POMONA — Rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of the region’s Arabian exhibitors who filled the Fairplex Jan. 25-27 for the 38th Annual Sierra Empire Arabian Horse Association show. The venue attracted top talent looking to start a new show season and prepare for the upcoming Scottsdale Arabian Show this month.

Once held in April, the SEAHA event moved to January three years ago when the venerable Whittier Lions Horse Show ended its 48-year run.

Temecula-based trainer Katherine Rich-Elzig, the granddaughter of Whittier Lions Show founder and leader, Dr. Harold West, looks forward to the January competition.

THERMAL — When Hope Glynn and Campari won the $5,000 Devoucoux Hunter Prix on Jan. 27, it capped a great week of competition at HITS Desert Circuit I and put an exclamation point on a string of successes by Sonoma Valley Stables.

It also was one for the record books, marking the first high-stakes competition on the HITS Desert Horse Park’s new Outside Course and the first circuit qualifier for the Diamond Mills $500,000 Hunter Prix Final this September in Saugerties, N.Y.

BURBANK — It may not have been a day at the races, but Tommi Clark’s win-place-show stranglehold on the $2,500 USHJA Hunter Derby certainly brought some excitement to the LAEC Opener Horse Show, held Jan. 18-20 at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — He was the first American in 25 years to win the Rolex/FEI World Cup Final, highest placing U.S. Equestrian at the London 2012 Olympic Games, and winner of all four observation classes he entered. Now you can call Rich Fellers 2012 USEF Equestrian of the Year as well.

SAN DIEGO — Two years after San Diego County horse-owners lobbied county officials to revamp an onerous countywide ordinance, the revised rules are on the homestretch, say county officials.

THERMAL — In a thrilling contest that came down to the final seconds of the jump-off, Mandy Porter of Encinitas took Plum Creek Hollow Farm’s Con Capilot to victory in the $50,000 EMO Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health, bringing the first week of competition at HITS Desert Horse Park to a heart-pounding conclusion.

36th in a series
After looking with Les at Body Control exercise on the fence last issue, we look at a new exercise involving hip control.

A beautiful thing about advertising in the Horsetrader is that by simply placing an ad in the popular glossy magazine, the ad also appears online (on Horsetrader.com, which gets about 2,000 unique visitors daily) and on Facebook®, as each ad is totally integrated into the social media network. Now you also can add video to any type of ad – at no charge! Simply click on the YouTube® link when you order your ads online, and the video will play right next to your ad. If you’d like guidance, just call our helpful sales and customer service staff, and we’ll set you up.