USEF Proposes Performance Horse Collapse Rule

Thehorse.com - Full Article

By Alexandra Beckstett, The Horse Managing Editor
Jun 17, 2013

Over the past 18 months, the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) has seen a spike in the number of equine fatalities and collapses at its events. While federation rules require owners to report fatalities within 24 hours, there are currently no regulations regarding collapse—defined as "a fall for no apparent cause."

At a USEF Town Hall meeting about performance horse welfare, held June 3 in Lexington, Ky., a panel of federation officials and veterinarians discussed the need for a "collapse rule" and how to best define it.

"Over the last 12 months we started getting unofficial phone calls making inquiries about collapses witnessed at shows," said USEF senior vice president and general counsel Sonja Keating. "We realized we need to know what's going on in the field and at least have a system in place to look at these, see if there's any common thread, and try to reduce the number of collapses occurring at these competitions."

In response, the USEF veterinary committee proposed a rule to the executive committee in April requiring riders, trainers, or owners to report when a horse collapses...

Read more here:
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/32069/usef-proposes-performance-horse-collapse-rule?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=welfare-industry&utm_campaign=06-19-2013

John Teeter rides to Washington DC

John Teeter will be leaving his favorite endurance horse 'Sunny' at home while he spends a twelve month 'Tour of Duty' in Washington DC. pictured at left John Teeter and Amara's Sonata, at right Steph Teeter and Jaziret Bey Musc riding in Owyhee County, Idaho. photo by Steve Bradley.

Three Presidential Innovation Fellows Begin Work at NIST

Three of this year's Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) began work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on June 18, 2013, helping the institute address issues relating to connecting networks of machines, facilities and people, and also to help energy consumers make better use of their energy usage data.
Presidential Innovation Fellows
NIST's Presidential Innovation Fellows are (L-R) Sokwoo Rhee and Geoff Mulligan, who will work on cyber physical systems, and John Teeter (far right), who will work on the Green Button Initiative. The three fellows, part of the second round of the PIF program, started their 12-month tours at NIST on June 18, 2013.
NIST photo Credit: Greb/NIST


The PIF program pairs top innovators from the private sector, nonprofits and academia with top innovators in government to work on challenges whose solutions could provide immediate benefits and cost-savings to American citizens, entrepreneurs and businesses. The three NIST fellows, who were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, will serve a 12-month "tour of duty."

Two of NIST's fellows, Geoff Mulligan and Sokwoo Rhee, will work on cyber-physical systems (CPS). These new "smart systems" will combine networking, information and communication technologies to optimize system performance in real time. Accelerated development of CPS is expected to yield new manufactured products and services in a range of industry sectors essential to U.S. competitiveness, including manufacturing, transportation, energy, health care and defense. NIST's fellows will lead a multidisciplinary team of experts from the private and public sectors and work for consensus in developing a framework consisting of high-level reference architecture, standards and protocols for CPS.*

Mulligan has been instrumental in Internet development, recently having helped design IPv6, the latest version of the communications protocol that routes traffic across the Internet. He holds over 15 patents in computer security, networking and electronic mail, and was called to testify before Congress on electronic commerce and computer security.

Rhee is an entrepreneur who helped to initiate the cyber-physical systems and "internet of things" industry in the early 2000s. His work and achievements have been recognized by multiple awards including MIT Technology Review's Top Innovators under 35.

NIST's third fellow, John Teeter, will work on the Green Button Initiative,** which aims to enable energy customers to download their energy usage data securely in machine-readable format directly from utilities. He will be part of a "Green Button for America" team, the other member of which will work from the Department of Energy. A key goal will be to provide leadership to enhance Green Button data consistency through testing and certification, based on feedback from consumers, vendors and utilities.

Teeter has a 40-year history in the electrical and technology industries, including most recently as chief scientist for People Power, a software company enabling remote control and management of connected devices from mobile devices. Teeter was the founder and CEO of First Step Research, prior to which he was a founder and VP of Engineering at Gold Hill Computers.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) runs the PIF program, now in its second year, and asked agencies across the government to propose new research areas to expand the PIF program for this year. NIST's two proposals were among those selected, bringing the number of project areas up to nine from last year's five. Fellows are funded by the sponsoring agencies.

More information is available in the White House blog post, "New Round of Innovators Joins US Government to Tackle Big Challenges" at www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/24/new-round-innovators-joins-us-government-tackle-big-challenges.
* For more on NIST work in cyber-physical systems, see www.nist.gov/el/smartcyber.cfm.
** For more on NIST work on the Green Button Initiative, see www.nist.gov/smartgrid/greenbutton.cfm.

NIST Media Contact: Chad Boutin, boutin@nist.gov, 301-975-4261

Oman: Proud Achievement

Omantribune.com - Full Article

On the heels of a bit of a gloom in the country after the national football team’s debacle in the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifying campaign, comes exhilarating news of the victory of Sultanate’s equestrian rider HH Sayyid Loay Bin Ghaleb Al Said at the Endurance Riding Championship in the Czech Republic. Oman’s experienced and well-known equestrian ace clinched the six-stage 160-km ride over some testing terrain for both the rider and his mount.

Loay’s winning performance adds to the numerous sporting glories of the Sultanate and reflects the rising standards of our sports-persons in recent years. Endurance riding is a complete test of the rider and the horse, and it requires exceptional skills, dedication, determination and, above all, lasting stamina to be able to complete the course. Loay deserves all the accolades for keeping the Sultanate’s flag flying at this international ride which was also a qualification for next year’s Endurance World Cup which will be held in Normandy, France. Laoy’s triumph has brought the smiles back on the faces of Omani sports fans – it was a proud moment for Oman’s endurance riding star to see the national flag fluttering at a major international sports event.

Ghaleb Al Said, who is credited with being the first Omani rider to take part in the Endurance World Cup in Dubai in 2005, has dedicated the victory to his Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, Sultanate’s visionary leader under whose guidance the nation has made remarkable progress in all fields of human endeavour. We recall the care and support which His Majesty the Sultan provides to the youth of the country so that they can excel in education, art, culture and sports. Through Royal orders and directives, Sultanate’s athletes have achieved good results in regional and international competitions. Even though Sultanate’s top football side could not qualify for the World Cup, they put up a competitive performance that underlined the rise in the standard of the game in the country...

Read more here:
http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=editorial_details&id=2727&heading=EDITORIAL

Letter from a Young Rider from Uruguay

El Raid Blog - Gabriel Gamiz

June 24 2013

[google translate]

This is a letter from a young rider, Cecilia Garcia, who will participate in World Youth Endurance Riders in Tarbes (FRA), with a Mauxi family horse, and with great feeling, expresses her love for the sport of Equestrian Endurance from her native Uruguay expressed satisfaction that we have to be representative of the National Flag Celeste.
The thrill of representing their country in some tracks far from her home turf and with the hope of bringing a new victory with her team.

This is the letter from Cecilia:

"First I want to thank you for letting me life grow with the sport so cute and we all want the" ENDURO. "
After many joys, triumphs and sorrows satifacciones today is for me to fulfill a dream that is to represent Uruguay in a world championship, as it was my last chance to run a world as young rider, next year and happened to be rider and start again from scratch.

This possibility is the first I want to thank my family who supports me and makes a very big economic effort, thanks to Dad that his years in Spain and today I made ​​friends baby steps to get the blue with a Spanish mare...

Read more here:
http://ggjineteraid.blogspot.com/2013/06/carta-de-una-joven-amazona-ante-su.html

Australia: Riders descend for prestigous Quilty

Tenterfieldstart.com.au - Full Article

June 26, 2013

THE weekend of June 7-10 saw the running of the 48th Tom Quilty Gold Cup.

This year’s event was held in Queensland (the event moves from state to state each year) in the small township of Kilkivan in the South Burnett district.

Kilkivan has been hit with three major floods in the last 18 months but despite this the small community managed to host an excellent event with help from sponsors and local government support to rebuild many of the buildings lost in those floods.

Five members of the Tenterfield endurance-riding club attended with their horses plus support crew to take up the national challenge.

They joined 245 other riders from across Australia and several international riders. Greg Lyons was riding Chingford Just Dreaming, Narelle Childs was riding Halo Kazaam, Damien Keys was riding Elfar Karnella, Michael Combe wasriding Nasr and Caroline Windle was riding Sarina Rosetta.

This year, the weather was unseasonably warm, but at midnight on Friday, June 7, riders headed out into the night on the first leg of the five-leg course.

The course without doubt was a true “Quilty” course. The conditions and terrain were challenging which led to a low successful completion rate of only 43 per cent...

Read more here:
http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/1596240/riders-descend-for-prestigous-quilty/?cs=1640

Bahrain's Royal Endurance Team secured a 1 - 2- 3 finish in the best endurance horse ride

BNA.bh - Full Article

23/06/2013

Manama, June 23 (BNA) -- Bahrain's Royal Endurance Team yesterday secured a 1-2-3 finish in the Best Endurance Horse Ride Dillingen 2013 in Germany.

Team captain Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa put up another splendid performance as he steered CD Uproar to win this challenging six-stage ride amidst broad participation from 60 riders from all around the world.

Held at the Military training area in Dilingen District, the ride saw other participants coming from the UAE, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Poland and Czech Republic.

This 160km ride was divided into six stages, including 35km each for the first and second stages. The third and fourth were over 25km each, while each of the remaining fifth and sixth stages covered 20km.

Shaikh Nasser was in superb form as he crossed the finish line first in seven hours, 31 minutes and 38 seconds, just a second ahead of fellow Bahraini teammate Abdulrahman Al Saad, who came second on Quenzo.

Issa Al Hazza (7:42:29) then rounded off Bahrain's impressive show bny coming third on Raja Du Roc'h.
Hood Buchiri (8:04:34), also of Bahrain, came in fourth position, followed by UAE's Ahmed Al Bouloushi (8:09:52) and Ghanim Al Mirri (8:09:53) who were respectively fifth and sixth...

Read more here:
http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/566822

New Zealand: Smiths in frame for France

Stuff.co.nz - Full Article

FAYE LOUGHER
20/06/2013

Following their success at the national endurance championships, Andrea and Georgia Smith have both been named in the endurance high-performance programme squads for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in France.

The Smith family from Mangaweka did the trifecta at the national championships at Easter, with mother Andrea winning the CEI 3-Star 160km, daughter Georgia the CEI 3-Star Junior Youth 160km, and younger sister Brigitte the CEI 2-Star Junior Youth 123km. All three were also awarded best conditioned prizes for their horses.

Equestrian Sports New Zealand (ESNZ) high performance director Sarah Harris said as far as she could determine, it is the first time a junior has been named in the senior squad and also the first time a mother and daughter had both been selected.

"They are at a very high level, they operate so professionally - the whole family really, from Murray through to Brigitte. It's a really exciting time for them as a family and also for the sport, to see some really talented riders coming through..."

Read more here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/sport/8819258/Smiths-in-frame-for-France