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.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — While Olympic equestrians are in pursuit of their golden moments in London at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, some West Coast riders recently returned from the 2012 Adequan/FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC) with their own prestigious hardware.

Five disciplines — a total of nine championships for juniors and young riders — took part in the only FEI Championship to be held annually in North America. The NAJYRC, the premier equestrian competition in North America for junior and young riders aged 14-21, took place July 16-22 at Kentucky Horse Park.

AMARILLO, Texas — Longtime breeder and world champion exhibitor Greg Whalen of Clements will be among five inductees into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame who will be honored at the 2013 American Quarter Horse Association Convention next March in Houston. Joining Whalen will be Bill Brewer of Amarillo, Texas; Kenny Hart of Ruidoso Downs, N.M.; Frank Merrill of Purcell, Okla.; and the late Guy Ray Rutland of Independence, Kan.

26th in a series
Last issue, Les explained the components of vertical flexion. Now we’ll take a deeper look.

We say a horse is “soft in the bridle” when he has achieved soft vertical flexion – that is, when the horse will drop his nose by rounding his neck and poll whenever he feels light contact with both reins. Your ultimate goal is to get this reaction from your horse before you’ve even taken all the slack out of your reins – like you could ride with silk threads and not break them – wouldn’t that be great! We all dream about it!

Futurity season is here – and the California Horsetrader is right in the middle of it! Come with us to the 2012 National Stock Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity, scheduled for Aug. 13-19 at the Paso Robles Event Center. Deadline for this popular annual NSHA Futurity Program Issue is Monday, Aug. 6th!

Hobby Horse Clothing Company is currently looking for horse-and-rider teams to star in their 2013 catalog as Hobby Horse models! If you’re a show girl with a show horse, check out Hobby Horse’s current display ad on page 37 for model search guidelines and more info. Photos and contact info must be submitted by Sept. 1st, so don’t wait too long! Good luck, we hope you’re a Hobby Horse Model Search winner!