April 2022 Issue

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Date ____________________ Name ______________________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________ City ________________________________ State ___________ Zip ___________ Email ______________________________________________________________ Get East Coast Equestrian at home! East Coast Equestrian P.O. Box 8412, Lancaster, PA 17604-8412 (717) 509-9800 E-mail: PAEquest@aol.com www.eastcoastequestrian.net Published by Pennsylvania Equestrian, LLC Stephanie Shertzer Lawson, Editor and Publisher Contributors Marcella Peyre-Ferry, Suzy Lucine, Suzanne Bush, Haylie Kerstetter Lois Szymanski, Sylvia Sidesaddle Advertising Manager Debbie Reid Advertising Sales Manager Phyllis Hurdleston Published 11 times a year. Submissions of articles, events and photos are welcome and should be received by the 10th of the month preceding publication. Please call (717) 509-9800 for advertising rates or visit www.pennsylvaniaequestrian.com. We cannot accept copyrighted photos without permission from owner. You must have permission before reprinting anything from East Coast Equestrian. For permission please call (717) 509-9800 or email steph@eastcoastequestrian.net USTA Communications Press Release At the U.S. Trotting Associa- tion’s annual meeting in Colum- bus, Ohio, on March 13, the Board of Directors voted to keep freeze brands as an optional form of additional horse identification. Since Jan. 1, 2022, the USTA has required that all horses be micro- chipped for identification in order to be eligible for racing. “The rule change propos- als to require a freeze brand in addition to a microchip were discussed at every district meet- ing and were seriously debated by the directors here at the annual meeting,” said USTA Executive USTA Board Votes to Keep Freeze Brands Optional Vice President and CEO Mike Tanner. “In the best interests of all USTA members that they represent, along with consultation with representatives from Stan- dardbred Canada, the directors voted to keep only the microchip mandatory for horse identifica- tion, but strongly encourage all horse owners and breeders that so desire to add a freeze brand to their horses. “The USTA and Standard- bred Canada remain the only ma- jor breed registries in the world to offer this option as a second means of identification.” Microchips are the internation- al standard for equine identification for all breeds. With the exception of Standardbred Canada, which re- cently changed its policy to reflect the USTA’s policy of allowing for optional freeze brands, no other breed registry allows for secondary horse identification, such as freeze brands or lip tattoos. The USTA has partnered with Merck Animal Health for the use of Bio-Thermo microchips that incorporate temperature scanning as well as horse identi- fication. In addition, coupling the USTA Chip ID app, featuring the EquiTrace horse health manage- ment system, consolidates equine health record keeping including temperature charting, logging therapeutic medications, veteri- narian records, GPS and more. By Sylvia Sidesaddle Well, hello again darlings and welcome to spring! Horse World Expo was a roaring suc- cess—expo on steroids this year. Syl loved catching up with all her darlings, out and about—in person!— and having horsey fun. The best is yet to come! So, onto the scoop. The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.) will be sponsoring more than 7,000 awards and classes at more than 1,400 shows in 46 states in 2022. Awards are available for multiple disciplines, including eventing, dressage, Western and English pleasure, hunter/jumper, endurance, barrel racing, and polocrosse. A full calendar of shows offering awards is avail- able at tjctip.com . AND… of the 13 youngsters named to the 2022 T.I.P. Youth Ambassador Program, two are locals: Karlie Dennis of PA and Savannah Lacey of Maryland. How excit- ing darlings! Equitana USA, which was to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in the fall of 2022, is yet another Covid casualty. Says the producer, “EQUITANA USA will not be taking place in 2022. Our vision for the event was to be a place that offered endless eques- trian shopping, education, and entertainment from both domestic and international markets. How- ever, as the pandemic continues to cause global challenges, we will take the necessary time to pause and reevaluate plans for the future.” Several locals have been added to the 2022 Eventing Development Athlete Program, a step in the eventing pathway that will hopefully lead to Elite or Pre-Elite status within the next two to three years. They are Lil- lian Heard (Cochranville, Pa.) and Dassett Olympus, her own and Deborah Greenspan’s 2013 Irish Sport Horse gelding; Car- oline Martin (who is in Miami Beach for the winter but summers in Riegelsville, PA) and Redfield Champion, a 2014 Hanoverian gelding; and HSH Vamonos, both owned by Caroline and Sherrie Martin ; and Caitlin Silliman (Kennett Square, Pa.) and Ally KGO, a 2011 Trakehner mare owned by her and the Ally KGO Syndicate, LLC. Congratulations, ladies, we will be watching you do great things! Speaking of eventing, Boyd Martin is hiring for his Windurra USA stable in Cochranville, PA. He’s looking for an assis- tant groom, to work under the world-famous Steph Simpson , good salary and accommodations included, and a working student with or without horse. The work- ing student will be doing lots of farm work, mucking and groom- ing along with riding, but lessons are included, and it will become a paid position after a trial. To apply email steph.simpson15@ gmail.com or phone (802) 535- 4763. The highly popular Mid-At- lantic Thoroughbred Champi- onships Series (MATCH), the only one of its kind in racing, returns for 2022 with additional partner racetracks, a $2.2 million stakes schedule that spans April 16 through Oct. 3 and more than $400,000 in bonus money for owners, trainers and breeders., Parx Racing and Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course return to the lineup. They will join Laurel Park in Maryland and Colonial Downs in Virginia for 2022. ‘New-age equine athlete experts’ Exceed Equine have opened an equine evaluation and training center at Dream Big Stables in New Egypt, NJ. The facility’s mission is to disrupt the $64.9B equine performance industry with an ‘infusion of science-driven technology, performance biomechanics, and analytics’, initially focusing on the Standardbred segment of the horse racing industry. Those will include “new technologies, cus- tom feed regimens, supplements, training programs, therapy devices, and other protocols to significantly enhance the perfor- mance of racehorses and open up limitless opportunities for the entire equine sports market,” said Exceed Equine founder and CEO Michael Calderone , a 30-year veteran of the racing industry and CEO of Horse Racing Simulations. Stay tuned darlings!!! Hope Hand , Newtown Square, PA, is the first Pa- ra-Olympic equestrian to be awarded the post-nominal letters “PLY” to be added to her name. In years prior Olympic athletes have bestowed the honor of hav- ing “OLY” post-nominal letters; this is the first time Paralypians have been awarded the honor. The PLY letters honor the com- mitment, dedication, and hard work the athlete put in for many years and their continuing to be an ambassador for their high-per- formance sport. Congratulations Hope! Alice Tarjan (Oldwick, NJ) has been tearing up the dressage rings at the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival in Florida this winter. Her own seven- year-old mare Summersby II, by Sezuan x Sandro Hit, produced 71.617% to top the Summit Farm Future Challenge at Prix St. Georges level. She won the Grand Prix Special CSI4* with her own Serenade MF, at nine years old the youngest horse in the class. She purchased the American Hanoverian mare by Sir Donnerhall I x Don Princi- pe as a foal and brought along herself. Syl is expecting great things! Two barns at Parx Racing were quarantined after a horse was euthanized in early March. Equine herpesvirus was sus- pected and later confirmed. No horses were allowed to ship out and several barns from New York scrapped plans to ship in for four $100,000 races. The same week, a horse that was euthanized in Montgomery County, MD was confirmed to have had equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopa- thy, the neurologic form of EHV- 1. That horse had been stabled in a 44-horse barn. ‘Tis the season darlings. The FEI has removed all equestrian events in Russia and Belarus from its calendar and barred all athletes, horses and officials from those countries from competing in FEI events. US Equestrian is joining with the FEI to provide support to the equestrian community of Ukraine by establishing the USEF Ukraine Relief Fund. 100% of funds collected will go directly to those in need of sup- port. FEI is liaising closely with the Ukrainian equestrian feder- ation and neighboring countries to facilitate support. To chip in, visit USEF.org/donate. And that’s it for now! Until next time, remember to S.S.S. (Send Syl Scoop) at PAEquest@ aol.com . And…be careful where you step!