GREENWICH, UK — When the equestrian competition at the 2012 Olympic Games ended Aug. 9, the U.S. medal drought had continued. Steffen Peters and Ravel carried the weight of a nation into main arena for the Freestyle, which would determine the Individual medals, and the most consistently clutch combination in U.S. Dressage history didn’t have the day they were hoping for.

Great Britain did.

DEL MAR — Nick Haness outdueled John French, breaking the veteran’s win streak June 28 aboard the famous Small Affair, and young gun jumper Tina Di Landri stole the show by outrunning the fearless Josephina Nor Lanzman in the June 29 $30,000 Grand Prix jump-off.

Those match-ups atop the respective hunter and jumper divisions highlighted a memorable weekend return of the Blenheim EquiSports series to Showpark in Del Mar.

Cow horses and cowabunga came together July 21-22 for the Fourth Annual Surf and Turf Clinic, a unique mix of California surfing and horsemanship featuring world class instructors of both sports. Russell Dilday, Jake Gorrell and Jimmy Flores handled the turf teaching, while the surfside instruction came from Izzy Paskowitz, Matt Morrey, Joshua Tracy with help from assistants Trevor Tanner and Morgan Lyons — son of Tom Lyons.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. –- Michell Anne Kimball instantly sensed something special in September 2009 when she was presented a 2-year-old reining prospect that had been started by the late John Slack.

Kimball, who just five years earlier had ridden her first reining horse after two decades of success as a Southern California hunter-jumper trainer, bought the colt, and Spooks Gotta Whiz has proved her right.

In three years, the flashy stallion has won more than $317,000 and reining’s biggest events, the latest coming June 30 when Shawn Flarida rode him to victory in the National Reining Horse Association’s Open Derby Finals. The win also slid Spooks Gotta Whiz into history as the second horse ever to claim reining’s “Triple Crown” – winning the NRHA Futurity, the National Reiner Breeder’s Classic and the NRHA Derby.

LONDON — As the world’s best horses and riders assemble at Greenwich Park for the 2012 Olympic Games, here is some information you didn’t know about Equestrian Team USA. (And, some infomration you’d like to know — the schedules of events and the NBC programming schedule).

* Tiana Coudray of Ojai won Team Gold at the 2008 FEI North American Young Rider Eventing Championships on her 2012 Olympic mount Ringwood Magister. This pair was second out of more than 100 horses at last fall’s Fidelity Investments Blenheim International CCI3*. They also won the Jersey Fresh CCI3* in 2010.

TEMECULA — The Southern California Reined Cow Horse Association hosted the region’s top cow horse and reiners July 5-8 with The Grand, a four-day event that offered up SCRCHA, NRCHA, CRHA and AQHA classes.

The show, managed by Track One Events, drew 240 horses from Southern California and Arizona competing for a total payout of $23,000.

“The weather was unseasonably cool the first few days, and I think the Arizona exhibitors may have complained that it was cold,” kidded Poncie Gimple of Track One. “Folks did have to break out their sweatshirts and jackets.”

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — It was déjà vu as Josephina Nor-Lantzman and Tina Di Landri went head-to-head again in a jump-off for the second time in three weeks.

This time, Nor-Lantzman and Chello Z had the upper hand, winning the $30,000 Red, White and Blue Classic Grand Prix on June 30.

Three weeks earlier at the $30,000 Blenheim Classic Grand Prix, Di Landri had put up the final time and bested the field, leaving Nor-Lantzman in second.

PASO ROBLES — In a thrilling finish, Todd Crawford and Sinful Cat delivered a big fence work score when they needed it most to clinch the newly renamed Jack and Phoebe Cooke National Reined Cow Horse Association Derby Open Championship and win a check for $32,742.

This year’s NRCHA Derby, held June 12-17 at the Paso Robles Events Center, featured 4- and 5-year-olds by NRCHA Subscribed Stallions competing in snaffle bits and hackamores. The competition includes many of the top Snaffle Bit Futurity horses from the previous year, as well as those who might not have been ready for the Futurity, but who are now able to perform competitively.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Australia’s Harley Brown continued to heat up along with the Blenheim EquiSports hunter-jumper season, taking first and third places in the $30,000 June Classic III Grand Prix June 24 at the Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park. Seven nations represented the field of 20 horse-and-rider combinations at the show.

Nearing the end of the qualifying round, Brown was the one to catch with both o his jump-off qualifiers, Angelli and Cassiato. With two riders to go, Nicole Shahinian-Simpson ensued and qualified her mount, Picturized, for the jump-off.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Young riding talent made its mark at the Mission Viejo Riding Park June 6-10, as Blenheim EquiSports launched its three-week June Classic Series with a remarkable group of up-and-comers at the June Classic I.

The leading headliner was 20-year-old Tina Di Landri, who outrode an international field by more than a second in a nail-biting jump-off to win the $30,000 Blenheim June Classic Grand Prix, presented by St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa.