Lexington, KY – Sarah Taylor of Davison, Michigan claimed the Championship title at the 2005 USEF Saddle Seat Adult Amateur Medal Finals July 15, riding Undulata’s Time To Shine. This year marked the fifth anniversary of the prestigious Medal Finals and once again, competitors enjoyed the scenic backdrop of the Red Mile in Lexington, home to the Lexington Junior League Horse Show. “I was really excited,” shares Taylor. “It was a really good experience. This is the...

Patty Stovel rode Shandor 41, a 10-year-old Hanoverian gelding, to the win in Sunday's $50,000 HITS Grand Prix at HITS Culpeper Showday National. Jerry Dougherty of Geneva, IL, set a challenging first-round course that saw four horses advance to the jump-off. Stovel was the fastest of three double-clears with 40.69 seconds on the clock. Second place went to Megan Moran riding Quarnak De Longprec. Eliza Ferguson Shuford rode Larentino to third place. Beth Underhill finished in fourth place with...

Horse Shows In The Sun (HITS) is pleased to announce that the 2005 Show Circuit Magazine /USEF National Junior Hunter Championship-East Coast will be held August 1-2 at HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties, NY. The championship will take place in the HITS-on-the-Hudson Grand Prix arena. Junior riders will have the unique opportunity to compete in this world-class grand prix ring, while family and friends enjoy seating in the VIP Pavilion that sits high on a berm overlooking the arena. Now entering...

For the second time, Daniel Straumann and his team organized the World Reining Trophy (WRT) at the HorseAcademy facility in Mooslargue, France. There was a total purse of more than $100,000. Shawn Flarida called the show "one of the best reining events of the world"–-and this was before his success in the Open. Judges were Bob Mayhew, of Great Britain; Sylvia Katschker, of Austria, and Jörg Bös, of Germany. Altogether 157 horses had been nominated--many of them from France. And it turned out to...

The Paso Fino Foundation Youth Scholarship Committee announced that it has awarded $15,000 in scholarships to five deserving young members. The committee, which began working to fund the program in July 2004, has raised more than $60,000 to date. Scholarship applicants were judged on academic achievement, association activities, community service and financial need. In addition, each applicant was required to write an essay and submit letters of recommendation from teachers or community leaders....

Lexington, KY – The USEF has announced the team members and ponies which will be competing at the 2005 FEI World Combined Pony Driving Championships in Catton Park, England this week. The competition begins on Wednesday, July 13th, with the official inspection of ponies, followed by two days of dressage, the Marathon on Saturday, and Obstacle Driving on Sunday. United States Team Members are as follows: Sara Schmitt of Glen Gardner, NJ, with High Country Doc (1996 Morgan stallion, owned...

The 2005 National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Breeders Derby should be remembered for a long time, and not only because of the huge numbers of horses and riders. One of the two major NRHA Germany events, the Breeders Derby counted 132 horses in the Breeders Derby classes alone. Last year, there were 84 entries. Altogether, there were more than 900 starts compared to last year's 680. Reining obviously is growing more and more attractive. And it seems as if very slowly, even TV gets...

This year, the Friesian Horse Association of North America (FHANA) is changing the process of choosing inspection circuits. In previous years, the circuits were not established until early July, after the membership's requests for inspection service had been placed. This year, FHANA has established the sites based on the pattern of usage in previous years. The list below contains the planned inspection sites for 2005. The dates shown below are fixed but, in some cases, the exact inspection site...

(Lexington, KY) -- The United States Equestrian Federation announced today that it is implementing an organizational realignment that divides the Federation's activities into two primary areas - sport programs and business administration/governance. The organizational realignment of sports programs will better integrate staff assignments for both national and high performance programs. The management of the International Department in the Lexington, Kentucky office will be eliminated,...

Horse breeders should be aware of a new tax advantage that begins in 2005 and increases over the next five years until fully implemented in 2010. The deduction can shelter up to 3% of 2005 profit from the sale of horses that a breeder has bred and sold. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, passed by Congress at the end of 2004, provided a new tax benefit which lowers the tax on income from U.S. production. Specifically, it applies to income from the sale of property that was "manufactured,...