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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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Maryland-Breds Dominate Oldenburg Premium Mare Awards

Results

Lismore
Every year, the Oldenburg North American Registry awards Premium Mare status to the 6 highest scoring mares in each region. This year, Maryland-breds dominated the East Coast Premium Mare award list by taking 4 of the top 6 spots, including Reserve Champion. The horses are: Reserve Champion — Lismore (pictured above), a 2021 Oldenburg bred by Elizabeth Callahan (Cool Na Grena Sporthorses), by Levisonn out of Avalon (Fine Romance). #3 — Peyton HTF, a 2020 Dutch Warmblood mare bred by Hilltop Farm, Inc., by Kjento out of Raj Mahal HTF (Royal Prince). #4 — Grace Bay, a 2018 Westphalian mare, also bred by Elizabeth Callahan, by Grafenstolz out of Rehobeth (Riverman). #5 — Georgia HTF, a 2018 Hanoverian, also bred by Hilltop Farm, by George Clooney out of Unicum-D (Negro).  They are pictured below starting with Lismore at the top and the next three in order of placing from left ...
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Maryland-Bred OTTB Wins Training Level American Eventing Championship

Eventing

Ameristan
Maryland-bred Thoroughbred mare Ameristan took home the title in the Junior Training division at the American Eventing Championships in Kentucky yesterday!Ameristan is by Cosa Vera (KY) out of Seeking Allie (VA) (Seeking Daylight (KY)), and was foaled in Maryland on April 8, 2017. She was piloted with great enthusiasm by Tessa Geven of Cataula, Georgia. Geven has evented through the Training level with Ameristan as well as her Irish Sport Horse gelding Caheradoo Jack (Jack’s Delight x Caheradoo Echo (Clover Echo). She has also ridden up through Junior Intermediate with her imported Hanoverian dressage gelding Sir Frederico (Sandro HIT x Donnerfree (Don Frederico)). But it was her Maryland-bred mare that put her over the top this weekend. Congratulations ladies! — this post first appeared on the Maryland Horse Council’s website —
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Reproductive Health Alert: CEM Confirmed in 11 Domestic Ponies in Florida

Health Alerts

On May 23, 2024, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa confirmed a case of contagious equine metritis (CEM) in an 11-year-old domestic pony mare in Florida. CEM is a foreign animal disease that can affect fertility in horses and ponies. It is transmitted during live cover and artificial insemination, and it can also be transmitted through contaminated equipment and human hands. The U.S. eradicated the diseases in the contiguous 50 states in 2010. The last reported case in an American equine was in a Thoroughbred mare in Puerto Rico in 2013. The country had been considered CEM-free by the global veterinary community since then. Factual Summary This outbreak involves stallions, mares, and geldings; of all ages and breeds; on one farm in Central Florida. The 11-year-old mare had been bred by live cover on May 10th to a 3-year-old pony stallion. That pony stallion has since tested positive as well, along with ...
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