Namibia hosts World Riders at Walvis Bay

Namibia Endurance news

Namibia Endurance Ride Association
News
31/05/2007 Team from Brazil also at Walvis bay ride.

Brazil has announced their "Young Rider Team" to ride at the Walvis bay Championships. Guilherme Santos was nominated as Coach and the team, Aline Hnório, Ana Carla Maciel, Karina Arroyo, Mariana Salles, Naira Dias and Patrícia Taliberti to ride in Namibia, representing Brazil. It looks like the Walvis bay Africa Championships will be an interesting event with riders from all over the word. Here at home, our local riders and the NERA Committee are all preparing for the biggest Equestrian event of the year in Namibia.
31/05/2007 NHF APPALOOSA 2nd Annual Fun Day


30/05/2007 Australia rides with us at Walvisbay 2007

An Australian team will be taking part in the Walvisbay 2007 Championships. The final Australian team will be announced on the 07 June. (We will keep you posted) The Chef D'Equipe, Australian Endurance Team, Dr Trish Annetts and her team are sure to give our Namibian riders good competition, and more international exposure. They are well experienced riders and compete regularly on international rides. Check out the Australian website http://www.aera.asn.au/ .

NERA will announce the Namibian Team in a few days to come. Keep a look out for updates and info about the ride on the Walvisbay Africa Championships 2007 webpage, it will soon be updated almost daily, during and after the event.

28/05/2007 Walvisbay 2007

The NERA organizing team is getting ready for the Walvisbay 2007 Africa Championships. The BIGGEST event for endurance horse riding in Africa for 2007, is coming closer. Visitors and riders from around the world has shown interest in the Walvis Africa Championships and we are sure to see many of them at the ride.

As we have so many top performing horses and riders, it will most certainly be a huge task selecting the Namibian team. Competition will be even stronger this year than last year, with more international teams participating. We foresee an exciting and fun filled ride. In conjunction with www.namibianhorse.com we hope to bring you up to date reporting and pictures of the event, as it happens.
Start practicing, get your horses ready!!!
For more info contact us at: e-mail: secretary@namibiaendurance.org

NZL: Charolette Wadsworth - New Endurance Rider

Marlborough's equine enthusiasts continue to produce outstanding results, with nine year old competitive trail rider Charlotte Wadsworth the latest to achieve national accolades.

Competing against riders aged up to 18 the youngster and her mount, BTR Windy Spirit, claimed the national junior distance horse and rider of the year title and the season-long New Zealand points title.

In her first year of the sport, Wadsworth made an immediate impact competing in Marlborough, Nelson, Christchurch and Ruahine. Riding out on her own for the first time, Wadsworth wasn't fazed competing in rides from 20 to 40km which often required her to spend up to four hours on the course.

[More ...]

Assisi Endurance Lifestlye: Endurance sport forges Italy-UAE partnership

Assisi Endurance Lifestyle presented today in Rome at the Hotel Bernini Bristol
Assis Endurance Lifestyle

This morning, at the Hotel Bernini Bristol of Rome, a press conference was held to introduce the economic-institutional aspects of the Assisi Endurance Lifestyle.
The main topic of the conference was the development of commercial relations between Italy and the United Arab Emirates, a country where Endurance is the national sport par excellence.
His Eminence Abdulhamid A. Kazim (Ambassador in Italy of the United Arab Emirates), Giuseppe Lomurno (Chairman of sistemaventi.it), Gianfranco Caprioli (Permanent Under-Secretary for the Promotion of Exchange of the Ministry of International Trade), Paolo Angelini (Executive of the Department for International Promotion and Co-operation ICE), Aurelio Forcignanò (Director of the General Confederation of Italian Industry of Perugia), Stefano Cimicchi (Sole director of APT Umbria); Claudio Ricci (mayor of the Municipality of Assisi); Rocco Girlanda (Chief Executive Officer of Edicor/Lifestyle Magazine) and Gianluca Laliscia (Chief Executive Officer of Umbria Endurance Equestrian Team) took part in the event.
Abdulhamid A. Kazim (Ambassador in Italy of the UAE) highlighted the fact that the event planned to be held in Assisi from 21st to 24th June represents an occasion of enrichment in the bilateral relations between Italy and the UAE, as well as dialogue among people of different cultures. Horsemanship is highly regarded in the United Arab Emirates and, thanks to this sport, we have managed to cross boundaries and spread our values of loyalty, friendship and co-operation.
The Permanent Under-Secretary for the Promotion of Exchange of the Ministry of International Trade Gianfranco Caprioli explained how In the last few years the region of the Persian Gulf has been one of the main targets for the Ministry of International Trade, which aims at creating an on-going co-operation with the United Arab Emirates for the growth of Italian small- and medium-sized companies.
The market of the UAE is a major reality, not only for large companies but also for small- and medium-sized firms, stated Paolo Angelini (Department for International Promotion and Co-operation ICE). For the next two years ICE is going to invest in this geographical region and will support Italian companies in setting up activities, relations and trade exchange.
Thanks to sistemaeventi and to ICE we are in the process of developing significant relations with the United Arab Emirates, confirmed Aurelio Forcignanò (Director of the General Confederation of Italian Industry of Perugia) during the press conference. Umbria will not be the only region involved in this project. We have in fact widened the area of interest also to the General Confederation of Italian Industry of Lazio, Tuscany, the Marches and Abruzzo.
In the course of the Assisiendurancelifestyle event there will be the opportunity for women entrepreneurs to meet, and to create an economic bridge between the West and the United Arab Emirates.
The one in Assisi is just one of a series of important events organised by the Umbrian territory explained Stefano Cimicchi (Sole director of APT Umbria). The Assisi Endurance Lifestyle is a means of communicating strong and brave values in that it combines a specific discipline with other aspects of life such as cultural and economic exchange.
We are working to modernize the area and to host high-profile events of this type stated Assisi’s mayor Claudio Ricci. The Assisi Endurance Lifestyle is becoming an all-encompassing project of integrated communication which enhance the whole territory around Assisi and the region of Umbria.
Rocco Girlanda, Chief Executive Officer of Edicor introduced the new publishing project Lifestyle, launched with Il Corriere dell’Umbria, which aims at following each phase of the Assisi Endurance Lifestyle. Girlanda highlighted the success met by the first issue of the Lifestyle Magazine: more than 50 thousand copies have been sold and in 26 outlets it was sold out. Increasingly sport is linked to tourism and to the economy of a territory concluded Gianluca Laliscia, a.d. sistemaeventi.it. By now this link is also being recognised by this sector’s analysts, according to which sports tourism is no longer a niche phenomenon. While being an international sports event, the Assisi Endurance Lifestyle also represents an occasion for doing business for Umbria, a region which is spreading on European and world scale. We believe that this event can become a regular rendezvous for all Endurance enthusiasts as well as for those Italian entrepreneurs who are interested in the new opportunities of development offered by the United Arab Emirates. In terms of excitement, the entrance of the riders (the participants to the Endurance race) in the city of Assisi will undoubtedly be an unforgettable moment for all participants and for the whole Umbrian community.
On 22nd June the theatre Lyrick of Assisi will host the International forum Italy-United Arab Emirates– Development guidelines for common growth - Economy, Tourism, Sport and Culture. At the end of this conference a group of Italian entrepreneurs will meet a group of entrepreneurs from the Emirates with the aim of developing B2B relations.
Finally, by way of confirmation of the international flavour of these Umbrian events, a video-message by Princess Haya bint Al Hussein (Chairperson of FEI) will be broadcast during the press conference in Rome. This is how Her Royal Highness wanted to be close to the organisers of the Assisi Endurance Lifestyle.

FEI rebukes 2005 World Endurance Championship hosts

Horse&Hound.co.uk

Abigail Butcher, H&H news editor

7 June, 2007
The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) has officially reprimanded the organising committee of the 2005 World Endurance Championships, putting an end to a two-year doping saga.

In January 2005, the World Endurance Championships ended in controversy when the results were overturned at the medal ceremony by the organising committee (Emirates International Endurance Racing) — without the FEI's permission. France's Barbara Lissarague was crowned World Champion instead of Sheikh Hazza Bin Sultan Al Nayan.

Afterwards, organisers said Hachim — the horse ridden to victory by Sheikh Hazza — had failed a doping test (see panel, right). But the FEI refused to acknowledge this at the time, although its laboratories later confirmed the horse had tested positive for methylprednisolone, an anti-inflammatory drug.

An extrapolated legal process ensued before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the ultimate arbitrators in sporting disputes, upheld Sheikh Hazza's disqualification and the FEI turned its attentions to the organising committee.

"Whether or not Sheikh Hazza was ultimately found to have committed a doping offence had a bearing on certain issues raised in the protest filed with the FEI against the organising committee," said FEI legal director Alexander Mc Lin. "It was only after that was assessed that all the issues relating to the organising committee's actions could be looked at."

He said: "A reprimand will go on the record," adding that this would be "taken into consideration" if the organising committee applied to host another event.

But what actually happened in Dubai is still not clear. The plot reads more like a Dick Francis novel than a judicial process.

In the CAS judgement it is stated that Hachim was "allegedly the subject of persistent doping rumours".

Giving evidence to CAS, organising committee vice-chairman Saeed H Al Tayer said a "reliable source" told him Hachim was doped, but refused to name that source.

He testified that, based on those rumours, the organising committee declared second-placed Ms Lissarague the winner. Sheikh Hazza was mounted at the medal ceremony but left halfway through.

Mr Mc Lin told H&H last week: "What exactly occurred is still not entirely clear. Clearly, the organising committee acted on information it obtained from a laboratory."

Mr Mc Lin further explained that, unlike police, the FEI does not have the powers to force parties to reveal their evidence.

He added: "If the perception is that the FEI didn't investigate this enough, I can assure you that is not the case.

"The FEI has to make a decision based on what evidence it has, and unfortunately the evidence in this case was not conclusive."

H&H was unable to contact the organising committee, Emirates International Endurance Racing, for comment, nor the United Arab Emirates Equestrian and Racing Federation, to comment on behalf of Sheikh Hazza.

This news story was first published in Horse & Hound (7 June, '07)

Andes horseback challenge

Photo Credit: © Pablo Betancourt

5 June, 2007

A HORSE riding opportunity of a lifetime following Charles Darwin’s route through the remote Andes Mountains has been launched by youth charity The Prince’s Trust.

The Trans-Andes Horseback Challenge provides riders with the opportunity to take on a unique equestrian experience and raise money for disadvantaged young people across the UK.

The six-day challenge takes place from February 1-10 2008 and will see riders trek more than 150km on horseback across the stunning landscape of the snow-capped Andes mountain range, from Mendoza in Argentina and to the Chilean capital of Santiago.

Accompanied by a team of local “gauchos” (horsemen), participants will experience “cabalgata” or traditional horseback trekking. They will ride with western-style saddles and bridles and negotiate steep climbs, rugged terrain and remote mountain passes, crossing rivers and camping out under the stars each night along the route. The itinerary follows one of Charles Darwin’s expedition trails and passes breathtaking ravines, ancient volcanoes and hot springs, as well as taking in the diverse flora and fauna of the region.

With up to eight hours a day in the saddle at high altitude (up to 4,500m), participants need to be confident riders and have a high level of fitness - committing to follow a comprehensive training schedule in the months leading up to departure in order to prepare for the intense physical demands of the journey.

Endurance GB rider Fiona Fairhurst took part in the first Andes Challenge earlier this year. She said: “Although for me the horse riding itself wasn’t most difficult part of the challenge, this is certainly no trek up the Brecon Beacons – the Andes are the second highest mountain range in the world – the scenery is jaw-dropping and the route is tough.

But the challenge is far more than just an amazing riding experience. Being away from everyday life in an environment like this allowed everyone to learn something about themselves and their lives. On a mountain, miles from anywhere, you are just concentrating on surviving, but everyone pulls together and the team spirit created is remarkable.”

The Trust’s Challenges aim to raise £500,000 over the next year to help thousands more young people across the UK to realise their potential and turn their lives around.

For more information or to sign up on the Trans-Andes Horseback Challenge call 020 7543 1370 or visit www.princes-trust.org.uk/andes.

FRA: France Victorious at CEIO Nation's Cup

By Endurance.Net
The French endurance team was awarded the Gold Medal at the 2007 CEIO Nation's Cup held June 2 at the endurance venue at Compiegne France.

Detailed results of the race are on www.endurance.net

[More ...]

Bahrain Third at France Challenge

Bahrain: Gulf Daily News

BAHRAIN'S Royal Endurance Team bagged third place overall in the Compiegne International Endurance Horseride Championship at the Compiegne racecourse near Paris.The team, captained by Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation (Breef) president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, completed the six-stage, 160-km race in 11 hours, 25 minutes and 20 seconds.

They were behind champions France who crossed the finish line first in 9:31.08, followed by Belgium (10:08:36) in second place.

The four-member Bahraini squad consisted of Mohammed Abdulaziz, Yousif Taher and Ghazi Al Dossary apart from Shaikh Nasser.

The race was dominated by French riders who took the top four positions in the individual event with Thomas Philippe finishing first in 1:12.30, followed by compatriot Begaud Jacque (1:01:12) in second place, Dietsch Pascal (1:06:55) third and Lemoine Maryli (1:08:10) fourth.

Bahrain's Abdulaziz finished ninth overall in 1:19.57, Taher was 13th in 1:30.30, while Al Dossary withdrew from the race following an injury to its horse.

Apart from Bahrain, 11 other nations - Algeria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UAE - took part in the championship but only 17 riders completed the race.

Top officials from Compiegne Province attended the event and presented trophies to the top three teams and the first 15 riders in the individual event at a prize-giving ceremony.

Shaikh Nasser expressed satisfaction with the performance of his team both in the team event and the individual category.

"We took this race very seriously and were keen to complete it without any injuries as we have a number of other races to take part in Europe in the next two months," said Shaikh Nasser.

It is Bahrain's second appearance at the Compiegne racecourse having taken part in the 2005 Europen Championship which was held at the same venue and attended by His Majesty King Hamad.

"This race was a qualifier for the 2007 Europe Endurance Horseride Championship to be staged in Portugal in September and those who complete three races over 160 kms will qualify for this prestigious event," added Shaikh Nasser.

"It's a privilege to be taking part in such a prestigious event. The result is also very good despite the fact that we took part in this event without our main horses. The horses we took part are in are the ones based in Europe," said Shaikh Nasser.

"The environment here is amazing and the Equestrian Stadium has a top quality circuit with excellent sand tracks," he said.

The team will return today from Paris and continue preparations for future races to be held in the UK and France next month.

Results (in order of country, horse, total time):

Individual event: 1 Thomas Philippe (France, Joel Gabirat, 1:12:30 hrs), 2 Begaud Jacque (France, Koum Des Jamets, 1:01:12), 3 Dietsch Pascal (France, Hifrane Dui Barth, 1:06:55), 4 Lemoine Maryli (France, Sherahki, 1:08:10), 5 Van Den Abeele (Belgium, Epson Dela Brus, 1:09:13) 6 Mosti Laurent (France, Xalene Dela Dro, 1:13:13).