The endurance controversy: It’s showtime!

Horsetalk.co.uk - Full Article

By Neil Clarkson on Nov 04, 2013 in Blogs, Featured, News

Most Las Vegas shows needs a headline act – a big-name star to generate publicity and get bums on seats for the show of a lifetime. It costs casinos millions.

The FEI, on the other hand, has the remarkable ability to get gifted a headline act just about every year for its annual General Assembly.

In recent years we’ve seen squabbles over drugs lists, a fascinating challenge to Princess Haya’s presidency...

Read more here:
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2013/11/04/endurance-controversy-showtime/#axzz2jgthCO4s

Australia: To stay distance in fashion stakes, don't throw a shoe

Theaustralian.com.au - Full Article

GLYNIS TRAILL-NASH, Fashion editor
From: The Australian
November 05, 2013 12:00AM

REBECCA Bramich understands all too well the need to pace yourself at the Melbourne Cup carnival.

The model and Myer Fashions on the Field ambassador is also a keen horsewoman, and recently took part in her third Tom Quilty -- Australia's biggest equestrian endurance race -- which requires riders to complete 160km in one day on a single horse.

"Basically you have to have a very fit horse and pace yourself through the day," said Bramich...

Read more here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/executive-living/fashion/to-stay-distance-in-fashion-stakes-dont-throw-a-shoe/story-e6frg8k6-1226753073535

Current FEI Endurance Rules "fraught with pretenses of equine welfare": John Crandell

November 4 2013

"Our current FEI [endurance] rules are founded on ethical compromise, bias, and the warped sense of reality of powerful people that do not represent the perspective of the endurance community worldwide," says John Crandell III, in part of his letter to the AERC Board of Directors last week.

AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) is the National Affiliate of USEF (United States Equestrian Federation), the National Governing body of endurance in America.

Crandell, a long-time successful USA national and international endurance rider - accomplishments which include 2006 Tevis and Haggin Cup winner on Heraldic, and 2008 and 2012 USA Endurance Team member - spoke out regarding international endurance horse welfare, after a number of horse drugging and death scandals on the international scene began sparking worldwide outrage this summer.

In his letter, Crandell points to a deeply flawed qualification system for FEI endurance horses, which is "entirely focused on simple speeds… and quantity of completion."

"…something is deeply, and fundamentally wrong with the system," Crandell states, which has resulted in "fundamental rules and qualification constructs that are only thinly veiled as protections for the horse."

Crandell calls for changes in the international FEI organization "with the integrity to uphold competitive standards, justice and elemental respects for life." He calls for an entire re-invention of the endurance qualification rules that "will be an integral and essential part of any effort by the FEI to genuinely restore its integrity and respectability.

"The challenge before the FEI is more than just a matter of controlling some forms of injustice and enforcing the rules it now has. "

Crandell's entire letter can be read here:
http://www.endurance.net/international/UAE/2013FEIControversy/Crandell.html

FEI Controversy: Supporting the Endurance Sport

November 3 2013

Jean-Pierre Allegret and Gilles Carbardos of France have added their voices and support to the push for immediate action and reform by the FEI regarding the recent worldwide uproar concerning the allegations of cheating, doping, and horse abuse and deaths in the sport of endurance racing.

Allegret, a 4* President of jury in France and abroad, stated, in part:
"My support may look a bit late. It is not because I'm denying all cheating and doping issues which are making our sport so dirty. I have been witnessing (and victim also) as a judge and as organizer...
"The message of the Belgian federation goes completely in the same way as my thinking. I wish the French federation would make the same move…"

Carbardos, President of France's Fontainebleau CEI*** event, and member of the ADOCEE (the association of Endurance Organizers of France), said, in part, regarding Pierre Arnould's letter to FEI: "I salute Pierre Arnould for not only denounce doping practices and horse abuse, but also for proposing short-term actions." Acknowledging FEI has a unifying role, he continues, "To my mind, the global action must forget about division of opinion or attempts to denounce some riders or countries. The problem is global and could only be raised by a collective consciousness and global actions. I'm ready to take part."

The complete statements by Allegret and Carbardos can be read at
http://endurance-belgium.com/

Endurance horses may be monitored in training

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

By Horsetalk.co.nz on Nov 01, 2013 in Focus

Horses could be monitored during training as part of efforts to reduce worrying welfare issues in endurance, centred in the Middle East.

Proposals include higher qualification demands for riders and horses in long-distance events and extended recovery periods for mounts, the European Equestrian Federation (EEF) says.

Endurance has been in the spotlight in recent months over high fracture rates and doping infractions centred on the United Arab Emirates (UAE)...

Read more here:
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2013/11/01/endurance-horsesmonitored-training/#axzz2jP4liT8F

Drastic action planned to protect horses and crack down on crisis in endurance racing

Telegraph.co.uk - Full Article

eminar proposes monitoring of horses in training and longer post-ride recovery periods to resolve horse welfare crisis in endurance

By Pippa Cuckson
7:31PM GMT 30 Oct 2013

The monitoring of horses in training and longer post-ride recovery periods were among drastic proposals targeting the horse welfare crisis in endurance discussed at a seminar in Abu Dhabi.

The seminar came days before the annual General Assembly of the International Equestrian Federation in Montreux, Switzerland, from Nov 5-7.

Endurance will inevitably dominate debate there too, with FEI president Princess Haya likely to face further allegations of “conflict of interest” as the wife of Sheikh Mohammed, the biggest global player in both racing and endurance stables...

Read more here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/equestrianism/10415930/Drastic-action-planned-to-protect-horses-and-crack-down-on-crisis-in-endurance-racing.html

FEI Eff-up: 2014 WEG poster features doping posterchild

Horsenationa.com - Full Article

by Wylie

The poster surfaced on the Normandy WEG Facebook page and vanished shortly thereafter… but not before Endurance Belgium captured it via a screenshot.

The screenshot, taken Friday afternoon (if you click on this link to the page it no longer works).

Seems pretty innocuous, right? But, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, the poster was “hastily pulled” when people began noticing that the front-and-center rider was Ali Al Muhairi, an United Arab Emerates endurance competitor who is currently serving a record four-year ban for doping. So... kind of like featuring Lance Armstrong on a poster for the Tour de France.

Al Muhairi has been banned for doping twice–he got 10 months for etorphine in 2009 and four years for steroids in 2011. Etorphine is an opioid analgesic over 1,000 times more potent than morphine. In its 2009 decision notice, the usually restrained FEI Tribunal recorded its “abhorrence” that Al Muhairi had ridden a horse for 160 kilometers after administering this substance...

Read more here:
http://www.horsenation.com/2013/10/30/fei-eff-up-posterchild-for-endurance-doping-featured-on-weg-poster/