Molly Sorge

On Feb. 1, John Madden Sales announced their Breeder’s Bridge To High Performance Contest. With the contest, John Madden hopes to provide a pathway for U.S.-bred horses from their breeders to top riders. Madden is a supporter of horses bred in North America—he has four U.S.-bred Thoroughbreds in training as well.

U.S. Equestrian Federation officials have posted the selection procedure for the U.S. show jumping team for the 2012 London Olympic Games. The selection process takes part in two phases—a series of four selection trials in late March after which a long list is formed, and then four designated observation events in May and June in which long listed competitors will compete. USEF officials need to submit Nominated Entries to the Federation Equestre Internationale and the U.S. Olympic Committee by June 17.

Three days after scoring a major win in the $50,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix, Katie Dinan still can’t quite believe what she did. “I'm still a little over the moon about the whole thing. It was definitely one of the most exciting things that's happened to me on or off a horse,” she said.

It’ll be mid-May before grand prix fans might see two-time Olympic gold medalist McLain Ward back in the ring. Ward, 36, suffered a compound fracture of his left patella, or kneecap, on the evening of Jan. 14.

Ward was riding Oh d’Eole in the $30,000 Surpass Grand Prix during the first week of competition at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla. Oh d’Eole, a 10-year-old Selle Francais mare, had won the $30,000 WEF Challenge Cup Round 1 two days before. “She was getting a little green under the lights [during the night class],” said Ward.

To develop riders and horses for the future, as discussed in Part 2 and Part 3 of this series, they need to go to horses shows. But participants in the Nov. 7 U.S.

Lifelong horsewoman Elizabeth Busch Burke died on Dec. 20. She was 76.

Mrs. Busch Burke, who resided at her Fox Lair Farm in Free Union, Va., was a daughter of August A. “Gussie” Busch Jr., the legendary patriarch of the Anheuser-Busch brewing empire, and Elizabeth Overton Busch. She grew up in St. Louis, Mo., and inherited her father’s love of horses. He had been an avid foxhunter and carriage driver and owned many horses for the U.S. Equestrian Team.

Wondering where the next generation of riders is going to come from is one thing. Questioning what they’ll be riding is a whole other topic.

Margie Engle is going to start the new year right, with a new top grand prix horse in the barn. Elm Rock Partners LLC recently acquired the 7-year-old Oldenburg stallion Royce from Ljubov Kochetova of Russia for Engle to ride.

In a horse show schedule that’s increasingly filled with gargantuan multi-week circuits run as a profitable business, the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show stands out. A small, unrated show that hosts 600 horses on Labor Day weekend each year, Ludwig’s Corner is a treasured gem to equestrians in the Chester County, Pa., area.

The Belgian Warmblood stallion Clair de Lune SE has traveled east from his breeder and owner Rose Sullivan’s SE Farm in Camarillo, Calif., to Florida. There, he’ll be stabled in the barn of eventer and show jumper Marilyn Little-Meredith, who will further his competitive career in both eventing and show jumping.