FEI representatives met with leading footing specialists in Windsor, England, on May 16 for a brainstorming session which will likely provide the criteria upon which all future championship arena footing is to be based. The meeting, which drew riding surface experts from around the world, was a proactive response to the report of the FEI Working Group assigned to assess problems associated with footing after the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. The round table discussion covered many areas, including...

For the third time in four years, British leading lady rider Pippa Funnell dominated the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, leading from start to finish with Primmore’s Pride. An inspiring dressage test put them at the top of the leaderboard on day one. Whilst collecting time penalties on the cross-country, the combination jumped clear to retain the lead. In the show jumping when it mattered most, the pair jumped another clear round to secure the Mitsubishi Motors Trophy and the £50,000...

Twelve of the nation’s most talented junior dressage riders will be invited to enter the venerable Dixon Oval at the 31st Dressage at Devon for the 2005 United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Junior Dressage Team Championship. The late September event will be the culmination of a year-long qualifying period in which juniors, ages 14-18, ride to their best scores in international level tests. In this competition, the riders will be divided into three teams; all four members of each team will...

Lexington, KY – California’s Fritz Grupe made history in the discipline of driving when he won the 2005 USEF National Pairs Championship at the 2005 Garden State CDE at the Horse Park of New Jersey, in Cream Ridge, May 8. Grupe, of Stockton, California, became the first resident West of the Mississippi to claim the Championship title. Final results following all three phases (cones, dressage and marathon) are as follows: 1. Fritz Grupe, Stockton, CA, 127.68 2. Lisa Singer, Chadds...

Bloomberg Leading Rider La Baule, France – The U.S. Show Jumping Team arrived in La Baule, France last week, locked, loaded and ready. Not only did they handily win the first Samsung Super League Nations Cup of the season by four faults over Great Britain, but team members also won three other classes and were well placed throughout the show. And at the end of the four days of competition it was the United States’ team member, New York City’s Georgina Bloomberg, 22, who was...

La Baule, France - Lady riders completely dominated the first leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League nations cup series in La Baule, France today where the all-girl American side won through ahead of the British, while America's Schuyler Riley and Britain's Ellen Whitaker produced the two double-clear performances of the day. George Morris and his team now head for the second leg of the Samsung Super League series in Rome later this month full of confidence and knowing that all the effort...

It was a strong start for Cynthia Williams on the opening day of the Garden State Horse Show, held May 4-8 at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, NJ. Williams and a seven-year-old gelding named Quality Time topped the first three Green Conformation classes. Owned by White Hill Farm of New York, NY, the 16.2-hand hunter will make a play for the Green Conformation championship on Thursday when the final classes are held in the main hunter ring. In the Pre-Green hunters, Sandra Lobel of...

Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) of Georgia won the hunter seat equitation phase to clinch the team title at the 28th Annual Affiliated National Riding Commission’s National Intercollegiate Equitation Championship, April 16-17, hosted by Sweet Briar College in Virginia. SCAD junior Jordan Siegel took home the title of individual champion for the second time in her college career. Siegel, who won the top individual award as a freshman in 2003, was joined by teammates Ashley Kelly and...

Flashpoint Photography (Kim Severson and Winsome Adante: Runaway Winners of the 2005 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Farnam) For the third time in four years, Kim Severson and her Winsome Adante know the thrill of taking the championship title at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Posting a final score of 38.2, the pair blew away the competition in an already wind-blown show jumping arena. “For me competing is sort of like eating, it’s a necessity,” said the newly...

The United States Equestrian Team (USET) Foundation presented 16-year-old Brianne Goutal of New York, NY, the Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy on Saturday, April 23, at the FEI Budweiser World Cup in Las Vegas, NV. The special award recognizes a Junior/Young Rider who exemplifies the USET Foundation’s ideals of sportsmanship and horsemanship. In 1983, Patrick Guerrand-Hermes, of the Paris-based saddlery and fashion company, presented a trophy to the USET in memory of his son, Lionel, a talented...