The American Horse Council (AHC) reports that the recently passed Senate Farm Bill includes several key provisions that would benefit the horse industry. The $286 billion bill, which passed the Senate on December 14 by a vote of 79 to 14, now includes the Equine Equity Act. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered this bill as an amendment to the Farm Bill, and it was accepted without objection. This provision would: (1) shorten the capital gains holding period for horses from 24 months to 12...

The New England Dressage Association played host to Ingrid Klimke, one of Germany’s leading event and dressage riders, during NEDA’s annual Fall Weekend. As she has at previous symposiums, Klimke joined forces with Dr. Ina Goesmeier, one of the world’s leading veterinary practitioners in holistic medicine. Like her father, the late Reiner Klimke, Ingrid Klimke has achieved international success in both eventing and dressage. She shares with her father a strong belief in the importance of...

Paso Robles, CA - Gina Miles and McKinlaigh galloped away with the win in the CIC3* at Twin Rivers Horse Trials, this year's last USEA/Adequan Gold Cup series event. The pair incurred only a single time fault in show jumping, but left all the rails neatly in their cups to finish with a score of 72.7. The stunning 17-hand Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Thom Shulz and Miles performed beautifully this weekend, after having just come back from the Pan American Games in Rio, Brazil with a bronze...

Creating a solid base to any structure will ensure that further up the line the order and overall cohesiveness is maintained. Indeed, to not sound too cryptic, good foundations are a must when you want to continue building onwards and upwards. As part of the FEI Development Strategy, ensuring this very cohesiveness at the base, a workshop for FEI Tutors was held in Geneva, Switzerland, just under two months ago—with an objective of bringing the tutors together and solidifying both their...

The Wachovia Securities American Gold Cup Horse Show, September 19-23, and the Kentucky National Horse Show, September 26-30, are the latest to join the growing number of horse shows presenting live webcasts of their horse show competition. Webcasts of these two horse shows are being produced by LiveBroadcast.TV and Productions East Video and are available online at www.LiveBroadcast.TV or www.ProductionsEast.com . The Wachovia Securities American Gold Cup is a premier five-day horse show...

At the August American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) Board of Director's Meeting, locations for the 2008 Judge's School were selected in be held conjunction with Diamond Jubilee in Del Mar, CA, in April; Southern States Regional Morgan Horse Show in Raleigh, NC, in May; and North Star Morgan Americana in St. Paul, MN, in July. These three-day events combine classroom work with learner judging under a stringent itinerary in an actual horse show setting. Overseen by two to three administrators,...

In October of every year hundreds of Iberian horses and their owners gather in Ft. Worth, TX, at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center to compete for national titles in numerous disciplines. The schedule includes many classes—from carriage to English and Western, from hunt seat to Doma Vaquera and much, much more. Every year the schedule of competition is exciting, educational and beautiful to watch. There are also many unique shopping opportunities oriented toward Iberian horses that will be...

The United States Hunter Jumper Assocation (USHJA) held a judging clinic on Friday, August 3, in Wayne, IL, in conjunction with Showplace Productions during Equifest I. Diane Carney, a local trainer and clinician, acted as mediator between the crowd of more than 100 people and the judges. The clinic had three riders demonstrate both hunter and handy hunter rounds, while each spectator was given a judge's card and scored each of the rounds individually. The riders were Tina Judge, Brenda Mueller...

Late on August 2, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the funding bill for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Fiscal Year 2008 after removing the overly broad language that was opposed by the horse industry. When the USDA funding bill was reported out of the House Appropriations Committee two weeks ago, it included language that was intended to apply to slaughter horses. But the provision was so broadly drafted that it would have applied to all horses and been...

From Louise Parkes/FEI THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST.......ESPECIALLY IF MELANIE HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT....... The USA has been drawn first to go in tomorrow's sixth leg of the Samsung Super League with FEI series at Hickstead, England but Melanie Smith-Taylor, who is deputising in the absence of team manager George Morris, is not concerned. Lying last on the leaderboard the US really needs a good result in order to climb out of the relegation zone, but Melanie has every faith in her squad. "I...