Siobhan English

Flexing, the 12-year-old full sister to top show jumper Flexible, has been sold out of Ireland and will compete next season on the U.S. West Coast circuit. The 16.1-hand bay mare has been purchased by Claudia and Lloyd Thorsrud and is likely to be ridden by Ireland’s Damien Gardiner.

Horses and riders play a pivotal role in the annual game census deep in the Waterberg region of South Africa.

From the back of my trusty horse, Rafiji, I momentarily admired the lone male giraffe standing some 20 feet away before turning my attention to his companions nearby. I counted one male, three females and one calf.

Now in its 21^st year, the wildly successful sale moves some 2,000 ponies annually.

When founders Padraic Heanue and John Sweeney first conceived the idea of a small sale of Ireland’s much-loved Connemara ponies during the annual Clifden Connemara Pony Show in 1990, they had no idea it would lead to two decades of involvement in what has become Ireland’s biggest sales of these native ponies.

Having come so close to victory when runner-up in the Samsung Super League Nations Cup at Hickstead, England, on July 29, the U.S. team traveled the short distance to Dublin, Ireland, with high expectations on Aug. 4-7.