Molly Sorge

Beth Underhill, who has represented Canada at the Pan American Games, Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games, announced she won’t be competing at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games this year.

Underhill, Schomberg, Ont., was on the winning Canadian Nations Cup team at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.) in March aboard Iron Horse Farm’s Top Gun. But on July 13, the day before Jump Canada announced its long list for the WEG, Top Gun’s owners informed Underhill that the Dutch Warmblood gelding would no longer be available for her to ride.

Nobody else was going to win the $30,000 Grand Prix of Traverse City, if Kim Farlinger had her way.

“I thought I didn’t leave much room to beat me. I was able to hold my gallop to all the fences, and he jumped really well,” Farlinger said. “I was watching everybody else, and they just didn’t get it done.”

After the last of the seven horses jumped off in the last class of Horse Shows By The Bay on July 18, Farlinger and her veteran Cordoba were leading the victory gallop.

Kelley Farmer hit it out of the park in the $15,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at Horse Shows By The Bay on July 16. She had five rides in the class, and ended up first and second on Bases Loaded and Taken.

Farmer has been unbeatable in the last three derbies she's shown in, and this one in Traverse City, Mich., was no different. She topped the first round on Taken, but then she overtook herself in the handy round on Bases Loaded. Both horses are owned by amateur rider Nancy Amling.

In this monthly series leading up to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in September and October, we watch a different competitor each month prepare for competition.

Does Adrienne Lyle ever sit up in bed in amazement at her situation?

“Every morning!” Lyle said.

Brendan Furlong spent five years earning his veterinary degree, but that certificate on his wall has little to do with what’s made him the respected veterinarian he is today. 

“He’s a vet second; he’s a horse-person first. Lots of people went to school and became a vet, but Brendan really understands horses,” said international eventer Buck Davidson.

In this monthly series leading up to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in September and October, we watch a different competitor each month prepare for competition.

For U.S. reiners, the battle began well before the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (Ky.) opening ceremonies.

“Oh, the places horses take us. He’s been an adventure from the start,” Joe Sandven said of Rachmaninoff.

And on May 21-23, Sandven and “Rocky’s” adventures led them to Wayne, Ill., for the Lamplight CDI, where they scored Sandven’s first CDI wins in the Grand Prix (65.06%) and the Grand Prix freestyle (71.25%).

As riders begin choosing to wear approved helmets into the ring, the scenery of dressage is changing.

There are certain benchmarks in the world of dressage, subtle signs that a rider has advanced to a certain level. Showing in a double bridle and riding flying changes in the ring are both goals to which riders aspire.

But nothing else carries quite the weight of the first time a rider puts on a top hat and tailcoat, or shadbelly, to show at the Fédération Equestre Internationale levels.

The Horse Radio Network and the United States Para Equestrian Association are hosting the first ever Para-Webathon tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (EDT). The purpose is to raise money and awareness for the U.S. Para-Equestrian athletes aiming to compete in the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

In this monthly series leading up to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in September and October, we watch a different competitor each month prepare for competition.

Winning an individual gold medal at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games had been Megan Benjamin’s goal for years. So when she stood atop the podium and looked at the gold medal hanging around her neck at the 2006 WEG, her mind spun.