Ecogold-rider McLain Ward on the TODAY Show!

McLain Ward, who rides in ECOGOLD saddle pads, was interviewed on NBC's Today Show, with fellow show jumper Georgina Bloomberg, to talk about the World Equestrian Games. Here are some photos!

TODAY show host Matt Lauer interviews Georgina Bloomberg and McLain Ward

McLain was there to talk about the World Equestrian Games

"So..you guys jump big jumps like this?" "Yep!"

Wohooo!! Let's go for GOLD!!

Sapphire gets her close-up...and her ECOGOLD saddle pad underneath!

World Equestrian Games will be televised on NBC

ECOGOLD riders dominate US Eventing Team Selection for World Equestrian Games

Not only has the US Eventing Team chosen to ride in ECOGOLD Saddle pads at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, but when the final selection list was announced earlier this week, we were proud to see a majority of the team formed by ECOGOLD-sponsored riders.

The United States Equestrian Federation has named the following horse and rider combinations as the team and individuals to the U.S. Eventing Team for the FEI World Equestrian Games which will take place from September 25-October 10, 2010 in Lexington, KY.

Congratulations to the riders who made the selection! Click on their names for their profiles in our Hall of Champions:

Team USA Riders:

Buck Davidson and BallyNoe Castle RM
Phillip Dutton and Woodburn
Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos
Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan

Individual riders:

Karen O'Connor and Mandiba
Becky Holder and Courageous Comet

ECOGOLD rider McLain Ward and Sapphire Win Richest Grand Prix in Show Jumping History

HITS Press Release/ Photos: ESI Photography.

Two-time US Olympic Gold Medalist McLain Ward of Brewster, New York, who rides in ECOGOLD Saddle pads,  and his majestic, "million-dollar" mare, Sapphire, owned by McLain Ward and Blue Chip Bloodstock, won the inaugural Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix on Sunday, September 12 at HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties, New York.

The legendary duo of Ward and Sapphire proudly added their names to the show jumping history books once more when they bested a field of 43 High-Performance riders before an energetic and enthusiastic crowd of thousands that lined all four berms surrounding the Strongid Stadium. Sunday's line-up featured some of the best and most promising athletes and horses in the sport, including some of America's brightest up-and-coming stars and several American and International Olympians..

Olympic Course Designer Steve Stephens of Palmetto, Florida set a challenging and technical course that was decorated to the hilt by Olympic Course Decorator Flora Baptiston of Brazil.

"The course was brilliant," explained Ward. "Steve [Stephens] has been a great course designer for years, and he was a brilliant rider before that. Today was a great balance of tests."

After a successful week of show jumping, the Strongid Stadium was transformed into a field of dreams, as custom jumps, exclusive to the Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix, including a fence from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, set the stage for the biggest event of the year.

Another ECOGOLD rider, Charlie Jayne of Elgin, Illinois and The London Group's Athena led the crowd to a thunderous applause when they captured the first clear effort of the class. The pair finished second in the jump off.

"This was the biggest class I've ever competed in," said Jayne. "I felt the presence of the crowd, and that we were all jumping for the fans today. HITS did a great job of getting an audience to come out for the class."

Jayne and Athena tasted success earlier in the season at HITS-on-the-Hudson when they captured the $125,000 Strongid© C 2X Grand Prix, presented by Pfizer Animal Health.

The best was saved for last when Ward and Sapphire immaculately took the victory with a faultless round in 44.782 seconds, as the crowd witnessed history-in-the-making for the once-in-a-lifetime pair.

"I owe my career to her [Sapphire]," said Ward, who now nears the four-million dollar mark on his mare. "I watched Charlie go, and I've got to say, standing at the gate, I was nervous. There was a lot of money on the line."

Ward and Sapphire led the way in a victory gallop, joined by the top 20 horse-and-riders of the class as the crowd cheered approvingly of the outcome.

"McLain is the best rider I've ever seen, probably will ever see, so it's an honor to be in second place," exclaimed an ecstatic Jayne. "I'm grateful to be able to compete in a class like this...it was an excellent event today, and I couldn't ask for anything more."

A sneak peek at the saddle pads for the World Equestrian Games

ECOGOLD is busy this month making the saddle pads for teams that will be competing at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in less than a month.

Here are some photos...

Canadian Dressage Team Saddle pads are ready!

Ashley Holzer's saddle pads

Canadian Eventing Team Cross-country saddle pads

Some riders have special saddles, which means custom saddle pads - this is Rebecca Howard's

Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch's pattern on the cutting table

US Eventing Team Saddle pads - don't worry, they will be ready...

Team USA's Cross-country Saddle pads

Phillip Dutton's special pattern for his blue XC saddle

Will look like this.

What every rider should know about Protective Horse Boots

When we started developing our line of horse boots, we took a look at the products that were already in the market.
First, as a textile engineering company, we know about materials. And we were amazed by the amount of ridiculous claims on labels: from breathable-neoprene (which doesn’t exist. Neoprene is an insulator and is not breathable) to 95%+ shock absorption (you can’t measure impact in an absolute percentage, it depends on the impact force). Yikes! No wonder people don’t know what to believe.

As a protective safety device, we were surprised that there weren’t uniform testing requirements that all manufacturers needed to comply with, specially with regards to impact, as there are for helmets or safety vests.

We did comparative studies, looked at the key important factors and also, talked to grooms and top riders to see how we could develop a horse boot that would offer the best protection to the horse.

Video - What every rider should know about protective Horse Boots

1. IMPACT PROTECTION

First and foremost, the reason why you put a boot on your horse is for protection. When we started looking for the best impact material in boots, we discovered many choices. Some boots use plastic shields, metal plates, and amazingly enough, some brushing boots don’t have any protection at all. The problem with the metal or plastic shield, is that even if it protects (some brands better than others) it remains stiff, which is not comfortable for the horse and has the potential to create rubs. Our discussions with top riders and grooms made it clear that our boots needed to be flexible, so we had to look for a material that would not only have high impact strength, but also be flexible.

We found polycarbonate, a bullet-proof material designed to absorb shock in high-impact situations. Developed originally for the aerospace industry, polycarbonate is used for airline windows, NASA Space Shuttles and also for protective helmets, riot police shields and bullet-proof windows.  There is plenty of data on its resistance to impact.

"With 20 times the impact resistance of fiberglass and over 40 times the impact resistance of glass or acrylic. At a thickness of .033", a Polycarbonate sheet can withstand over 240 inch-pounds of impact. This equates to a 3/4" hailstone falling at 96 miles per hour! Polycarbonate sheet maintains this superior impact resistance at temperatures ranging from 40°C to 250°C."

We also did our own comparative impact test – hitting different brands with an axe. We were amazed by the results.

Video - Axe Impact test ECOGOLD Horse Boots 

Besides the impact protection advantages, polycarbonate is very light, flexible and offers a uniform level of protection at different temperatures. So riding in tropical hot and humid or freezing conditions, would not affect its performance.

2. HEAT build-up – Breathability

Air-vents or no air-vents? As riders try to determine breathability by checking the number of air-vents on horse boots, we knew that our key advantage would be in making the entire surface of the boot entirely breathable, as we had successfully done for our dressage boots. So, our boot doesn’t need air-vents – which can help neoprene-boots become slightly more breathable but can also offer a weak impact point (less protection where it’s open) and allow sand and dirt to get in.

Our expertise in combining micro-fiber and our unique 100% breathable memory-foam (our breathable memory-foam is completely vented, like a mesh, so it does not trap moisture or heat in, as might happen with regular memory-foam) offer an entirely breathable surface, to quickly dissipate the heat.

There was an independent test done at a competition in the UK measuring the temperature of the horse’s legs after the XC. Results found that the horses using our boots were 1.5 degrees cooler than with the number one boot in the UK.

3. RESTRICTION - Flexibility

It was clear from the beginning that we needed to make very flexible boots, not only to offer greater comfort to the horse, but also reduce friction and prevent rubs. Stiff boots limit the freedom of movement.

Rubs and skin irritation can be caused by the materials used (many horses are allergic to neoprene), but also due to the boot design. Top grooms strongly recommended making a boot without any trim to prevent friction.

The breathable memory-foam, which conforms to the horse’s legs with the flexibility of the Polycarbonate shield and designing the boots without any trim, feel like a second skin. That's what you want. The more flexible, the more comfortable for the horse, but without compromising on the level of impact protection.

4. WEIGHT – One of the reasons why we are using the Polycarbonate shield is that it’s lightweight compared with other materials of similar resistance, which allows our boots to weigh as the lightest ones in the market approximately 250 grams.

The fact that they are 100% breathable allows them to quickly evaporate the sweat, maintaining their weight constant during a competition. By using water-repellent materials, the tests done on the field show that there is little water absorption when going through the water jumps. 

For more information about ECOGOLD Horse Boots, please click here!

Phillip Dutton Eventing Academy - Cross-country Session

Here are a few videos from a cross-country session at Phillip Dutton's Eventing Academy, last Wednesday.

Dutton Camp 2010 - Cross-Country 1/4 - Warm-up

Dutton Camp 2010 - Cross-Country 2/4 - Jumping Logs

Dutton Camp 2010 - Cross-Country 3/4 - The Coffin 

Dutton Camp 2010 - Cross-Country 4/4 - Water Jump 

Phillip Dutton Eventing Academy - Grooming Videos

Here are grooming tips from True Prospect Farm groom Kelley Merette:

 Dutton Camp 2010 - Grooming - Braiding Part 1

Dutton Camp 2010 - Grooming - Braiding Part 2

 

Dutton Camp 2010 - Grooming - How to take out horse's braids

Dutton Camp 2010 - Grooming : How to pull a horse's tail  

Dutton Camp - Grooming  - Quarter Marks