All posts by Associate Editor

*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Events, Hunter/Equitation, Show Jumping, USEF

Kelley Farmer and Taken Win $20,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at Holiday and Horses

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Kelley Farmer and Taken won the $20,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby. Photo © ManciniPhotos

Wellington, FL – December 4, 2011 – The 2011 edition of Equestrian Sport Productions’ Holiday and Horses show concluded today with the $20,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby as the highlight class in the International Arena. Kelley Farmer of Keswick, VA, rode Nancy Amling’s Taken to the win.

There were 18 entries in the derby, and the top 12 returned for a second handy round. Farmer and Taken held the lead through the first round, which they set by scoring a 180. They returned as last to go in the handy round and with handy bonus points of 8 and 9, they bettered their score with a 188. Their total of 368 gave them the win by three points.

Second place went to Kristy McCormack and Sundance, who received scores of 175 and 189.5 from the judges – they had a spectacular handy round – for a total of 365. Elizabeth Kenny and Bravo van de Kwaakelhoek finished on a total of 363 for third place, while Farmer placed fourth with AM Free’s Bases Loaded at 350 points. Generous and David Olinyk also had 350 points for fifth place.

Continue reading Kelley Farmer and Taken Win $20,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at Holiday and Horses →

Awards, Breeds, Competitions, Events, USEF

Sascha Mills Wins 2011 USEF Youth Sportsman’s Award

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Sascha Mills. Photo: Laurie Revard

Lexington, KY – The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) is pleased to announce Sascha Mills as the winner of the 2011 USEF Youth Sportsman’s Award. Mills was selected from an outstanding group of youth representing their respective recognized breed and discipline affiliates from across the country. An avid Morgan competitor from Goldsby, OK, she was nominated by the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA).

“Winning this award is such an honor,” the 17-year-old college freshman said. “I honestly was just thrilled that I was chosen to represent the Morgan breed.”

Mills has shown an unwavering commitment to her sport. She started taking riding lessons in 2005 which quickly evolved into a passion.  Her Christmas gift that same year: a Morgan horse. Since then, Mills has gone on to win three World Championships – in 2007, 2008, and 2009 – and is a World Gold Medalist. She has helped organize and fundraise for riding clinics to benefit junior exhibitors in her region, and was awarded the Shirley Givens Morgan youth sportsmanship award. Mills started the “T-Town Trotters” Morgan youth club, which promotes the Morgan breed and participates in fundraisers for the Justin Time for a Cure program at the Oklahoma University Cancer Institute. In 2007, Mills became a regional representative for the AMHA Morgan Youth Council and then went on to become a regional director for three years. This year, she was voted national vice president.

Continue reading Sascha Mills Wins 2011 USEF Youth Sportsman’s Award →

*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Events, FEI, FEI, Hunter/Equitation, Show Jumping

Margie Engle and Indigo Grab Victory in FEI World Cup Grand Prix, CSI 2* at Holiday and Horses

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Indigo and Margie Engle. Photos © ManciniPhotos

Wellington, FL – December 3, 2011 – The $50,000 FEI World Cup Grand Prix was the highlight class of the week at the Holiday and Horses Show, hosted by Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP) at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, FL. Margie Engle of Wellington, FL, and Indigo were able to secure the victory in the FEI World Cup qualifier, and Engle also finished second with Lord Spezi. The show concludes on Sunday, December 4.

Anthony D’Ambrosio of Red Hook, NY, set the course for 42 entries and six were able to find the path to a clear round. “I thought it was a good course,” Engle said. “The oxer to oxer one stride you don’t see very often. You need to have that for World Cup courses. It’s a real scope test and you need a legitimate horse to do it. There were a lot of rails in different places. If you’re going to do World Cup Finals, you need that. He tested everything; he tested carefulness, he tested scope, the verticals were quite tall. I thought he did a great job.”

Continue reading Margie Engle and Indigo Grab Victory in FEI World Cup Grand Prix, CSI 2* at Holiday and Horses →

*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Driving, Events, FEI, FEI

Excellent Exell to the Fore Again in Budapest

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Boyd Exell (AUS), winner of the fourth FEI World Cup Driving 2011/2012 qualifier held in Budapest (HUN) this weekend. ©Rinaldo de Craen/FEI

Budapest (HUN), 4 December 2011 – Just a week after his first FEI World Cup victory of the season in Stockholm, Boyd Exell (AUS) repeated that winning performance by scoring at the fourth leg of the FEI World Cup Driving 2011/2012 in Budapest, Hungary today. Exell stayed ahead of home driver and favorite Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN) and Stuttgart-winner Koos de Ronde (NED).

Change of horse
It was by no means a certainty that Exell would win again, however. One of his experienced leader horses, the 17-year-old gelding Spitfire, did not pass the first horse inspection due to a minor injury in his foot and Exell was forced to put his spare wheeler horse Clinton Star in the lead of his four-in-hand. Exell put Clinton Star to the test in the warm-up competition and the prizegiving ceremony on the first day, when he finished second behind Koos de Ronde. Exell’s gamble paid off and Clinton Star got even faster in today’s FEI World Cup Driving competition and contributed to the Australian’s second victory of the season. Following wins in 2008 and 2009, this was Exell’s third win in Budapest. Local hero Jozsef Dobrovitz, from the nearby village of Vecsés, was cheered on by his enthusiastic home crowd in the Laszlo Papp Arena and drove his team of Lipizzaner horses to a well-deserved second place.

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*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Dressage, Events, FEI, FEI, USEF

Leibler and Watson 108 Prepare for the FEI Young Rider World Cup Dressage Final in Germany

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Isabelle Leibler and Watson 108 National Young Rider Dressage Championships (SusanJStickle.com)

Lexington, KY – Isabelle Leibler and her own Watson 108 have arrived safely in Germany and have begun diligently preparing to represent the US at the FEI Young Rider World Cup Dressage Final. Leibler (Greenwich, CT) and the 14-year-old Westphalian gelding arrived early this week in Kronberg im Taunus. They will be based at Schafhof, the renowned training and breeding center of Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, Klaus Martin Rath, and Matthias Rath, prior to heading to Frankfurt for the competition.

Leibler and Watson 108 were invited to represent the US at the 2011 Finals after posting the highest average in the FEI Young Rider Freestyle Test at CDI-Ys during the qualifying period. This pair landed in Germany after a strong 2011 campaign that included winning a team Bronze medal and two Gold medals, individual and freestyle, at the Adequan/FEI North American Junior and Young Riders Championships presented by Gotham North. Additionally, they were crowned National Young Rider Dressage Champions at the 2011 Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Festival of Championships.

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Competitions, Events, Hunter/Equitation, Show Jumping

Shane Sweetnam and Little Emir Win $31,000 G&C Farm 1.45m FEI Class at Holiday and Horses

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Shane Sweetnam and Little Emir won the $31,000 G&C Farm 1.45m FEI ranking class. Photo © ManciniPhotos

Wellington, FL – December 2, 2011 – Irish rider Shane Sweetnam and Spy Coast Farm LLC’s Little Emir galloped to victory in the $31,000 G&C Farm 1.45m FEI ranking class on Friday at Equestrian Sport Production’s Holiday and Horses event. The pair stopped the clock in 42.90 seconds to edge out Katie Dinan and Grant Road Partner’s Nougat Du Vallet, who were the only other combination to make it to the jump-off. Dinan and Nougat Du Vallet finished second with their time of 45.10 seconds.

Anthony D’Ambrosio set a challenging course for the 33 entries in today’s class and just the two riders were able to jump clear. An oxer to vertical double-liverpool combination caused problems for many, and a tight time allowed caught several others. Sweetnam and Dinan finished first and second, followed by three riders with time faults.

Emilie Martinsen of Denmark finished the course with one time fault in 84.76 seconds to place third on Carisma. Margie Engle and Pauly Du Breuil, owned by the Garbers, Engles and Lea Allen, had one time fault in 84.93 seconds to finish fourth. Jessica Springsteen and Stone Hill Farm’s Vornado Van Den Hoendrik had three time faults in 86.22 seconds to place fifth. Columbia’s Daniel Bluman and Fatalis Fatum had the fastest four fault round in 77.50 seconds to take home sixth place honors.

Continue reading Shane Sweetnam and Little Emir Win $31,000 G&C Farm 1.45m FEI Class at Holiday and Horses →

*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Dressage, Events, FEI, Olympic Games, Para-Equestrian

Record Breaking Ticket Sales for Paralympic Equestrian at London 2012

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Team USA ( Left to Right) Jonathan Wentz, Mary Jordan, Rebecca Hart, and Wendy Fryke at 2011 NEDA Fall Festival of Dressage CPEDI3*. Photo © 2011 Lindsay Y McCall

Lausanne (SUI), 2 December 2011 – Sales of Paralympic Equestrian tickets for the London 2012 Paralympic Games have broken records, with more than 40,000 tickets already sold. And there is a further opportunity for spectator numbers to increase with remaining tickets going on sale on 2 December.

The number of tickets sold to date for the 11 Paralympic Equestrian events taking place in Greenwich Park next year (30 August – 4 September) has already overtaken the previous record of 33,000 spectators that watched the Beijing 2008 Paralympic equestrian events in Hong Kong.

In total over one million tickets have already been purchased for the 20 sports at the London 2012 Paralympic Games since they went on sale this year.

“We have six days of Paralympic Equestrian competition in Greenwich Park, in a country where Para-Equestrian Dressage was pretty much born,” said Tim Hadaway, Equestrian Competition Manager at Greenwich Park, venue for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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Show Jumping, USEF

USEF Receives Six Applications for the Show Jumping Chef d’Equipe/Technical Advisor Position

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Lexington, KY – On November 30, 2011, the application period closed for the position of USEF Show Jumping Chef d’Equipe/Technical Advisor. The USEF Search Committee received six applications for this position which will become available in 2013. The Search Committee will review the applications, conduct interviews and rate the applicants. Upon completion of this phase of the process, the Search Committee will forward their ratings to Show Jumping Eligible Athlete Committee (SJEAC) and the Show Jumping High Performance Committee (SJHPC) for their consideration. The anonymity of the applicants will be maintained by the USEF throughout this process.

More information will become available, please check the USEF website for updates. For more information, please contact Lizzy Chesson at lchesson@usef.org.

Breeds, Competitions, Events, USEF

Coaches Named for the 2012 US Saddle Seat World Cup Team

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Lexington, KY – Accomplished trainers from the Saddlebred, Morgan and Arabian breeds have been selected as coaches for the 2012 U.S. Saddle Seat World Cup Team. The event will take place in Parys, South Africa, in December of 2012.

The 2012 USA Saddle Seat Team Coaches are Cindy Mugnier, Sandra Currier, Kristen Cater, and Brent Jacobs.

Cindy Mugnier owns and operates a training stable at Fox Meadow Farm in Massachusetts; she also is a USEF judge and current committee member of USEF Morgan, Saddle Seat Equitation and Saddle Seat Equitation World Cup Committees. Mugnier has served on previous World Cup selection committees and has trained many state, regional, national, and world championship riders. Mugnier is the recipient of the 2007 AMHA Cecil Brown Sportsmanship Award, Massachusetts Morgan Horse Association Woman of the Year, UPHA Chapter 14 Horseperson of the Year, and UPHA Chapter 14 Hall of Fame.

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*Featured/Spotlights, Competitions, Dressage, Events, Para-Equestrian

United States Para-Equestrians Take to the Air for 2011 Melbourne CPEDI3* in Australia

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Mary Jordan and Sebastian. Photos ©2 011 Lindsay Y McCall

Thousand Oaks, CA – December 1, 2011 – With a Team Gold under their belt earned at the 2011 CPEDI3* in Mexico City, the United States Para-Equestrian Team takes to the air headed to beautiful Melbourne, Australia. The 2011 CPEDI3* in Werribee, Victoria, Australia begins Thursday, December 8th with a horse inspection, followed by the Team Test on Friday, Individual Test on Saturday, and finally the Freestyle competition on Sunday, December 11, 2011. This international competition will be held in conjunction with the Saddle World Dressage Festival held at the Werribee Park National Equestrian Center located southwest of Melbourne, Australia. The United States Para-Equestrian Team consists of Donna Ponessa from New Windsor, NY for Grade Ia, Rebecca Hart of Unionville, PA for Grade II, Erin Alberda of Woodinville, WA for Grade III, and Mary Jordan from Wells, ME representing Grade IV. Each rider will compete throughout the weekend against Para-Equestrian team members from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. This competition is one more stride on the road to the 2012 Paralympics held in London, England.

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