Nancy Jaffer
EQUESTRIAN SPORTS
NEWS AND FEATURES
FROM NEW JERSEY AND BEYOND
Imperial HBF has passed on
Even the best intentions and the greatest of care cannot save every horse who has severe medical issues. McLain Ward announced that Imperial HBF (“Paddy”) was lost Sunday due to complications from colic. "Paddy suffered a bout of colic and, despite two surgeries and...
Christian Simonson gains another victory
The highest-ranked U.S. dressage rider in the FEI standings, Christian Simonson, keeps accumulating honors. Although he had never ridden a Grand Prix Special on Fleau De Baian, known as Felix, he won on his first try Saturday at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival....
European Show Jumping Champion shows his style in Wellington
The first $500,000 class of the Winter Equestrian Festival Saturday night showcased a range of brilliant talent, but as he so often does, Germany's Richie Vogel outshone them all. Riding Gangster Montdesir (what an unflattering name for such a lovely horse), the...
Here’s a great idea to help insure a horse’s safe future
A new free feature called Lifetime Care Contacts is available for for horses registered with the U.S. Equestrian Federation. It enables USEF members to add their names to a horse’s USEF record. It means that if the horse is someday be in need of financial assistance...
Brash moves up in the international standings
As we predicted last week in this story, Great Britain's Scott Brash has overtaken the USA's Kent Farrington in the Longines FEI show jumping rider standings. making the number one spot for the first time in 10 years. While Kent was in California competing, Scott was...
Support the Essex Horse Trials as a rider, volunteer or sponsor
The historic Essex Horse Trials, which had a successful outing as a one-day competition last year, is increasing the offerings for its 2026 edition at Moorland Farms in Far Hills, N.J., this spring. The popular Modified division has been added to the May 31 schedule,...
A final farewell to the Final Four
The Final Four used to be the highlight of the world show jumping championships. It offered suspenseful moments when the top four riders would jump the last course of the show, then return on their rivals' mounts and take the fences three more times to determine the...
Eventing great Ballaghmor Class is retiring
At age 19 after a brilliant career, Ballaghmor Class will leave the arena for good, his rider, Oliver Townend has announced. He described "Thomas" as the horse is known, "as one of the most successful event horses in history and a phenomenal partner and teammate to...
Why are showing costs so high? Here are some answers
The price of showing--and the ever-rising cost of owning horses--have been the hot topics over the last few years. For the U.S. Equestrian Federation, it came to a head with pushback when a fee increase (effective April 1) was announced last year. In an effort to find...
A new show series on the California calendar seeks to address the issues
We keep hearing the same complaints about horse showing: For all but the uber wealthy, many of the competitions have gotten too expensive -- dealing with high entry fees and add-ons, while the cost of being away from home for five or six days has skyrocketed, A new...
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