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Selena O'Hanlon (CAN) and Colombo

The winning ways of Canadian event horse Colombo have secured him yet another top honour in his illustrious career-Omega Alpha Canadian Event Horse of the Month.

Colombo, a 14-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding, owned by Elaine and Michael Davies of Kingston, ON, finished as the top Canadian entry at the prestigious Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, the only four star three-day event in the Americas, held April 23-26, 2009, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, USA, the site of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Under the guidance of his rider Selena O'Hanlon, 28, of Elgin, ON, Colombo scored 48.2 for 13th place in dressage. The pair then navigated the Michael Etherington-Smith's (GBR) cross country course where none of the obstacles proved to be a problem, and they crossed the finish line with no jumping faults, but 20 time faults, which put them in 23rd spot heading into the show jumping round. The pair finished in 20th place overall after incurring four jumping faults for a final score of 72.2 penalty points.

"Michael and I are absolutely delighted with this new award, and many thanks to Omega Alpha for sponsoring it," said Elaine Davies, who co-owns Colombo with her husband. "I get very emotional when I think about Colombo and his partnership with Selena. We also have to give credit to Morag O'Hanlon for her exceptional knowledge of horses. Both Selena and Morag were very patient in the beginning bringing Colombo back from surgery. They were very dedicated to figure out what makes him tick and what makes him happy, and this is what makes this partnership so successful. Many thanks must also go out to Canadian Eventing for this award."

Colombo and Selena O'Hanlon were also members of the Canadian Eventing Team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Canadian Eventing is very pleased to launch a new horse recognition program to celebrate the achievements of Canadian owned horses that represent Canada in North American competition. Canadian Eventing is also very pleased to announce Omega Alpha Pharmaceuticals' generous support of this new horse recognition program. Omega Alpha Pharmaceuticals' will be providing each owner of the "Horse of the Month" with a generous gift certificate of $200 credit towards the purchase of Omega Alpha products of their choice.

"At Omega Alpha Pharmaceuticals our main focus is to create natural health products that support the well being of both human and equine athletes," said Patti Hanco of Omega Alpha Pharmaceuticals Inc. "Our partnership with Canadian Eventing allows us to be a part of the development of many educational programs intended to benefit the health of these athletes while contributing something sustainable to the eventing community overall."