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CCI4* Event Horse Charmed Victory’s Breeder Joins Maryland Jockey Club Board

Eventing, Racing

On Friday, May 9, the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA) named Lisa Hostetter of Olney to the Maryland Jockey Club’s Board of Directors. Hostetter co-owns Northview Stallion Station and Sycamore Hall Farms, both in Chesapeake City. Northview began operations on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1989 and since then, its stallions have won Maryland Stallion of the Year for 28 consecutive years; Not for Love for 10 years and Great Notion every year since 2016. For us, however, Northview’s best known horse is the international eventer Charmed Victory, a 2013 gelding by Flatter out of Sycamore Hall’s American Victory (Victory Gallop (CAN)). Charmed Victory has contested 22 international competitions since 2020 and has finished in the top ten in four of them — two CCI3*s and two CCI4*s. His international career begin in 2020 with Pennsylvania-based Kaelen Speck. The pair completed 13 international completions together over the next ...
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Timothy Keefe, Thoroughbred Trainer & Sport Horse Breeder, Named to the New Maryland Jockey Club

Eventing, Racing

Timothy L. Keefe, Thoroughbred trainer and breeder, past President of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and Board Member of the new Maryland Jockey Club. Photo source: Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority announced today that Thoroughbred trainer and breeder Tim Keefe of Sandy Spring was named to the new Maryland Jockey Club’s Board of Directors. Keefe has been a fixture — a well-regarded one at that — in the Maryland racing scene for decades. Less well-known, however, is his role in breeding and training Thoroughbreds that then go on to successful second careers as show jumpers and upper level event horses. Here are a few of Keefe’s Thoroughbreds that are competing this season. Act Lively: Bred in Maryland and trained by Keefe, this 2020 gelding is by Astern out of Kiss the Prince (Any Given Saturday). He last raced in May 2024 and started his eventing ...
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The Iron Bridge Hounds Pony Club Wins the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League Championship

Eventing

In its debut appearance, Maryland’s own Iron Bridge Hounds Pony Club (IBHPC) went to the US Eventing Association’s Interscholastic Eventing Championship this past weekend (May 2 – May 4) and posted an impressive and resounding win. According to USEA, IBHPC won by more than 16 points, which was a sufficiently large margin that they knew they had won before their last rider left the cross country start box. The IBHPC is based in Sandy Spring. We are not surprised that a Maryland team won the championship becuase Maryland is the epicenter of US eventing. There are more international level eventing competitions in Maryland than anywhere else in North America. And there are more national competitions licensed by the US Equestrian Federation in Maryland (20 events) than any other state except California (21), which is, of course, much larger than Maryland. We have 50 licensed eventing barns and 31 pony clubs ...
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Winners Roundup: January 2025

Results

The US Equestrian competition results for January are in (mostly), which means it is time to celebrate the first Maryland-bred winners of 2025. Maryland produced 10 winners in USEF-sanctioned events in January across four different disciplines — one Grand Prix Dressage winner, two Show Jumping winners, one Event horse winner, and five Hunter winners. The January winners show the diversity of Maryland’s breeding industry. Four of the winning Maryland-breds are Welsh pony types, three are off-the-track Thoroughbreds, one is an Oldenburg, one is a Hanoverian, and one is a Zangersheide. Dressage Vianne, is a 2016 Hanoverian mare bred by Catherine Haddad, foaled at Hilltop Farm in Colora, whose greatest accomplishment to date is winning Bronze in Para Dressage at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She started her 2025 seasaon by winning two Para Grand Prix classes in Wellington, Florida — the CPEDI3* FEI Para Grand Prix class at the January ...
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MDA Awards $1,500 to HSM for Maryland Sport Horse Registry Start-Up Costs

News Release

— FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Horse Sport Maryland (HSM) is thrilled to announce that the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) has awarded it $1,500 from the Maryland Horse Industry Board (MHIB) grant program to help defray the start-up costs of building its Maryland Sport Horse Registry and pedigree database. According to Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks, the MHIB “grants are vital to the Maryland horse industry and agricultural sector. Reaching a cross section of many horse organizations representing different disciplines and geographic areas of the state is important to keeping this industry thriving.” MDA’s press release explains that the grant applications were “evaluated based on their value to the industry, degree of industry promotion, size and scope of activity, financial need, potential for matching funds, benefits and overall quality of the written presentation.” The Maryland Sport Horse Registry contains five-generation pedigrees for Maryland-bred sport horses and sport ponies. ...
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US Equestrian’s Equine Disaster Relief Fund to Assist in California Wild Fire Recovery

Disaster Recovery

US Equestrian announced on January 10 that it is “is working closely with relief organizations in the area to provide much needed funds and aid to support rescue and recovery efforts.” US Equestrian’s Equine Disaster Relief Fund awards grants in the wake of natural disasters to “ensure horses’ safety and well-being” and “to help with disaster recovery and preparedness for horses including but not limited to the impacts of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, blizzards, and fires.” Visit US Equestrian’s website to read the press release. Click here to the donate to the Equine Disaster Relief Fund. Photo source: Simply Horses
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New USDA Competition Facility Registration Requirements as of Feb. 1, 2025

Rules and Regulations

Most of us know that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been randomly inspecting gaited horse shows to prevent the abusive practice of “soring.” Starting February 1, 2025, USDA will expand its inspections and start randomly inspecting competition facilities for all breeds in all disciplines. The random inspections will apply to any show facility, including schooling show facilities, whether the competition is sanctioned by a national governing body or not. Read this press release from the American Horse Council for more information. “The American Horse Council (AHC) is releasing this advisory to inform members of important changes to the Horse Protection Act (HPA). AHC asks that all members share this advisory with their competition organizers. The HPA has always applied to all equine breeds and disciplines to protect against abusive practices and promote humane care. Past enforcement of the HPA has focused on elimination of soring within the gaited ...
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Is Your Performance Horse Ready for 2025?

Dressage, Eventing, Lameness, Show Jumping, Sport Horse Medicine

Many of us have developed our 2025 competition plans by now, and at least some of us are working towards one or more marquee events. More of us still are looking forward to a fun and low-stress year in the company of our horses. Regardless of our goals, we all try to do the best to keep our sport horses pain-free and well throughout their performance careers. It is therefore timely that The Horse magazine has published an article this month called “Promoting Longevity in Performance Horses: A Comprehensive Look at Supporting Soundness to Help Sport Horses Perform Into the Years Ahead,” by Lucile Vigouroux, MSc. Vigouroux holds a Masters of Science in equine performance, health, and welfare from Nottingham Trent University in England. Her article covers the following topics: She also reports on the recent research about the most common forms of musculoskeletal lameness in the various disciplines, as ...
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Eventing Coaches Program on the Agenda at US Eventing’s 2024 Annual Meeting

Eventing

Did you know that US Eventing has a professional education program for coaches and trainers? It does — the US Eventing Coaches Program (ECP). Did you know that there are 12 ECP certified eventing coaches in Maryland? There are. You can see who they are under the USEA heading here. Did you know that the lack of credentials for many eventing coaches came up at the US Eventing Annual Meeting last week? It did. In stark contrast to our peer nations, the U.S. has no formal certification or licensing requirement for people who make a living with horses — except veterinarians at veterinary technicians. In the U.S., anyone can say they are a “trainer” or an “instructor” or a “coach,” whether they have the knowledge or ability to those jobs, and whether they are any good at those jobs. The result is too many instances of consumer confusion, unsafe riding, ...
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Weekend Winners — Dec. 7-8, 2024

Results

Two Maryland Sport Horses brought home wins over the first weekend in December, one in Dressage and one in Eventing. On Saturday, December 7, Timothy Kammerer’s Holsteiner mare Epona WEF (Quinar x Rania (R Saluut II)) won the Third Level Test 1 class at the Stable View Winter Wonderland Dressage competition in South Carolina. This was Epona’s third win at the Third Level, the previous two being at the Summer Solstice competition in South Carolina on June 15, and the Spring Fever competition, also in South Carolina, on Apr. 20. Kammerer owns Sparling Rock Farm in Barnesville. Also on Saturday, trainer Tim Keefe’s unraced Thoroughbred gelding Wonderful Courage (Bourbon Courage x Wonderful Secret (Stevie Wonderboy)) won the Junior Training Rider division at the Rocking Horse December Horse Trial in Florida. This was the gelding’s third outing at the Training level. His first was at the Ocala Festival of Eventing last ...
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