Elizabeth Shoudy

Top horsemen throughout the country, from show jumping and dressage to combined driving and the racetrack, call Jane Forbes Clark a true friend and supporter of horse sports.

And she’s developed this reputation through dipping her pen into almost every aspect of U.S. horse sports—she’s a former president of the American Horse Shows Association (now U.S. Equestrian Federation) and president and CEO of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.

Before winning the 2006 Ronnie Mutch Scholarship for up-and-coming young equitation riders, Zazou Hoffman had never ridden in a 3'6" equitation class, but it didn’t take her long to figure out how to be competitive.

After the R.W. Mutch Foundation granted Hoffman two weeks of free lessons with prominent trainer Missy Clark during the Winter Equestrian Festival (Wellington, Fla.), Hoffman began transforming herself into a force to be reckoned with.

The half-halt is one of the most essential tools in a rider’s repertoire and possibly one of the most misunderstood. What do some of the masters write about the half-halt and its application?

In his book, Dressage in Harmony: From Basic to Grand Prix, Walter Zettl asks, “What is the purpose of the half-halt?

With five Intercollegiate Horse Show Association national championship ribbons hanging on the barn wall, Cindy Ford knows what it takes to produce a winning riding team.

Since beginning her dynasty as the director of riding at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1988, she’s passionately devoted all of her energy to creating a riding program that attracts prospective students from all over the country.

It's not often that you hear about someone buying a sport horse off a two-minute Internet video. But Liz Hutchinson did just that with her horse Glow, who, only a year after commencing his jumping career, took home tricolor honors in the first year green division at the HITS Sundance Festival Horse Show, held Feb. 7-11 in Tucson, Ariz.

"That's the first time I've ever done anything like that!" said Hutchinson, who usually goes shopping for horses in Europe every few years.

A ubiquitous individual, Gary Baker doesn't ever seem to take a deep breath. Whether he's managing a horse show or selecting bulls and running the cattle breeding operation at Dot Smithwick's Sunnybank Farm (Va.), he never stops working until his head hits the pillow at night, and even then he often awakes to the phone ringing in his ear, another friend calling and asking for his help.

It's hard to imagine that the 16.3-hand gelding standing barefoot in a field with a long muddy coat, unclipped fetlocks and leaves in his tail is the same horse that cantered around the Dixon Oval at Devon (Pa.) last spring to tricolor honors, his gray coat gleaming and donning a snow-white tail and perfect braids. But it's true. Gray Slipper spends his time off from the horse shows with his best pal, an Appaloosa pony named Tic Toc, like a retiree in a field at Louise Serio's Derbydown in Kennett Square, Pa.

Despite a last-minute change of horse show venue, trainer and rider Russell Frey and Sinner's Prayer still kept their cool and pulled off multiple wins and dual circuit championships in the green conformation and second year green hunter divisions at the Gulf Coast Winter Series "Sunshine Circuit" in 2006.

Purchased for Bridget Moseley and Cladaugh Sport Horses from Todd Minikus, Sinner's Prayer, nicknamed "Rissin," matched Frey's vision for what a show hunter should be.

As 14-year-old Erika Mahlen lay on the ground after falling off while riding bareback, she had no idea that her accident would leave her bedridden for more than a month and out of the saddle for four months.

span style="font-style: italic;"> Some of the country's top hunter professionals and adult riders weigh in on whether the C-rated adult amateur hunter division is worthy of an A rating by the U.S. Equestrian Federation.

If the U.S. Equestrian Federation were to grant A-rated status to the adult amateur hunter division, it would mean that trainers would spend more time at the fall indoor shows, and adults would have to shell out more money and quite possibly more time in the show ring. Are today's adult amateur riders and professionals ready for this step?