Mongol Derby: Aussie Cousins race to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis

ABC.net.au - Full Article

By Jennifer Browning
June 20 2018

Fancy sitting on a horse for 10 days, travelling 1,000 kilometres through gruelling terrain with temperatures ranging from -5 degrees Celsius to 35C?

Crazy right?

Not for one Australian family.

Henry Bell and his three cousins, Rob, Ed and Jack Archibald are gearing up to race the Mongol Derby in August.

They are doing it to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis, a disease that has left Henry's dad, Rob Bell, wheelchair-bound.

"The concept of the ride was the Archibald boys, they were the ones who decided to do it and Ed's been the big pusher of raising money and awareness for Dad on behalf of MS," Henry said.

Mr Bell, speaking from his property south of Goulburn, said his son's and nephews' efforts were "flattering".

"For me it was very heartening to know young people are so keen to get rid of this terrible disease," he said...

Read more here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-21/mongol-derby-cousins-race-to-raise-awareness-multiple-sclerosis/9880488

Brazil: First Stage of Chevaux Endurance Cup Crowns Champion

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

Text: Cidinha Franzão
Photos: J.C. Markun for Chevaux

15 June 2018

Brasilia Country Club, Brasilia DF, Brazil. Saturday 26 May 2018. First Stage of Chevaux Endurance Cup also featured the Brazilian National Championship of 160km and 60km in Brasilia Country Club.

Less than a month after winning the Brazilian National Championship in the 120km, with Al Saida Larzac, Pedro Stefani Marino, this time riding RG Komo, dominated the 160km race which was divided into six loops. Pedro Marino became the first Brazilian to win two important titles in the 30 years of endurance racing in Brazil.

At 5:00 in the morning, eight combinations left in pursuit of the most important national title of the year. In addition to claiming the Brazilian champion title in the 160km, (total ride time of 08:19:04 and average speed of 19.47 km/h) the representative of São Paulo, Pedro Marino and RG Komo also won the Best Condition Award. During the six stages the dispute was fierce with Jose Caio Vaz Guimarães and Chambord Endurance, but the young Caio’s horse was eliminated in the last veterinary inspection by irregular gait, in this way the second place and the runner-up was for Felipe de Azevedo Morgulis and Saiph SBV...

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/first-stage-of-chevaux-endurance-cup-crowns-champion/

Botswana: De Graaff commends Ghanzi endurance horse riders

DailyNews.gov.bw

June 14 2018

A trustee of the Lady Khama Charitable Trust (LKCT), Christian De Graaff has applauded the Ghanzi Horse Endurance Relay (GHER) riders for their commitment and sacrifice.

De Graaff, who is also the co-founder of the GHER, said the riders had ensured a successful relay since inception in 2009.

He said the main objective of the initiative was to raise awareness on horse endurance riding as well as helping disadvantaged members of the society.

He was speaking at this year’s GHER stop-over in Sekoma on Wednesday, which started in Ghanzi and will end in Gaborone.

The relay, which covers a distance of over 700km in four days, is intended to raise funds for the LKCT.

“These young men and women that you see here today, embarked on this four day long endurance relay from Ghanzi to Gaborone to raise awareness on endurance horse-riding in Botswana, and more importantly, to raise funds for the Trust. For their efforts and sacrifice, we will forever be grateful,” he said.

A representative of the GHER riders, Seeiso Maine said their journey was a mixed one where they encountered challenges along the way.

He said even though the relay was fun, they were faced with challenges such as wild animals, especially dangerous snakes.

He urged young people to come forth and join them to keep away from the streets and also play a role in contributing to helping the less-advantaged members of the society.

GBR Confirm Nominated Entries for European Championships

Endurancegb.co.uk

- (Published:16 June 2018)

Endurance GB is delighted to confirm the submission of Nominated Entries for the Junior and Young Rider Championships due to take place in San Rossore, Pisa (ITA) on the 25th and 26th July 2018. The following combinations have been selected to represent Great Britain:



Charlie Chadwick on Hazelcroft Gosens Tsar

Kate Atkinson on DNS Ronaldo

Ollie Holman on Bronze Nahdir



Chef d’Equipe, Jo Chisholm, commented “All being well, the Definite Entries (which will be submitted on 19th July 2018) will constitute all three of our selected combinations. We are really happy with team for this Championship – we have a great mix of experience and new combinations to this level”.



Athletes must be aged between 14 and 21 and horses must be a minimum of 8 years old in order to compete at the Regional Championship. The 120km course is made up of four loops of 33km, 28km, 31km and 28km respectively. Pre-Ride vetting takes place at 4pm on the 25th July and the ride itself will start at 6.30am on the San Rossore Race Course (Pisa, ITA). FEI Medals are on offer for both team and individual podium placings with a prestigious Best Condition Trophy also to be won.



This will be Kate Atkinson’s third Championship, her second with selected mount DNS Ronaldo. The pair unfortunately failed to complete at their previous Championship, the Junior and Young Rider World Championships last year, also held in Italy. They will be looking to better their result this year and continue the excellent form we are used to seeing with this talented pair.



Charlie Chadwick with Hazelcroft Gosens Tsar will be tackling their second Championship course together. This combination was selected to represent Great Britain in 2016 where they travelled to Portugal as part of the British Team. An unlucky result saw their dream end at the second vet gate – so another combination with some demons to put to bed! Charlie and Tsar have been competing at International level together since 2014 so they know each other well and are sure to put in a great performance this time round.



A new combination in 2018 is Ollie Holman and Bronze Nahdir – that said, they’ve certainly arrived with a bang! Ollie has been competing in FEI competitions for just two years, but partnered with Bronze Nahdir, they have a perfect record this year competing two CEI2*, both in first place. Whilst they may be a new combination, Bronze Nahdir is more than used to the International scene having been competing in FEI Competition since 2014.



The GBR Young Rider team is being supplied team kit by sponsor Musto so they will be looking super smart to represent their country at this prestigious event. Horse and Rider profiles will be shared shortly and definite entries confirmed on the 19th July 2018. Further information on the event itself can be found on www.endurancelifestyle.it.

Voting Rights and Wrongs Revisited

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | June 14, 2018

A “record” 52 riders are contesting the upcoming athlete elections: so gushed a recent FEI press release. Well, it wouldn’t exactly be difficult to create a record: it is only the second time these elections have been held and – like any other new concept that people didn’t quite get at the outset – awareness first time round was inevitably muted.

Still, you can only applaud that so many active international riders want to shape the future by serving as athlete representatives on the FEI sports technical committees for the next four years. Despite the FEI’s random efforts to engage a more diverse population in policy-making, turn up at any FEI forum and you’ll quickly notice that 95 per cent of equestrian politicians are gray-haired and gray-suited.

So, in view of the surge in interest for the 2018 renewal, I hope the FEI doesn’t regret slashing voting rights to the elite few hundred riders, drivers and vaulters that have competed at recent Olympics and/or world championships. This mass disenfranchisement is a total contradiction of everything done – some of it arguably to the detriment of sporting prowess – to embrace the emerging equestrian nations.

The voting change was suggested last summer by the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC) https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/voting-rights-and-wrongs/ Their opposite numbers in dressage and eventing knew nothing about it till the ink was dry, and tell me they would have opposed it, had they realised in time. The FEI’s rationale for implementation was that very few people voted in 2014 – just 431 of 10,855 eligible riders.

That decision was surely premature, and the voting system should have been re-evaluated only if there is an equally poor response in 2018. Heaven help us, though, if the relative proportions do remain the same – there will more candidates than voters!...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/voting-rights-wrongs-revisited/

Canada's Wendy Benns: Going the Distance

HorseNetwork.com - Full Article

A veteran of the Canadian endurance team, Wendy Benns is no stranger to championship competition. She’s competed in three Pan American Games, the UAE World Cup in Dubai and the World Equestrian Games in Malaysia during her 20 year career. But with no seasoned horse in her stable and a wedding to plan in 2018, qualifying for this year’s WEG is an entirely new breed of challenge. Benns takes us on her whirlwind journey to qualify for Tryon 2018. As told to Carley Sparks.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying to qualify for the World Equestrian Games (WEG) and plan your wedding in the same year—unless you like to take on a challenge!
Each of those things on their own require a tremendous amount of planning and preparation. Put them together and, well, let’s just say there were moments when my fiancé, Jeremy Dupuis, probably thought I was a little on edge. (Or crazy. There’s a good chance that crossed his mind…)

But, in the end, I wouldn’t change a thing. It all came together just perfectly for us!

Jeremy and I were planning our wedding for March in Mexico. It was a destination wedding, so it was a little easier than planning a traditional one at home but it’s still a lot of work. As exciting and fun as it is to dream about your wedding day, a lot goes into pulling all the different pieces together, especially when you have a full-time job—I’m an animal control officer—and a stable full of horses on your property to manage.

I was consumed with all that and really wasn’t concerned about this year’s WEG.

Plus, I didn’t have a horse to do it.

I’ve been competing in endurance or over 20 years. As with any horse sport, always you’re looking to the next horse. For me, that’s usually meant breeding.

We bred my top mare, Flirt with Fyre (an offspring of my Pan American Games mount Flirt with Ecstasy) last year. She just had her foal in June, a chestnut filly that is the first ever Canadian-born/Asgard-bred Arabian. (And gorgeous, if I do say so myself!) Competition-wise, that left me with my upcoming horse Egalite. He only started competing in FEI last year, so my focus has been bringing him along. I figured either the stars would align and I’d qualify or I’d sit out this WEG.

Then the ride on a top endurance horse just sort of materialized...

Read more here:
https://horsenetwork.com/2018/06/wendy-benns-going-distance/

Estonia: Dubai based riders dominant in Padise Endurance Festival

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

9 June 2018
Race Report made with the assistance of PEC Team
Photo Credit: PEC Team

Padise Equestrian Centre, Padise County, Estonia. Thursday 24 and Thursday 31 May 2018.
In 2017 Padise Equestrian Centre hosted two FEI Endurance international events, this year Padise Equestrian Centre will host six endurance events under the Padise Endurance Festival.

The Padise Equestrian Centre is the brand-new capital of equestrian sports in Northern Europe located in beautiful Padise County, Estonia, near the cost of the Baltic Sea.

The third and fourth edition of the Padise Endurance Festival were held on 24 and 31 May 2018. These events gathered riders from dozen of European countries as well as from the UAE., including the Crown Prince of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who won the competition for 160 km at Padise Endurance Festival IV.

It was the first time in history of the Republic of Estonia that horses arrived by several planes and landed at Tallinn Airport. 24 horses came from Spain, Italy and Great Britain to compete in the championship level distance of 160 km...

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/dubai-based-riders-dominant-in-padise-endurance-festival/