Dressage

Dressage riders on East coast celebrated the holiday weekend at the CDI3* Allentown at the Horse Park of New Jersey. Elisabeth Austin and her Dutch Warmblood Olivier took home wins in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special.

On the small tour Cesar Parra and Olympia performed beautifully, winning the Prix St. Georges with a score of 71.789% and the Intermediaire I with 71.000%.

For complete results please click here.

This week several horse and rider combinations were privileged to participate in clinics given by Kyra Kyrklund. Kyrklund is a world-class trainer and former Finish Olympian who now lives and trains out of her farm in West Sussex, Great Britain. Invited riders as well as selected applicants participated in these three day clinics. These USEF clinics are designed to provide guidance and instruction for future team horses and riders.

The West Coast clinic was hosted by Epona Farms, owned by Michael and Linda Fowler, in Thousand Oaks, CA, and included elite riders Jan Ebeling, Leslie Morse and Elizabeth Ball among others.

Kyrklund then traveled cross-country to Chesapeake City, MD to Hassler Dressage at Riveredge Farm owned by John and Leslie Malone. Eight riders participated in the sessions over the three days.

Jumping

U.S. show jumpers in Europe continued their winning ways this week, representing the US in Italy, Germany and France.

McLain Ward kicked off the week at the CSIO Rome Piazza di Siena with a win in the first class of the competition aboard nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood Pjotter Van De Zonnehoeve. Ward continued notching up wins on Saturday, in the Hippogroup Roma Capanelle small tour final, Ward blazed through the jump-off in a time of 37.19 seconds to win with Rothchild. Ward then finished the week by securing a huge win in the final class, the Rome Grand Prix Loro Piana, with his super-star mare Sapphire. The pair jumped two immaculate clear rounds to beat out the 2007 class winner John Whitaker (GBR) who finished second and last year's class winner Rodrigo Pessoa (BRZ) who was third. This is the second consecutive CSIO5* Grand Prix win for Ward and Sapphire. Hilary Dobbs also got in on the winning in the Class 5 Regione Lazio with Corlett; the pair put together a beautiful clear round to beat out Pessoa for the win.

For complete results please click here.


After the second leg of the Meydan FEI Nations Cup the U.S. now sits third in the League behind Great Britain in second and France in first. For complete standings please click here.

The next stop on the tour is St. Gallen, Switzerland June 3-6.

In Germany at the CSI3* Norten Hardenburg Lauren Hough and Casadora took home the blue ribbon on Friday in the 1.50m class and were second in the 1.55m class on Sunday.

For complete results please click here.

Also in on the action this week was the U.S. Show Jumping Young Rider Team, who competed at the CSIOY Reims in France. Saturday was a very successful day for the riders: Taylor Land aboard Tusker took the win in the 1.35m class while Karl Cook and Jennifer Waxman went one-two respectively in the 1.40m Grand Prix Qualifier. The team also took second in the Nations Cup finishing the two rounds with a combined 12 faults behind Switzerland on 11 faults.

For complete results please click here

Read about the adventure on the Young Riders' blog: http://clubequestrian.com/blogs/equestrianusa/read.aspx .

Para-Equestrian

WindReach Farm in Ashburn, Ontario was host to North America's largest FEI Para-Equestrian event, the International Para-Dressage CPEDI3*, May 28-30. U.S. riders Erin Alberda and Laura Goldman had hat trick victories in the Grade 1a and Grade 3 divisions. Goldman and Carlingfurd JD received impressive scores in the Grade 1a winning the Team Test with a 71.76%, the Individual Test with a 72.16% and the Freestyle with a 75.00%.

Alberda aboard Collo 5 swept the Grade 3, winning Team Test, Individual Test and the Freestyle.


ENDS

For more information about the U.S. High Performance programs click here .

The U.S. will send teams in eight different disciplines to the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, KY, in September of 2010. Watch this space for information about the best in the U.S. on the road to Kentucky. For more information or to submit High Performance news, please e-mail Joanie Morris at [email protected].