Beezie Madden (center) accepted the Farnam/Platform Horse of the Year Award on behalf of owner Abigail Wexner. Pictured with Madden are USEF President David O'Connor (left) and Farnam's Chris Jacobi. (Geoff Oliver Bugbee/USEF Archives) At the final social event of the 2007 Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY, the much-anticipated Farnam®/Platform™ USEF Horse of the Year Awards celebrated the equestrian world’s hardest working athletes—the horses—from across the spectrum...

—It was standing room only during the much-anticipated Pegasus Awards where the equestrian world’s brightest stars gathered to be honored and celebrate achievements from 2006, as well as a lifetime. Beezie Madden was named as the Equestrian of the Year during the evening’s ceremonies. Madden, who brought home two medals from the 2006 World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Aachen, Germany, this past fall, accepted her awards to a standing ovation. “There are so many people I...

Stadium Jumping, Inc., hosted a meeting in The Jockey Club at the Winter Equestrian Festival show grounds on January 4 to discuss the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) outbreak. Approximately 500 concerned horsemen attended and many pertinent questions were asked of the panel. Dr. Doug Byars, former head of Internal Medicine at Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Associates in Lexington, KY, was brought in to monitor the progress and process in which the EHV-1 is being handled in Wellington. Dr. Byars is...

As of January 1, 2007, the Appaloosa Horse Club (ApHC) began issuing Performance Permits to ApHC-registered, non-characteristic (N) Appaloosas. Permits allow all non-characteristic Appaloosas, regardless of parentage or age, to show in ApHC-approved and sponsored events as well as race with results counting toward ApHC race awards. The permit remains effective for the life of the horse once it is issued, regardless of ownership changes. Performance Permits eliminate the current Certified...

Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc., together with Karin Flint of Wellington, FL, have insured the longevity of the Traverse City, MI, summer equestrian festival through the purchase of 84 acres in Acme Township. Official closing documents were signed on Friday, January 5, securing the property for the future horse park. “This is truly a dream come true,” remarked Alexandra Rheinheimer, Horse Sports by the Bay, Inc., co-founder, “and we can’t thank enough all of our sponsors and fellow horse show...

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) announced that it provided funding to 167 equine programs in 69 counties during 2006, totaling $135,682. KEEP created this local funding program as part of its grassroots efforts to help horse organizations around the state. The grants program is divided into four categories: 4-H clubs, horse shows, equine associations and equine education programs at Kentucky colleges and universities. Each category has a funding limit and specific criteria that...

KERx Special Needs Nutrition, a division of Kentucky Equine Research, recently unveiled EquiShure™, a timed-release buffer designed to reduce the problems associated with subclinical acidosis in horses. EquiShure is scientifically proven to stabilize the pH of the hindgut. Horses fed diets rich in grain or high-fructan pasture grasses often experience a sharp decline in the pH of the hindgut, which in turn causes a deleterious shift in the microbial population. When changes in the microbial...

Individual session tickets for the 2007 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Finals go on sale January 15 at 11 a.m. (PT). The Finals return to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV, April 18-22, and tickets are expected to sell quickly, so spectators are advised to purchase early. Las Vegas, the world’s premier city for exciting entertainment, will once again be the backdrop for the 2007 Rolex FEI World Cup™ Finals in both jumping and dressage. In 2005, the FEI World Cup Jumping and Dressage Finals were...

Geoff Oliver Bugbee/USEF Archives (Kimberly Maloomian accepts a Silver Stirrup Award from Ned Bonnie for her champion in the Hunter Breeding category, Masquerade's Cove.) —From the historic Seelbach Hotel in downtown Louisville, KY, David O’Connor, President of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), awarded the honors bestowed on equestrian media for the past year before addressing the contingent of the equestrian sport world’s administrators and guests gathered to...

Just how smart is a horse, anyway? While much research has been done on horses, hardly any has been on "horse smarts," or equine intelligence. Fascinating discoveries will be made with the airing of a program on RFD-TV, on Jan. 16, 17 and 21, 2007. The program, "The Horse Show" with Rick Lamb, is broadcast on Dish Network, Direct TV, Mediacom and National Cable. Tune in to see horses identify colors, pick out letters, numbers—even play cards! Inspired by the book Beautiful Jim Key (2005,...