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

Demi Stiegler Champion of the Platinum Performance/USEF Talent Search Final – West

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Demi Stiegler. Photo by Flying Horse Photography

Lexington, KY – On Saturday afternoon at the L.A. International Jumping Festival (Sep 21-25), a crowd gathered on LAEC’s grass Cricket Field to watch the Show Jumping phase of the demanding and prestigious Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals West. When all was said and done, Demi Stiegler (Robin Stiegler and Archie Cox, trainers) led the victory gallop as champion of the 41-entry field.

“It was amazing!” Stiegler said of her win. “I was sixth coming into Phase III, and I knew from the Flat and Gymnastics Phases I just had to stay consistent. I tried to just concentrate on what would work best for my horse and myself and not worry about the pressure, and it paid off.” This was Stiegler’s second Talent Search Final, having competed in it in 2009.

The course for Phase III was fairly straightforward, with long distances between jumps to give riders a chance to think through each element – although they had to be careful not to let their horses get too fast or strung out with all that space. The two trickiest spots were the eighth jump, a skinny vertical after a sharp bending line, and the last line that started with a water jump followed by a bending line to a short one-stride combination. Stiegler sailed gracefully through the course, earning a score of 89. Scores in the multiplier for this phase was “2”, and added to the two earlier phases, and Stiegler’s overall score of 389.5 moved her from sixth into third place going into the final phase.

Sage Flynn (Hap Hansen, trainer) executed the Phase III course beautifully and earned the top score for the round of 92, which kept her in second place with 401 overall. Zoie Nagelhout (Archie Cox, trainer) went into Phase III in the lead, and her smooth and capable trip earned her a score of 88.5 and just kept her in the lead with 402. Taylor Harris (Elvenstar, trainer) joined them in the work off with a combined score of 380.5.

Continue reading Demi Stiegler Champion of the Platinum Performance/USEF Talent Search Final – West →

Championships, Competitions, Dressage, Driving, Events, FEI, USEF

Team and Individual Bronze for Pony Team USA at the FEI Pony World Driving Championships

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The U.S. Pony Drivers defended their third-place marathon finish – driving a confident cones phase to secure a Team Bronze medal at the 2011 FEI Pony World Driving Championships in Lipica, Slovenia. Their three-phase total of 402.3 guaranteed Bronze behind driving powerhouse nations, Germany, who won on 359.4, and The Netherlands on 375.4. Additionally, Suzy Stafford – driving as an Individual for Team USA – drove an impeccable cones phase to move from fourth to third and secured her second consecutive Individual Bronze medal.

Single Pony Championship

Finishing just two places behind Stafford (Wilmington, DE) and Josephine, Randy Cadwell (Southern Pines, NC) drove Kabam to sixth in the division, adding just 1.88 penalties in the final phase. Shelly Temple (Windsor, SC) finished just outside the top 10 with LR Ami B-Line, ending up 11th on 130.97.

Pair Pony Championship

Jennifer Matheson (Aiken, SC) drove determinedly all weekend, and finished 10th to lead the U.S. effort in the Pairs division. Wendy O’Brien (Aiken, SC) put in a valiant effort in her first Team appearance, finishing 22nd overall.

“I thought it was great,” said Matheson. “We all worked really really hard. Some of us had personal bests, I was in that category. Wendy and Lisa had outstanding weekends, everyone worked hard. The team worked well together which was really nice and everyone helped everyone out. We worked really hard, at the beginning of the year we thought we had a chance for bronze, we knew that the Germans and the Dutch were really, really strong but we worked really really hard and we succeeded.”

Continue reading Team and Individual Bronze for Pony Team USA at the FEI Pony World Driving Championships →

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

Three New World Champions in Pony Driving

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18-year-old Bram Chardon (NED) won the four-in-hand category at the FEI World Driving Championships for Combined Ponies 2011. Photo © Rinaldo de Craen.

Lipica (SLO), 21-25 September 2011 – Three new world champions were crowned at the end of four wonderful days of competition at the FEI World Driving Championships for Combined Ponies in Lipica, Slovenia. Bram Chardon from The Netherlands won gold in the four-in-hand pony class, Dieter Baackmann from Germany was declared world champion in the pony pairs class and Kristina Klindt from Denmark is the new world champion in the pony singles class. Germany was untouchable from the very beginning and took the team gold.

New generation
Young drivers took the medals this weekend just as was the case a month ago at the FEI World Pairs Driving Championships in Conty (FRA). A new generation of drivers has successfully entered combined pony Driving at the highest level. With 18-year-old Bram Chardon and 23-year-old Kristina Klindt winning the gold medals and many other young drivers taking the top placings, the future of pony Driving is looking bright indeed.

Four-in-hands
Bram Chardon (NED) is following in his father’s footsteps. This was the championship debut for the son of four-time world four-in-hand champion IJsbrand Chardon. It did not come easy for Bram though. After placing fifth in Dressage, he won the marathon by driving his team of grey Welsh ponies fast and smooth through the eight spectacular marathon obstacles. Bram took over the lead from Germany’s defending world champion Tobias Bücker who had won the Dressage. Bram had one ball in hand going into the final obstacle driving competition but proved to be a true champion and drove a magnificent double clear round, securing his first ever gold medal. Bram’s fellow team member and 2007 world champion Jan de Boer won individual silver and the 2009 world pony pair champion Daniel Schneiders (GER) made an excellent debut in the four-in-hand category by winning the bronze.

Continue reading Three New World Champions in Pony Driving →

Contributors/Press, Diana de Rosa

Tip of the Week – Protection from Imported Fire Ants

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Fire ants first entered the United States about 1918, near Mobile, Alabama. They then reached Mississippi around 1930. Today fire ants have inhabited much of the Southeast. Importation included two species. Red imported fire ants are the most common, but some areas have black imported fire ants.

Fire ants nest in the soil within large colonies containing tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. A fire ant queen lays a few eggs that eventually become workers. These first workers then help care for their younger sisters and the colony begins to grow. Fire ants vary in size, but all are capable of stinging. Once they attack, they spread by swarming and are very aggressive.  Here’s how to protect your horse if they live in your area.

Pouring boiling water into the mound will kill a lot of ants quickly, but often misses the queen and fails to kill ants that are out foraging. There is research that indicates application of hydramethylnon directly to the mound is a better choice. Elimination of the colony may take up to a week. Diatomaceous Earth (DE) has achieved acceptable levels of fire ant control, although results are inconsistent. The key is to kill the queen; killing thousands of workers only stimulates the queen to lay more eggs.

This tip was brought to you by Kendra Helfter (www.abcplus.biz) and KAM Animal Services, home of KAM’s “Equine Learning Circle” FREE webinars, which take place monthly.  These webinars are an expansion of KAM’s weekly tips.  Go to www.kamanimalservices.com to sign up for the next webinar.

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

Sweden Wins FEI Promotional League Final in Barcelona Cliff-Hanger

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(L to R) Rolf-Goran Bengtsson, Svante Johansson, Angelica Augustsson, Malin Baryard-Johnsson and Chef d'Equipe Sylve Soderstrand. Photo: FEI/Nacho Olano.

FEI TV – enjoy LIVE programming, highlights, interviews and archive footage at www.feitv.org.

Barcelona (ESP), 25 September 2011 – The Swedish team came out the winners at the Promotional League Final in Barcelona, Spain this afternoon and will now rejoin the elite eight-nation FEI Nations Cup series in 2012.  But, on a roller-coaster afternoon, it took a monumental effort from last-line Swedish rider Rolf-Goran Bengtsson to seal the coveted qualifying spot.

Despite the fact that three of the opposing sides were reduced to just three team-members, and were therefore unable to discount one performance, the four-strong Swedish team relied heavily on the man who, just seven days ago, claimed the Individual gold medal at the FEI European Jumping Championships in Madrid.

The host nation of Spain finished second, with just a single-fault advantage over The Ukraine in third, while the Canadians lined up fourth ahead of the Italians who looked threatening to the very end but who had to settle for fifth in the final analysis.  The last two places in the seven-nation line-up were filled by Poland and Russia, each hampered when fielding just three riders, but showing flashes of form that would suggest their time will come in future years.

For the Swedes, today’s result was an enormous relief.  Last Sunday, Bengtsson pointed out during the final press conference in Madrid that, despite his personal triumph and the Olympic qualification earned through the fifth-place finish in the FEI European Team Championship, there was still another big job to be done this weekend in Barcelona.  So for the 49 year old newly-crowned European champion and reigning Olympic silver medallist it was a case of “mission accomplished” as, ably supported by Malin Baryard-Johnsson, Angelica Augustsson and Svante Johansson, he helped restore his country to its rightful place in the premiership of team Jumping.  “I’m very happy,” he said with his usual degree of understatement this evening.

Continue reading Sweden Wins FEI Promotional League Final in Barcelona Cliff-Hanger →

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

Day Three: FEI World Pony Driving Championships – U.S. Maintains Bronze Medal Position

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Shelly Temple and LR Ami B-Line (Photos: Marie de Ronde)

The U.S. Pony Drivers had another successful day in Lipica, Slovenia at the 2011 FEI World Pony Driving Championships. As a team they forged through difficult marathon conditions to lie third in the standings heading into Sunday’s finale. Germany leads comfortably with a combined score of 345.01, with The Netherlands sitting the Silver medal position on 360.39. On 382.08, the U.S has a wide margin over the fourth-placed British team.

Single Pony Championship

Less than 10 points separate the top nine ponies in the Single Pony Championship, three of which are Americans. Individual driver Suzy Stafford (Wilmington, DE) was the Individual Bronze medalist in 2009, will attempt to drive her way back in to the individual medals again on Sunday. She currently is fourth with Josephine. Shelly Temple, who drives LR Ami B-Line (Windsor, SC), and Miranda Cadwell, who drives Kabam (Southern Pines, NC), are in eighth and ninth respectively, with less than half a point separating the two American drivers.

Continue reading Day Three: FEI World Pony Driving Championships – U.S. Maintains Bronze Medal Position →

Breeds, Wild Horse Sources

Comments Needed Immediately for NAS Study Review

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Tentative Panel Stacked against Wild Horses

Two wild horses from the White Mountain herd in southern Wyoming

Dear Friends of our Wild Horses and Burros,
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is accepting comments on their provisional committee members. The study will be reviewing the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. However, the current provisional committee makeup is vastly unbalanced.

An NAS committee is supposed to be balanced and free of conflicts of interest, as mandated by federal law. But the current committee members chosen for this study do not represent this impartiality. Some of the committee members have strong ties with largely anti-wild horse organizations, such as the Nevada Cattleman’s Association and the Wildlife Society.

The future of America’s wild horses and burros may rest in the hands of this NAS study. The scope of the study itself is expected to take two years to complete and is to include information on total populations, genetic diversity, annual growth rates, population control, immunocontraception, appropriate management level (AML) establishments or adjustments, and managing a portion of a population as non-reproducing.

I encourage everyone to make their own comments (which are only being accepted electronically here) on these tentatively selected committee members. Below are some talking points you can make in your comments.

You can submit your comments here no later than September 26th.

Continue reading Comments Needed Immediately for NAS Study Review →

Competitions, Events, Show Jumping, USEF

Zoie Nagelhout Leads after Gymnastics Phase of Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Final – West

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Lexington, KY – The 2011 Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Final – West is well under way at the L.A. International Jumping Festival, September 21-25, in Burbank, CA. The flat phase, first of the four phases took place Thursday night. The judging team of noted judge Sue Ashe and her daughter, international jumper rider Molly Ashe, tested the riders on their mastery of the skills needed to properly prepare a jumper for flatwork, including a demonstration of haunches in and a flying change to the counter canter.

After the scores were tallied, Carly Anthony emerged as the winner of Phase I with a score of 96, followed by Zoie Nagelhout with 93.

“It was awesome,” said Anthony. “It was basic, but a good test of the fundamentals. It definitely prepared me for the second phase, which was another great test.”

Friday night brought Phase II of the competition, a challenging gymnastics round that tested each rider’s ability to ride accurately and remain focused to manage the different combinations and distances.

“We put together a course we thought was fair,” judge Sue Ashe said. “It could be done beautifully, or the riders could have some problems if they were not prepared. We didn’t want anyone to leave discouraged by the course; we wanted them to leave wanting to come back and do better next year, and to finish the class a better rider than they began it.”

Continue reading Zoie Nagelhout Leads after Gymnastics Phase of Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Final – West →

Breeds, Conferences, Rescue/Protection Sources, Wild Horse Sources

Madeleine Pickens Scheduled as Keynote Speaker at Equine Welfare Conference in Alexandria, VA

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Madeleine Pickens, the Founder of Saving America’s Mustangs, will be a keynote speaker at this year’s Equine Welfare Conference in Alexandria, VA on September 28th, 2011.

Other distinguished speakers include: Congressman Jim Moran, Senator Landrieu’s Aide, State Senator Dave Wanzenried, Congressman Burton’s Aide, Paula Bacon the former mayor of Kaufman, TX, Ann Marini, Ph.D., M.D., Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation, Michael Blowen of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Facility, Keith Dane with The Humane Society of the U.S., Lonita Stewart with Canadian Horse Defence Coalition, Katie Fite with Western Watersheds Project, and authors Deanne Stillman and Alex Brown.

A complete list of the presenters can be viewed here.

Event Location:
Marriott Residence Inn
1456 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

CONFERENCE AGENDA
Registration Fees:
All 3 days, includes Tuesday night banquet $150
Individual Day $75
Student: All 3 days, includes Tuesday night banquet $75
Student: Individual
Day $40

note: banquet is only included with 3 day registration

Registration is now closed, but you can receive more information by contacting: iec@equinewelfarealliance.org.

website: www.equinewelfarealliance.org

Community/Charity, Competitions, Dressage, JRPR, Products/Services

PanaCavallo and Cavalleria Toscana Kick Off Gold Sponsorship at 2011 Dressage at Devon

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From left to right, Adrienne Lyle and Debbie McDonald with Debbie Witty measuring Wizard for a PanaCavallo bridle. (Photo courtesy of Trilogy)

Devon, PA (September 23, 2011) – Among the not-to-be-missed newcomers at Dressage at Devon this year will be PanaCavallo and partners, Cavalleria Toscana. PanaCavallo will be introducing their new line of bridles and kicking off their exciting partnership with Cavalleria Toscana, an elegant line of Italian equestrian clothing. PanaCavallo and Cavalleria Toscana will be based in the booth just behind the show office at Dressage at Devon, giving dressage enthusiasts a peak at the new PanaCavallo bridles and the hottest new looks in Italian equestrian fashions.

Michael Davis, owner of PanaCavallo, is thrilled to partner with Cavalleria Toscana and launch their debut at Devon, one of the premier equestrian events in the country. “In addition, Trilogy Saddles, a distributor of our PanaCavallo bridles will also be at Devon showcasing the bridles and building customized bridles at the show,” Davis added.

Debbie Witty, President of Trilogy, said she is excited about the PanaCavallo bridles and feels their quality of workmanship is superb. The bridles really enhance the comfort of the horse.  Best of all, Witty will offer custom fitted PanaCavallo bridles. “There are four different types of PanaCavallo bridles and they are all very horse friendly, offering great comfort for the horse in addition to being extremely functional,” Witty said.

The PanaCavallo bridles feature a double and snaffle bridle in each model, the Aristocrat, the Grandeur, the Elite and the Elite Classic. “When a bridle creates pressure on a horse’s nose or ears, it can be very uncomfortable. The PanaCavallo cavesons are nicely cushioned and gives the horse a lot of relief,” Witty said, adding that the bridles are beautiful and made of European leather. “The crownpiece of the PanaCavallo bridles are contoured, which works out great for horses with bigger ears. The contour also creates comfort around the ear for all horses, relieving any pressure or pinching.”

Continue reading PanaCavallo and Cavalleria Toscana Kick Off Gold Sponsorship at 2011 Dressage at Devon →

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