NBC to Feature World Equestrian Games

  NBC Sports will air a special on the 2006 World Equestrian Games. The special, which will air September 24 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. ET on local NBC stations, includes a feature segment on reining.

The event recently was held in Aächen, Germany. The 90-minute NBC special will highlight the event and will preview the 2010 World Equestrian Games, which will be held in Lexington at the Kentucky Horse Park.

With 74 competitors from 22 countries, reining made its spectacular appearance on the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games scene with the team competition on Friday, September 1.  

In front of some 8,000 excited spectators, team USA (Dell Hendricks/Starbucks Sidekick; Tim McQuay/Mister Nicadual; Matt Mills/Easy Otie Whiz; Aaron Ralston/Smart Paul Olena) became the 2006 World Team Reining Champions with a composite score of 665. Canada (Luke Gagnon/Lil Santana; François Gautier/Snow Gun ; Lance Griffin/Whiz N Tag Chex ; Duane Latimer/Hang Ten Surprize) took the silver (664) and Italy (Dario Carmignani/Skeets Dun; Adriano Meacci/Docs Tivio Hancock; Christian Perez Dualin For Me; Marco Ricotta/Peppy Secolo) got the bronze (656).

Reining became an FEI discipline in 2001 and made its big international debut at the 2002 FEI World Equestrian Games at Jerez, Spain. The number of international competitions has grown from three in 2001 to 43 in 2005 and the discipline is consistently expanding. Competitors from the Czech Republic, Poland, Israel and South Africa were part of the competition.

The World Equestrian Games in Kentucky are scheduled for September 25 to October 10, 2010. The event is expected to draw more than 500,000 attendees and have a potential economic impact of about $150 million.

The two-week event, which takes place every four years, includes the world championships of seven equestrian sports: show jumping, dressage, eventing, driving, reining, vaulting and endurance riding.

For more information on this year’s World Equestrian Games, visit aqha.com.