There's a reason Tim Price of New Zealand rose to the title of the world’s number one-ranked eventer this month. He’s not only a great technician, he’s also cool under immense pressure. With the USA’s Tamie Smith and Great Britain’s Oliver Townend...

The world’s number one-ranked eventer, Tim Price, shuffled the deck today at the MARS Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill, and the Joker came out on top. Joker is the barn name of Coup de Coeur Dudevin, a special horse who was up to the challenges of his...

A mere fraction separates first and second place in the MARS Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill three-day event, with Woods Baughman on the Hanoverian C’est la Vie 153 staying just 0.2 penalties ahead of world number one Tim Price on a Selle Francais,...

It’s a new ballgame at the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill. In the second year of the USA’s second 5-star three-day event, cross-country course designer Ian Stark is upping the ante on his terrain-rich route, while riders are finding the kinks...

From the start there were challenges--then the tests became increasingly difficult this weekend at the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East. And that's how it should be. After all, with competition running over three...

Now it’s Silva Martin’s turn, as showcased during Dressage at Devon last week. The Martin who always had a franchise on the spotlight was Silva’s husband, Boyd, the Olympic eventer, with an outgoing personality that has won him friends and...

Never before have I seen a psychic in a horse show’s vendor village, so it was a first for me during Dressage at Devon when I spotted the booth offering crystal ball reading ($35) and Tarot card reading ($45). But I decided to save my money because...

Dressage at Devon is a magical name. Over the years, it has conjured inspiration for thousands of riders to do whatever it takes so they can ride in the famous Dixon Oval and become a part of history. It happened last night for Alice Tarjan, who...

There was a time when the horse show at New Jersey’s Somerset County 4-H Fair felt like a really big deal. The stables were full and the competition was serious. Judy Hennessey, a 4-H leader in the county, remembers that during the mid-1970s when...

It may be hard to believe in this era, but the concept of using horses for organized therapy was still in its infancy when Octavia Brown founded the Somerset Hills Handicapped Riders Club a half-century ago. The once-weekly program began on a...

What a ride! Today’s show jumping finale of the FEI World Eventing Championships was far from an anti-climax after Saturday’s thriller of a cross-country test at Pratoni del Vivaro in Italy. The course designed by Uliano Vezzani, set on undulating...

Former U.S.Equestrian Federation president and Olympic eventing gold medalist David O'Connor next month takes on a newly created position as the USEF's chief of sport, while Graeme Thom becomes the director of FEI/High-Performance Sport Programs....

The deck was reshuffled today by a demanding cross-country course at the FEI World Eventing Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro Italy, with team standings doing a switcheroo that put the U.S. in second place from third, elevated Germany to the...

The CBS show 48 Hours, which investigates "the most intriguing crime and justice cases," will begin its fall season with a program on the matter of dressage trainer Michael Barisone. Set to run at 10 p.m Saturday, it will explore how a U.S. Olympic...

What does the name Pepita con Spita mean? I’ve wondered since I started writing about the feisty show jumper a few years ago, and the question crossed my mind again today when she won the $405,300 FEI  5-star Grand Prix at HITS Saugerties with the...

It was quite a different Michael Barisone who came back to the Morristown, N.J., courtroom where he was tried for attempted murder last spring. The dressage trainer appeared today for a hearing that would determine whether he could be freed after...

There were so many remarkable stories out of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in England, which ended today. It has certainly lived up to its reputation as the toughest of all the 5-stars (including Kentucky and Maryland in the U.S.)  under its...

New Jersey riders continued to do the state proud as the Dressage Festival of Champions came to a close at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Illinois today. It was quite the show, with 168 horses and riders across 15 divisions for seven days. The...

Alice Tarjan and Serenade MF made a clean sweep of the Grand Prix championship classes at the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions today, after adding a freestyle win to her victories in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special earlier in the week at...

Joe Fargis had many words of wisdom for those participating in a sold-out clinic he gave at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone, N.J., this week. You need to listen when an Olympic double gold medalist tells you something. “Better to...

The answer to the question above is not just “airplanes.” It was time for a re-think after the team failed to finish in the top five at the FEI World Show Jumping Championships last week, which would have been an automatic ticket to the 2024 Paris...

It was an intensely exciting equestrian encounter that made history today: Ireland winning the Aga Khan trophy in a jump-off for its home Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show. The crowd in the packed stands around the emerald grass arena at the...

There’s a new queen of dressage. Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry made it two victories in a row with the expressive Glamourdale to take the Blue Hors Grand Prix Freestyle this evening at the Ecco FEI World Dressage Championships. It happened the day...

The glamorous Glamourdale and Great Britan’s Charlotte (Lottie) Fry short-circuited expectations for a home country winner at the Ecco FEI World Dressage Championships in Denmark, edging Danish star Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Vamos Amigos for the...

Denmark, as predicted, made history today, taking the place usually reserved for Germany at the top of the dressage world championships podium and earning the Scandinavian nation's first medal in the global title competition since it won bronze in...

At the top level of the sport, more and more dressage horses are reaching the heights. Multiple breathtaking performances impressed as the ECCO FEI World Championships got under way with the first day of the Blue Hors Dressage Grand Prix in front...

The FEI world championships, which get under way Saturday, are about more than medals. For dressage, show jumping and eventing, they are qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics, while the para dressage is a qualifier for the 2024 Paralympics. Who...

Even without spectators in the grandstand, the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation’s arena has character. The towering backdrop of the historic stables in Gladstone, N.J., offers a reminder that this is where so many of the country’s most famous riders...

Hunter rider Amanda Steege has had great success with Lafitte de Muze in the country’s most important hunter competitions. Even so, she admitted to some extra stress today during the inaugural $10,000 Bill Ellis Memorial/U.S. Hunter Jumper...

In the nation’s most densely populated state, the Horse Park of New Jersey is a tree-shaded oasis. I think of all the places where I used to compete not so long ago that have been developed or no longer stage shows—Coppergate in Basking Ridge,...

As a kid, Lauren Chumley didn’t have a pony. The family wasn’t into horses, and her parents weren’t paying for her to ride. But as Lauren pointed out, "Little girls that like horses are going to like horses, whether you have horses or not." Her...

If anyone had the pedigree to win the Open Preliminary section at the Essex Horse Trials, it was Isabelle Bosley. She knows Moorland Farm, where the Essex cross-country was held today, after dressage and show jumping were staged yesterday at the...

The Essex Horse Trials, which began in 1968, is a piece of eventing history that always looks toward the future. In a bold move, the competition's latest version was showcased this weekend at two venues--Moorland Farm in Far Hills and the U.S....

The American squad of up-and-coming horses and riders had quite a milestone as they were second in the Nations Cup of Rotterdam, Netherlands, today, with Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, N.J., the highest-placing rider on the Dutta Corp. U.S Dressage Team...

The U.S. will be hosting the Longines FEI World Cup finals twice in the next four years, with the Split Rock Jumping Tour’s Fort. Worth, Texas, venue just announced as the site of the show jumping and dressage competition, three years after Omaha’s...

You’ve got to love a town where the official seal bears the image of a show jumper, neatly clearing a vertical obstacle of red and white rails. That municipality is Far Hills, N.J., which has quite a history with horses. The name Far Hills has long...

An international dressage show scheduled for the Horse Park of New Jersey has been cancelled due to lack of entries and a complication involving withdrawal of one key official, but the Level 3 national Dressage at the Park show, scheduled in...

Hope Hand’s devotion to U.S. Para Dressage efforts over the decades paid off in three ground-breaking medals at last summer’s Tokyo Paralympics, part of the long process in which she played a key role as America’s status in the discipline was...

The management team that kept the Devon Horse Show running and relevant for decades resigned today. No one is more closely associated with the U.S. Equestrian Federation Heritage fixture than David Distler, who began working there in 1974, and...

I’ve written this story 12 times over the years since 1999, when McLain took his first grand prix at Devon with Twist du Valon and started a remarkable run as the fan favorite at the venerable show on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Seven years ago, the...

Alice Tarjan found herself in the company of such big names as Olympic medalists Steffen Peters and Adrienne Lyle today when the U.S. Equestrian Federation announced the Dutta Corp. U.S. Dressage Team Short List for the 2022 FEI Dressage World...

Bouncing back is Tamie Smith's specialty, and the same can be said of her Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event mount, Fleeceworks Royal. The mare's 5-star debut at the Kentucky Horse Park last month started with a dressage test that put her first in...

Thoroughbreds are few and far between at the upper ranks of three-day eventing, ever since the steeplechase and roads and tracks elements were eliminated from the sport's prestige competitions after 2005. With the departure of the long format,...

A memory from the 1984 Olympics that has stuck with me was French show jumper Pierre Durand walking out of the ring in Los Angeles with a bridle in his hand after Jappeloup refused and he fell off, along with the bridle. It was a sad picture, but...

Things are back to normal at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, with people lining up several hours before the 5-star horse inspection yesterday to be sure that they got the best view of the stars from  the U.S. and five foreign countries,...

You know the ASPCA Maclay, the U.S Equestrian Federation Medal and the USEF Talent Search--they are the equitation finals that get the most publicity. But what about the American National Riding Commission Championships, which wrapped up last...

If you want a deeper understanding of the Michael Barisone attempted murder case, there are two movies you should see. One is Pacific Heights (1990), starring Michael Keaton as a tenant in an escalating dispute with his landlords that ended in...

After being in jail for nearly three years and charged with crimes that could have kept him behind bars for decades, Michael Barisone today was cleared of two charges by reason of insanity and ruled not guilty on three others after being tried for...

Switzerland's Martin Fuchs took the Longines FEI World Cup Show Jumping championship in Leipzig, Germany, today, with a two-horse approach. He rode Chaplin in the opening competition on Thursday, then switched to The Sinner for Saturday's jump-off...

Self-defense cannot be asserted in the Michael Barisone attempted murder trial, Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor ruled today. The judge made that decision as he met this morning with defense and prosecution lawyers at the Morris County...

"She was a horsewoman through and through, to her core, and every moment we got to spend with her made us better horsewomen and better people. She was a class act." That's how Sandra Nagro Lobel was remembered by a former student, Elizabeth...

After thousands of speculative, gossipy posts on social media and multiple court conferences, dressage trainer Michael Barisone's attempted murder trial finally got under way today in Morristown, N.J., with dramatic opening statements from his...

The boyfriend of shooting victim Lauren Kanarek continued being questioned by defense lawyer Edward Bilinkas today at dressage trainer Michael Barisone's attempted murder trial in Morristown, N.J., which got under way Monday and will continue for...

After decades running her Knightsbridge training stable in Monmouth County, N.J., Mary Knowlton has moved on to an administrative job at Princeton Show Jumping. She acted on a long-term realization when an opportunity presented itself, making a...

The one job title that doesn't appear on Dr. Jesslyn Bryk-Lucy's resume is "juggler," but there certainly would be justification for adding it. The veterinarian in charge of caring for Centenary University's 100 horses was recognized as the...

In its 35-year history, the Show Jumping Hall of Fame has never had a dinner to induct those being honored. Last night, that changed forever, as 180 people packed a dining room at the Wanderers Club in Wellington, Fla., to salute not only those...

Talk about pressure! Last night, Bliss Heers found herself as the only American in a five-horse jump-off for the $406,000 Lugano Diamonds 5-star grand prix under the lights at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. In 2021, when Covid...

The winners of last night's 5-star dressage Grand Prix Special and Freestyle were the same admired competitors as in the qualifying classes earlier this week, but the atmosphere in the International Arena lifted riders and spectators alike into a...

Dressage returned to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in a big way last night, with a sold-out VIP section that was treated to a brilliant performance by U.S. Olympic team silver medalist Adrienne Lyle and the stunning stallion...

"She is back with us," trainer Emil Spadone said today about show jumper Cassandra Kahle, who was in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a fall from her horse at a show last month. Cassie, a 29-year-old professional rider, moved a...

A two-year-old video of Olympic eventing double gold medalist Mark Todd striking a horse with a tree branch continues to wreak havoc with his reputation. The latest fallout from the controversy that erupted over airing of the incident is the...

For one person, covering everything that's happening in Wellington on a show week is impossible, even though the distance between the dressage and hunter/jumper showgrounds is relatively short. But with nearly 20 rings going, it can be tough to...

Professional show jumper Cassandra Kahle today was flown to a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta from Gainesville, Fla., where she has been hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury for nearly two weeks. "The move and flight went very smoothly....

After several days without much progress, Cassandra Kahle thrilled everyone at her hospital bedside about 9:30 yesterday morning when she opened her eyes. And today, it got even better. "Her eyes were open for several minutes at a time," reported...

After several days without much progress, Cassandra Kahle thrilled everyone at her hospital bedside about 9:30 this morning when she opened her eyes. And that's not all she did. The 29-year-old professional rider, who suffered a traumatic brain...

Show jumper Cassandra Kahle, who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a fall during a competition last month, has been diagnosed with diffuse axonal injury (DAI) in her brain. Emil Spadone, the owner of Redfield Farm where 29-year-old...

Update note: This weekend, things were status quo for show jumper Cassandra Kahle, who is hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. We will update you as things change. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page to cover medical and rehab expenses for Cassie has...

After making some progress, Cassandra Kahle developed aspiration pneumonia from her breathing tube today. Although the professional show jumper has been unconscious since a fall last weekend, on Wednesday she was able to respond to commands, such...

Lee Carter, who was chosen as the Kentucky Horse Park's executive director in October--then unchosen when he and the park couldn't come to terms--will get the job after all. The park put out a new Request for Proposal last year to re-start the...

It all started just a week ago tonight. Lars Petersen was at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Fla., for the Friday Night Lights freestyle and walked over to speak with his old compatriot, Andreas Helgstrand. Lars, a Danish...