HORSE SPORT AUGUST 16, 2012 | 0 COMMENTS
Double gold for Bahrain, while France takes all silver and bronze
by Louise Parkes
Bahrain claimed gold in both the seven and eight year old categories at the FEI World Championships for Young Endurance Horses 2012 at Babolna in Hungary at the weekend. HH Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa topped the seven year old section with Dhab, while Jaffer Mirza brought Uszko D’Hotelhoge home to claim the eight year old title. And French riders scooped all the remaining medals, with Vincent Dupont (Khandjar du Boulve) and Laurent Mosti (Assiha de Fignols) taking silver and bronze in the younger horse division while Arthur Desprez (Glycin de Suleiman) and Melissa Bisoffi (Nadia El Fee de Boz) did likewise with their older horses.
This year’s FEI World Championships for Young Endurance Horses attracted competitors from 15 countries – Bahrain, France, Poland, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Norway, Estonia, Austria, Argentina, Spain and Belgium.
State Stud Farm
The event was staged at the famous Babolna State Stud Farm which, lying halfway between Vienna (AUT) and Budapest (HUN), is one of the oldest breeding stations in Europe.
Established in 1789 as a Royal Imperial Stud of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the mission of supplying horses to the army and the Royal Guard, it was originally a branch of the largest military breeding operation in Europe at Meszohegyes, near the Romanian border. However Babolna quickly became the source of the Empire’s elite horses, specialising in the production of top-quality Arabian pure-breds and larger part-breds, the latter developing into the Shagya Arabians that are so popular and successful today.
Despite suffering severe losses, the Stud survived both World Wars and eventually came under the control of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. In 2001 the State-owned company, Babolna Memzeti Menesbirtok Kft, was established to preserve the historic complex, and the Stud continues to promote breeding, training, exhibitions and competition organisation in the region...
Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/fei-world-endurance-championships-for-young-horses-2012-babolna-hun/
