The 2009 Capital Challenge Horse Show was a great success this year with fantastic competition in hunters, jumpers, and equitation. The show was held at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, MD. Equitation Weekend Highlights, presented by BigEq.com Cayla Richards of Calabasas, CA, was a big winner on the first day of Equitation Weekend after she took the 15-Year-Old Equitation Championship and outlasted top riders to win the Flat Championships. Richards won the North American Junior Flat...

The Showplace Fall Classic Championship Horse Show came to a close on Sunday at the Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, IL. Saturday morning began with an exciting victory going to Maggie Jayne and Thomas Edison in the $25,000 Tapestry Farm Leading Rider Series Final Grand Prix. The top three open jumper riders in the 2009 Showplace Leading Rider Series battled against the clock as the only entries to qualify for the jump-off, and Jayne was the fastest by almost four seconds to take the top...

Three regional qualifying competitions were recently held for the 2009 ASPCA Maclay National Championships. They were the last Regionals held, and the final list of qualifiers is now available (please see below). The 2009 ASPCA Maclay National Championship will be held at the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament on October 28-November 1, 2009. Zazou Hoffman was the winner of the Region 1 qualifier at the Grand Fall Classic in Westbrook, CT. Hoffman finished second at Regionals last year...

The Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) has a TEAM CHA youth Horse Connection Reward Program for kids 15 years and younger. The participants keep track of their hours working with horses, whether they have them or not. They can count activities, such as taking riding lessons, watching non-fiction videos and reading non-fiction books about horses, grooming, cleaning stalls, cleaning tack, feeding and so on. As part of this membership, the youth also receive a quarterly newsletter full of...

The North American Anglo-Arabian Horse Association ( www.NAAAHA.com ) sponsored their third High Point Championship Awards at the Youth National Championship Show. FF Irish Vodka+++// (Pri Ibn Masriyyah x Jennifers Winner) was Supreme Champion Anglo-Arabian. This Anglo gelding won a reserve championship in Training Level Dressage 14-17 and Hunter Hack. In addition, he won a Top Ten in First Level Dressage, Hunt Seat Equitation Under Saddle 14-17 and Hunt Seat Equitation Over Fences with...

Bruce Davidson, Jr., (USA) brought the 2009 HSBC FEI World Cup™ Eventing qualifiers to a most satisfying climax, jumping clear in the final phase with both horses, despite a severe storm, to score a memorable one-two in the last qualifier, at Mansfield, Canada, and spring into second place in the rankings behind Mary King (GBR). Davidson led throughout on My Boy Bobby, the handsome liver-chestnut Irish-bred on whom he scored his best four-star result, third in the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event...

Jumper champions Sydney Shulman and Set Sail (USEF Archives/Randi Muster) Lexington, KY—It was a day of champions at the 2009 USEF Pony Finals as ribbons and top honors were handed out in the Regular Pony Hunters as well as the Individual Jumper Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park on a sun-drenched day where the competition was as hot as the weather. Beginning early in the day was the Medium Pony Hunters where there was no shortage of graceful rides and impressive rounds from the ponies....

Dance and Gymnastics on Cantering Horses a Growing Spectator Sport at Kentucky Horse Park Equestrian vaulting came to the Kentucky Horse Park for the first time last week, with the United States Equestrian Federation and the American Vaulting Association crowning their national vaulting champions from July 9-12. “We’re excited to present the USEF/AVA National Vaulting Championships in the Kentucky Horse Park for the first time, and to be part of the fabric of the Horse Capital of the World,”...

The 2009 HSBC FEI World Cup™ Eventing moves to North America for the first time this year, with this weekend’s 7th leg at Kalispell in Montana (July 23-26). The annual event at Rebecca Farm has attracted 19 entries from US and Canadian riders, including dual Olympian Amy Tryon (USA), who this time rides Leyland, 13th at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event in April. Canadian Olympian Hawley Bennett brings two horses, her Athens veteran Livingstone and Gin N Juice, and Jil Walton, a member of the...

The tension is mounting as the Meydan FEI Nations Cup™ series arrives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, this week. This event marks the halfway stage of the team challenge, which pits 10 great show jumping nations against each other in an eight-leg battle for survival in the premiership of the sport. The USA holds the lead after scoring a superb back-to-back double at Rome and St Gallen over the past few weeks, but the pressure continues, and there is no time to rest on their laurels as they face...