South Africa: Endurance ride a big success

Georgeherald.com - Full Article

28 September 2012

SOUTHERN CAPE NEWS - The Wynland Endurance Club held a 35km, 90km and a 120km endurance ride in Oudtshoorn on 15 September.

The CANSA auction site, in conjunction with De Zeekoe Guest House and Resort, was used at the venue.

Fifty riders gathered and tested their horses on the course. The pre-vet check was completed at 07:00 and the ride briefing took place at 07:30. The 120km entrants left at 06:00. The first leg of the 35km was ridden through the De Zeekoe Meerkat Reserve.

The second and third leg, of 27km each, took the riders along a dry cement causeway lined with thick thorn trees. Even with the high temperatures and reasonably technical paths, only three riders did not complete the ride.

Seven riders from Mossel Bay participated. Jeni Ferreira on Shadow successfully completed the 35km day ride. Antonet Vorster on her novice Arabian, Mont Blanc Farazz, completed 60km, while Ronell Robertson, a new promising young rider, finished 90km on an Arabian mare called Juliet, belonging to Tiaan Gerber...

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Australia: Olympian embarks on 1,100km charity horse ride

ABC.net.au - Full Article

By Jessica Nairn
Updated Mon Oct 1, 2012 8:11pm AEST

A 24-year-old Olympic pentathlete has left Braidwood, south-east of Canberra, to ride 1,100 kilometres on horseback for charity.

Edward Fernon, originally from Sydney, arrived back from the London Olympics not long ago but is again saddling up, this time for a different reason.

Mr Fernon is riding from the southern New South Wales town through Canberra before following the bicentennial national trail to Melbourne.

"I'm doing a charity horse ride to raise funds for the Black Dog Institute," he said.

"We're riding into Canberra, over the Snowy Mountains, down through Marysville and we finish in Healesville in time for the Melbourne Cup."

The five-week ride follows the steps of famous racehorse Archer.

Legend has it he was led from Braidwood to Melbourne where he won the first Melbourne Cup...

Read more here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-01/olympian-embarks-on-1100km-charity-horse-ride/4289764?section=nsw

Malaysia: Ziyad makes his mark

MST.com.my

21 September 2012

MUHAMMAD Ziyad Muhammad Hamzah earned the praise of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad after Malaysia's youngest rider at the World Endurance Championships finished 37th in Euston, England recently.

Ziyad, 16, was the second-best Malaysian in the 160km ride on board his horse, Braza, in eight hours, 47 minutes and 19 seconds, the same time as the Sultan of Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin on Nafis De Brisal.

Asri Abd Aziz was Malaysia's best placed rider at 32nd in the event won by Dubai ruler and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum.
Dr Mahathir said Ziyad's achievement was commendable, given that half of the field of 147 riders failed to finish the course.

"Malaysian athletes do not often win," said Dr Mahathir in a statement.

"Therefore we celebrate even if our athletes are placed, as for example Lee Chong Wei who came in with a silver medal in the London Olympics and Pandelela Rinong who was third in diving.

"I would like to report another achievement of a Malaysian athlete. He is Muhammad Ziyad Muhammad Hamzah who recently completed an arduous endurance ride of 160km in the World Endurance Championship held at Euston Park in Britain.

"He came in 37th in the race participated by 147 riders. Maybe it is not something to celebrate. But about half the riders did not complete the course.

"Muhammad Ziyad is the youngest rider, still in his teens. He is in the category of 52 fastest riders, and is among the top 10 of the FEI World Junior category.

"He has accordingly been selected to represent Malaysia in the 2013 World Endurance Championship in France.

"I am particularly proud as Muhammad Ziyad works with his father at my stud farm in Langkawi. The horse he rode is from the farm and is a pure bred Arab gelding."

Great Britain: Carri-Ann looks to future

Thisiswiltshire.co.uk - Full Article

By Dan Barnes
21 September 2012

LITTLE Cheverell’s Carri-Ann Dark admits plotting the long-term course of her endurance riding career won’t be an easy task after ending her time as a Young Rider on a high.

The 21-year-old helped Endurance GB win bronze at the European Young Riders Championships with her ride Vavavoom in Belgium earlier this month and says that competing exclusively in adult events from now on will be testing.

“It was really good to finish with a fantastic result and we were all really happy because we were told that it was the first medal Britain have won in endurance for about 15 years,” said Dark...

Read more here:
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/sport/9940459.EQUESTRIAN_/

Endurance riding’s national championships under way in North Carolina

The AERC National Championship is being held on the grounds of the historic Biltmore Estate.
September 20, 2012

The hilly, verdant land around the Biltmore estate in Asheville, N.C. is the setting for this year’s Adequan/American Endurance Ride Conference National Championships. Top U.S. endurance riders and their horses are competing for national titles in the 100-mile and 50-mile distances.

The 100-mile championship took place yesterday, Sept. 20, with 53 entries kicking off their ride at the pre-dawn time of 6:30 a.m.

On Saturday, Sept. 22, the 50-mile contenders will take to the course, which loops around the historic Biltmore Equestrian Center with competitors returning to a central area for the required vet checks. The hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains promise a scenic but challenging ride.

During the competition, Dr. Meg Sleeper, a competitive endurance rider and professor at the University of Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Medicine, will be conducting a study of heart rate variability (variation in the heart rhythm) in endurance horses. Riders who volunteer for the study will have their horses wear a heart rate monitor during the pre-ride vet check and after completing the ride. The study is the first of its kind on endurance horses.

On Sept. 23 and 24, the Arabian Horse Association’s Competitive Trail Ride (CTR) championship will take place on the grounds. This 70-mile competition is open only to Arabians and half-Arabians that have qualified through results at earlier regional or national CTRs. An open CTR will also be held in conjunction with this ride that will allow riders of all breeds to compete.

CTRs differ from endurance riding in that they are not a race. In endurance, the first horse-and-rider team to cross the finish line is the winner, provided the horse passes the final vet check. In CTR, competitors must finish between the minimum and maximum time, and they are judged on the horse’s manners and the rider’s horsemanship. Horses may be checked at any point on the ride (rather than at set vet checks at certain mileage as is done in endurance) and riders may be asked to demonstrate skills such as mounting, sidepassing and backing at any point along the ride. Competitors are even judged on their stabling and campsite areas.

Learn more about this year’s AERC National Championship at aercatbiltmore.com

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Read horse rider wins bronze for Great Britain in Belgium endurance contest

Photo Ben Parsons
Clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk - Full Article

Published on Wednesday 19 September 2012

Teenage equestrian Kate Atkinson is riding high after winning a bronze medal with the Great Britain team in a top European endurance event.

Kate (15) from Read, was the youngest in a four-strong team in the FEI European Young Rider Endurance Championships at Mont le Soie, in Belgium, where 19 national teams were competing on a super-tough 120-km Ardennes mountain route. It was Britain’s first junior medal win in the competition in 15 years.

Kate’s determined performance, riding her 13-year-old bay Arab gelding Vanash to 23rd place overall helped the GB team to clinch bronze as one of the only three teams to have the required minimum three riders complete the course.

Team mates Carri-Ann Dark and Beth Langley, both in their last year of junior competition, came in 14th and 18th. France won gold and Italy silver...

Read more here:
http://www.clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-news/read-horse-rider-wins-bronze-for-gb-in-belgium-endurance-contest-1-4937463

Great Britain: Young rider from Lyme Regis scoops top European gong

Bridportnews.co.uk - Full Article

By Rene Gerryts
19th September 2012 in Local News

A 19-YEAR-OLD A-level student from Lyme Regis has been named the best British horse rider in the European Young Rider Endurance Championships.

Dace Sainsbury passed all her exams at Woodroffe School and was the first British rider across the finish line of the 120k race, which was held in Belgium.

The British team came home with a bronze medal.

The young rider, who already has her sites set on the world championships next year, said it has been an amazing experience.

She came 12th out of a field of 63 riders on her 12-year-old Arab mare Lottie.

Dace squeezed in her training at 5.30am before school to make sure her horse was fit enough to compete at her first championships.

She said: “It was a very tight schedule and I have another youngster at home whom I am just starting through the levels and he was having to be exercised and it was a struggle...

Read more here:
http://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/localnews/9936084.Young_rider_from_Lyme_Regis_scoops_top_European_gong/