Lindsay Berreth

On the same weekend, two ponies by the same Connemara sire trucked around intermediate courses and won.

 While some experienced intermediate horses struggled to make time or get around the intermediate track at Poplar Place Horse Trials in Hamilton, Ga., on March 21-14, Sparrow’s Owen, a 15.1 hand Connemara-Appendix cross powered through the muddy going in his first time at the level. By the end of the weekend, he’d achieved the only double-clear cross-country round to win the intermediate rider division with Megan Harris.

Watch "Owen's" performance at Poplar Place...

April 7 - Norwood, N.C.

While Lynn Symansky might not have had the ideal lead-up to The Fork CIC*** with Donner, she gritted her teeth and laid down a double clear cross-country ride over Tremaine Cooper’s deceptively tough track to take the win.

Symansky hadn’t competed Donner for five weeks since fracturing her right pinky finger riding a young horse. “I was lucky there weren’t a lot of drops out there, and there weren’t a lot of places where I dropped my reins. I do notice it, but the pain isn’t bad; it’s just a little annoying,” she said.

Norwood, N.C. - April 6

The standings shuffled quite a bit today after show jumping in the CIC***, CIC** and advanced divisions at The Fork International Horse Trials. Despite the buckets of rain and cold temperatures that plagued Thursday’s dressage, Friday and Saturday turned bright and sunny.

Horses and riders in the CIC and advanced horse trials divisions got a chance to test out the new Federation Equestre International format with show jumping on Saturday, followed by cross-country on Sunday, and plenty of horses were feeling fresh.

A fashion show might be the last place you’d think of finding a rider. But when show jumper Georgina Bloomberg was invited to be a guest on the E! Channel’s “Fashion Police,” she jumped at the chance.

Bloomberg’s publicist was friends with one of “Fashion Police’s” hosts, stylist George Kotsiopoulos, and when the weekly show decided to feature athletes in March, Bloomberg was a natural choice. The daughter of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Georgina is stylish and successful in the grand prix ring.

It took a while for Zachary Brandt to figure out how to drive Cavallino Cocktail. “It was like giving a kid who just got his permit a Ferrari,” Brandt joked.

But now he’s got all the gears and steering figured out, and moved up to advanced this season, winning their third outing at the level at the Galway Downs International Horse Trials (Calif.) on March 28-31.

The U.S. Dressage Federation has announced the inaugural Sport Horse Prospect Development Program, presented by Dressage at Devon, to be held Sept. 14-15 at Apple Knoll Farm in Millis, Mass.

The forum will be led by U.S. Equestrian Federation Young Horse Coach Scott Hassler and Ingo Pape, one of Germany’s most respected breeders and horsemen.

Hassler, a former chair and current member of USDF’s Sport Horse Committee, said that the idea for the forum came about as the group discussed the need for more education in the first year of a dressage horse’s career.

Boyd Martin has added another horse to his advanced string. The eventer put together a syndicate to buy Michelle Taylor’s Pancho Villa (Icarus De Carolina—SS Sassy, Stars N’Stripes), a 10-year-old Selle Francais gelding.

The Dressage at Equestrian Estates CDI*** scheduled for March 28-31 in Loxahatchee, Fla., has been canceled.

According to show manager Noreen O’Sullivan, the upcoming Easter holiday was the major factor for canceling. “Every couple of years when they do the date rotation with the licensed shows, this particular shows happens to fall on the holiday weekend with Passover and Easter,” she said. “It was really just sort of a logistical thing. You can’t reschedule because there’s a show every weekend, so we opted to just not host the CDI this weekend.”

On March 16, a horse stabled at the Beaufort Hunt Stables at Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England, was diagnosed with the neurological form of EHV-1. Officials believe a new horse that had recently been moved to the stables had been in contact with an outbreak of the disease at the nearby Heythrop Hunt in February.

Dutch Olympian Anky van Grunsven retired her longtime partner, Salinero, in two emotional ceremonies at the Indoor Brabant show in s’Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, on March 14-16.