Photo by Jan Westmark

Grand Prix rider Joe Sandven, and his wife Helen Wiest, enjoy dinner at FENCE’s Dancing Under The Stars benefit in Tryon. Joe performed a Grand Prix Dressage Freestyle on his Rachmaninoff during the benefit.

Catching up: Results are coming in at press time for Dressage at Devon, and we wish to extend our congratulations to Tina Konyot and Calecto V, whose decisive victory in the Grand Prix Freestyle was the highlight of the six-day event. Tina’s 72.60% was well-earned.

Congratulations also to Marc Ulanowski, who competed in his very first Prix St. Georges classes this summer on his PRE stalllion JazminVII and qualified to compete in the Lamplight Championships in Wayne Illinois in early October. Marc was also busy obtaining his real estate brokers license when he wasn’t sailing in regattas on weekends. Is there anything that man doesn’t do?

Scott and Susanne Hassler are loving life at Riveredge. We caught up with them at Devon visiting the Trilogy Saddle booth. Scott told us to stay tuned for some real exciting things that will be offered at Riveredge and let me tell you, the facility in Chesapeake City, Maryland is gorgeous.

Climbing the Pony Ladder? Gawani Pony Boy move over. USDF Vice President, George Williams is the newest pony boy. George’s dressage career started on Shetland Ponies and he is featured in the new book, The Big Book of the Small Equine, climbing up a ladder to mount his pony! Too cute, George.

Hats off to Devon Hat Contest entry Nicolina Carnevale of Princeton, NJ. Her pink hat complete with cupcakes, bling and My Pretty Ponies was yummy!

It looked like the whole gang was at the Der-Dau/ Sho Clothes Devon bash. Elisabeth Niemi and Christina Baker, John, Katie Riley, Dr. Cesar Parra and Dr. Voler Mortis were among the crowd sharing the spirits and fingering the merchandise.

On the move: Heather Blitz will be moving her training base to a new location in Loxahatchee, Florida. Heather has been based in Europe for the past three years and is now ready to return Stateside to operate a training business alongside her riding career. Heather is also co-host of the Dressage Radio Show, a weekly podcast, which can be heard at www.dressageradio.com or by downloading the free subscription at iTunes or Zune. Heather offers a weekly training tip, which can be heard on the show. You can also follow Paragon’s Diary on the show too as Heather chronicles her young horse’s life in Denmark.

Jeremy Steinberg, a 1996 NAYRC Individual Gold Medalist, Grand Prix rider, and dressage teacher, has based his Jeremy Steinberg Dressage out of Jessica Lyman and Kevin Fink’s Traumhof in Carnation, Washington, since 2002. “It’s been an ideal working situation and I am so pleased to have been a part of Traumhof,” Jeremy told us. “Now we’re in the process of detaching our businesses from each other so that we can pursue separate professional goals.”

Jean-Pierre Hourdebaigt, an equine massage therapist and author, recently shot video segments at Carol Cohen’s Two Swans Farm in Wellington for a new website which will be called “Animal Awareness.” The new website will teach visitors how to provide a daily health care program for equines and canines.

Oded Shimoni has been coaching some of the biggest names in the eventing world, including Buck and Bruce Davidson, Phillip Dutton and Jan Byyny. In the past he has also helped other top eventers such as Bonnie Mosser, Jane Sleeper and Boyd Martin to keep America’s eventers in the winner’s circle.

Correction: Sidelines apologies to Mary Phelps for failing to properly credit her phelpsphotos.com with the September cover photo of Lars Petersen. While we were groveling over our mistake, Mary told us she is retiring as a horse show photographer in Florida, and turning the business over to another company while she concentrates on her website.

Charity: Mary Ann Grant’s Equestrian of the Year Competition that raises money for Leukemia Lymphoma extends to New England! Nancy Later, Ariel Matisse and Oak Hill Farm’s Mark and Linda Spengler hosted a fundraiser in September that had dressage and reining demonstrations.

Wedding bells: Nancy Pugh Later and Matthew Lavoie are getting married....!

Other Side of the Pond: During Burghley,Harry Meade was disqualified for riding an exhausted horse, Dunauger. The horse ended up hung up on Fence 19b Capabilities Classic. The rescue operation involved a tractor, and resulted in Mary King being held on course for BD hour. There were two upshots to this: Mary did an impromptu air hostess type display with her Point Two Air jacket for the crowd. And the tractor rolled away and crashed into three cars. Oopsie85the handbrake had been left off. Harry and Dungauer were thankfully unhurt.

Oliver Townend and Geoff Billington are undertaking a Winter Tour. Oliver of course just won Burghley and won Badminton earlier this year. He is dating Nina Barbour of The Bolesworth Classic. Seems that Equicision were asked if they could join the tour at some point and plans are still being discussed.

There is still massive unhappiness with the low attendance at the FEI European Championships at Windsor Castle, in England in August. The event managing group HPower was trying to use the excuse that the credit crunch was to blame, however the MASSIVE attendance at Burghley and Scope suggests otherwise. There are no excuses, it just wasn’t done properly and certain bodies were complacent.

Nailed in Germany! Susie Dutta who is training and showing in Germany needed some ‘emergency supplies.’ We hustled over to Kontiki in Wellington and caught up with husband Tim just in time to send over five packages of emergency fingernails!

Horses: Allie Lawaetz has sold Dario, ridden by Phillip Dutton to 3rd place at the Bromont ** this spring, to Mexico where he will represent Mexico at the Central and Pan American Games with his new rider.

News to share: New baby, engagement, pickup truck? On the move, having parties, falling off horses? Share what’s happenin’ with your dressage friends by e-mailing us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For all the photos and gossip subscribe!