Lexington, KY – U.S. show jumper Hillary Dobbs went to Falsterbo Horse Show in Sweden to jump in Europe for the first time. The 20-year-old Harvard University student may have been looking for some experience. She also found a big win. Riding Corlett, she was one of two US riders to jump in the Swedbank Derby. It was her first attempt at a Derby class in her first European show, but no one would have ever guessed. “She was just brilliant,” said Chef d'Equipe Melanie Smith Taylor. “She was the...

Diamante Farms of Wellington, FL, is pleased to announce that Michelle Gibson will compete Don Angelo, the farm's eight-year-old Oldenburg stallion, at the 2008 USEF National Intermediaire I Championship during the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Festival of Champions. The event will be held in San Juan Capistrano, CA, on June 21-22 and June 27-29, with the Intermediaire I championship scheduled for the second weekend. Gibson, a 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Team Bronze medalist, is head trainer at...

Equestrian Sport Productions, LLC, announced Wednesday a preliminary plan for a new round of major improvements at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) to be completed by the "Celebration of the Horse" event in early December and well before the start of the 2009 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). The improvements are the initial next stage in the top-to-bottom rebuilding of the PBIEC that began last December when Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP) took over management of the...

The Swedish team will be coming out with all guns blazing for the final of the 2007 Samsung Super League with FEI series, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain, next Sunday. An unfortunate afternoon at the second-last leg in Dublin last month saw them bringing up the rear, and they go into Sunday's decider at the bottom of the series leaderboard knowing that nothing short of a strong performance can save them from relegation. Ironically it seems that the Irish, who lost out in a valiant battle...

At exactly 8:08 p.m. on August 8, the official one-year-to-go countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games was launched. Eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. In general, eight is an auspicious number for Buddhists. In front of 10,000 people gathered on Tianan’men Square, with the Forbidden City as a backdrop, a sumptuous ceremony took place where Chinese culture and traditions were clearly on show. The International Olympic Committee President handed out the official invitations to the...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – And then there were five. The gold medal eventing and dressage teams shipped out early Monday morning, leaving the five show jumpers alone in the U.S. wing of the stables at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With 17 countries represented, the most of the three disciplines, the show jumping will be very competitive. Florida’s Lauren Hough and Casadora are riding the crest of a very successful wave, having just won the valuable CN Reliability Grand Prix at...

Further tickets are on sale for the FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, for 2006. Tickets are even available for the extremely popular dressage and show-jumping finals. Up-to-date information can be obtained at www.aachen2006.de and tickets can be ordered from the hotline +49-(0)241-917-1111. "The web details are updated several times a day, so all of the information there really is completely up-to-date," explained Michael Mronz, member and spokesman of the Organizing Committee for...

Sally Ike has been named Managing Director of Show Jumping Sport Programs for the USEF. She will continue to be based at the Gladstone, NJ, office and will report directly to Jim Wolf, Executive Director of Sport Programs. In addition to being an experienced international competitor, Ike has 17 years of experience as a discipline director and Chef de Mission with the international teams programs. She competed for the U.S Equestrian Teams in three-day eventing, and was a member of the 1968...

With the only clean round in the jump-off, Molly Talla won the $50,000 World Cup Grand Prix, presented by Antares Saddlery, on Camaron Hills Shanroe, owned by Camaron Hills Farm of Temecula, CA, at the Second Annual Palms Classic Horse Show CSI-W to Benefit Casa de Amparo. Course designer Guillherme Jorge of Brazil created a variety of challenges for the five-day show held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, but his CSI-W course proved a challenge indeed to 25 horses in the grand prix. With 13 fences...

There was only one clean round, and it was ridden by Richard Spooner on Quirino in the $50,000 HBO World Cup Grand Prix of Del Mar presented by Mary’s Tack and Feed, a World Cup qualifying event. Spooner rode three horses in the grand prix, but it was his outstanding clear round on Quirino, owned by Oscany, Inc., of Los Angeles, which won, and also gave Spooner valuable points towards a spot representing the United States in the World Cup Finals to be held in Malaysia in 2006. Mariano Alario on...