In an ideal jump off, the kind written for movie scripts, the excitement builds as each pair in the ring is faster than the last and the winner executes a...
A new year is bringing a new team lineup for the second annual Longines League of Nations™ series. With the first event kicking off once again in Abu Dhabi, the...
Somewhere in the reclaimed swampland of the Everglades, that glorious river of grass (although it’s actually sedge, not grass, and it’s technically a marsh, not a swamp), a columnist is...
Like other wonderful things in this world—hot sauce, hand cream, double-chocolate cake—a little bit of Toulayna goes a long way. The famously sharp, speedy, and high-strung mare is coming into...
Planning a top horse’s annual show schedule is no fly-by-night operation. Riders and their teams invest hours making a plan, thoughtfully working backward from events where they hope their horses...
The 16-year-old Holsteiner gelding Monaco N.O.P. (Cassini II - Ulla II x Contender, Stamm 429, breeder: Ralf Lütje) delivered an incredible victory in December for his rider, Harrie Smolders, in...
Winter carnival season is upon us! That is the Winter Equestrian Festival, a 12-week staycation for humans and equines in Wellington, Florida, just outside of West Palm Beach, northwest of...
There’s a well-known saying, now a charming lyric in a newly released country song, that claims that “Good horses come home.” At Paris Olympian Ashlee Bond’s farm, they also entertain...
For many riders, it can take years to put the pieces of a partnership together with a new mount. For Richard Vogel, it took five weeks. On Sunday, the German...
The first World Cup™ win of his 15-year-old stallion Vestmalle des Cotis, by the way. It's always a good day to be a Belgian, but especially on Monday night in...
A crisis of confidence is not something one usually associates with Irish rider Conor Swail. After all, he's the man who can lose his bridle and still finish fourth in a speed...
“Watching the jump-off, I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” said flying Dutchman Harrie Smolders. All too well, Smolders knows the feeling of a win just slipping away. First...
There is no safer bet in the Grand Prix ring at the moment than Martin Fuchs. The 32-year-old Swiss Olympian in riding a 1.60m Grand Prix win streak that has...
Whether you’re the older barn mate, the middle barn mate, or the younger barn mate, growing up in the shadow of a phenom like Leone Jei can’t be easy. After...
Barry Bonds. Michelle Kwan. Jim Kelly. Three of the greatest athletes in their respective sports during their respective eras. And yet, all three missed out on a coveted major championship win....
It was a million-dollar question for Ashlee Bond. After a subpar performance at the Paris Olympics, the Israeli rider’s second games with Donatello 141, Bond considered retiring the 13-year-old Westphalian...
As the size of a jump-off field increases, so does the size of the question mark. Even among a stacked field of top-ranked competitors (think: World No. 1 Henrik von...
There’s a very special new lady heading to American rider Karl Cook’s stable this month after CHI Geneva. Clarification: another very special lady. That would be 2024’s indomitable Foxy de...
If there was a United Nations for horse sport, Darry Lou might just be its most hardworking representative. A striking redhead with his shock of flaxen mane and deceptively pony-like...
In 2016, Spanish rider Gabriela Roger Ibars was just 21 and shopping for a young horse to bring along with her then-trainers Eric van der Vleuten and Maikel van der...
