limited by the fact that show and clinic organizers must report their event to the organization for inclusion on these...

Beezie Madden and Simon (Sportfot) Wellington, FL - The powerhouse U.S. show jumping team of Kent Farrington, Reed Kessler, Laura Kraut, and Beezie Madden earned victory in Friday night's $75,000 Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ presented by G&C Farm, at the 2013 FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, FL. Teams representing seven different countries participated in the evening's competition with a win for Team USA over Canada in second and Germany in third. Week...

Lisa Wilcox and Pikko del Cerro HU. (SusanJStickle.com) Wellington, FL - The 2013 Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) carried on Saturday with the third day of competition of the Wellington Dressage CDI-W presented by The Dutta Corp. The morning's classes featured the FEI Grand Prix Special and the FEI Intermediare 1. Judges for the FEI Grand Prix Special were Janet Foy (USA) at E, Lorraine MacDonald (CAN) at H, Sandy Phillips (GBR) at C, Wojek Markowski (POL) at M, and Jennie Loriston...

Today’s post comes from Sin City, Las Vegas Nevada. Since I am here in the region of Southwest Western Dressage, I decided to write the blog as an interview with someone from the Las Vegas equestrian community who was doing Western Dressage. So I opened up the phone book to call a local barn. Every barn number but one was disconnected or no longer in service. The one that was working was a casino! So I called a feed store, thinking that at the feed store would be someone who knew someone...