Jumping

Two familiar names jumped to the top of the $50,000 Strongid C 2X Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health which served as the first of four FEI World Cup Qualifiers at Thermal in California. Rolex/FEI World Cup veterans (they were second in 2008), Rich Fellers and Flexible got back to business and won narrowly over Richard Spooner and Cristallo. Amateur Rider Karl Cook and Uno de Laubry were third. These three combinations were the only short course clears out of the field of 27 - 11 of which went forward to the jump-off.

The whole story and scores are available here: http://hitsshows.com/press/2011/ca_saturdayweek2.html

In Florida, Laura Kraut halted the international domination at the Winter Equestrian Festival by scoring a commanding win in the $78,000 Adequan Grand Prix. After 48 horses took to the International Ring at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Club, 16 went forward to the jump off - of those just two jumped clear, but 2008 Olympic Gold medalist (and member of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games Team) was the fastest by far. Nick Skelton (GBR) was second on Unique and Kraut's teammate at both aforementioned championships, McLain Ward, was third with Rothchild. It was Cedric's season debut for Kraut.

More information and complete results are available here: http://www.equestriansport.com/.

Eventing

The USEF High Performance and Developing Rider training sessions are underway and USEF Chef d'Equipe and Technical Advisor Mark Phillips is busy traversing the U.S. teaching in Aiken, SC, Ocala, FL and Thousand Oaks, CA.

The Training Lists are available here:
High Performance: http://usef.org/_IFrames/newsdisplay/viewPR.aspx?id=6447&star=true
and
Developing Riders: http://usef.org/_IFrames/newsdisplay/viewPR.aspx?id=6448&star=true

Follow the High Performance Eventers on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/USEF-Eventing-High-Performance/186077828080422

and read their blog:http://www.clubequestrian.com/blogs/highperformance/read.aspx