New measures against horse doping a step closer in UAE

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

By Horsetalk.co.nz on Jun 19, 2014 in Focus

The United Arab Emirates is a step closer to enshrining new measures against horse doping in law, after an advisory council approved draft legislation that outlines fines and bans for breaches.

The draft law passed by the government advisory council outlines fines ranging from Dhs20,000 ($US5400) to Dhs500,000 (US$136,100).

The proposed law covers all equestrian sports, including racing, endurance, and polo.

Bans on individuals range up to three years, with life bans possible for repeat offenders...

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http://horsetalk.co.nz/2014/06/19/tougher-measures-horse-doping-uae-step-closer/#ixzz355n1Fn63

Australia: State championship endurance ride in Wagin

Waginargus.com.au - Full Article

SIXTEEN horses and riders left the track of the Collie racecourse and headed into the forest with just their reliable headlights to guide them along the way on midnight on May 30.

This was the start of this year's state championship ride of 160kms.

Several riders were pinning their hopes on a completion to qualify for a start in the Tom Quilty National Championship Endurance ride to be held in early October from the Wagin sports ground.

Riders rode the event over five legs to return each time to the racecourse for the horses to be deemed fit by the veterinary panel to continue the ride...

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http://www.waginargus.com.au/story/2358329/state-championship-endurance-ride-in-wagin/?cs=2169

Australia: Enduros an enduring Eurobodalla passion

Batemanpost.com.au - Full Article

June 19 2014

Contestants are clocking up forest miles in preparation for the Currowan Endurance Ride at Nelligen on July 5 and 6

Organiser Jenny Shepheard said the ride offered something for all levels, with 80km, 40km and 20km events, and that new entries were welcome.

Mrs Shepheard said a new ride based on “a flat grassy paddock” was a big improvement on past events.

“We have held two rides in the past and have had access problems so we have a fantastic new ride base,” she said.

“A farmer has kindly given us permission to use a few hundred metres off the Kings Highway on the outskirts of Nelligen, at the start of the River Road...

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http://www.batemansbaypost.com.au/story/2363433/enduros-an-enduring-eurobodalla-passion/?cs=12

Australia: Toowoomba rider makes most of French connection

QT.com.au - Full Article

Ben Drewe | 18th Jun 2014 4:55 PM

TOOWOOMBA veterinarian Sasha Laws-King could use her professional knowledge for a different purpose in late August when she rides a French horse in the World Equestrian Games in France.

Laws-King has been selected as a representative for Australia in eventing at the World Equestrian Games, which will be held in Normandy, France from August 23 to September 7.

The former national youth representative will ride at open at the world championships for the first time after qualifying for the 160km endurance event on French horse Qacima Du Sauveterre.

"It's very exciting. It's always good to have a goal to work towards and certainly once I finished with my young riders world championships back in 2007, the aim was certainly to try for the seniors," she said...

Read more here:
http://www.qt.com.au/news/toowoomba-equestrian-eventing-sasha-laws-king/2293434/

Horse racing-UAE govt advisory council passes draft law to combat horse doping

Reuters

By Maha El Dahan and Martin Dokoupil

ABU DHABI/DUBAI, June 17 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government advisory council passed a draft law against horse doping on Tuesday, aiming to clear a reputation tarnished by doping scandals in flat and endurance races.

The bill, which covers all equestrian disciplines from racing to polo, outlines financial penalties from 20,000 to 500,000 dirhams ($5,400-$136,100) for various doping offences.

A supervisory authority can also ban individuals from the sport for three years. In case of repeated offences a lifetime ban is an option.

"This is the first legislation on the level of law. Before there were just some regulations governing it," Rashid al-Shuraiki, the head of a Federal National Council (FNC) committee in charge of drafting the bill, told Reuters.

"We tried ... to have everything in it and not leave any loopholes, to give confidence to all participants in races in the UAE and to the UAE when it participates in races abroad," he said on the sidelines of a six-hour discussion about the draft.

Angered by doping in his Godolphin stables last year, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum initiated last May a decree that made the import, sale, purchase or use of anabolic steroids in horse sports a criminal offence under the UAE penal laws.

Godolphin's reputation suffered a serious blow when the British Horseracing Authority banned former trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni for administering anabolic steroids to horses at his Moulton Paddock stables in Newmarket.

U.K. border authorities last year also seized a shipment of unlicensed veterinary goods from a Dubai government jet.

The incidents caused serious embarrassment to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, Britain's leading racehorse owner and the world champion in endurance, who closed Zarooni's stables with around 200 horses and ordered internal investigation.

FORBIDS TRADING

Zarooni won the 2012 Dubai World Cup - the world's richest horse race - for Godolphin with Monterosso, as well as English Classics the St Leger and 1,000 Guineas.

In September, Sheikh Mohammed's wife Princess Haya, who may run for re-election as a president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), appointed former London police chief Lord Stevens to oversee an internal inquiry into the sheikh's global equine interests.

Lord Stevens's report cleared Sheikh Mohammed of any wrongdoing and concluded that Zarooni had acted alone.

In a document to the 40-member FNC explaining reasons behind drafting the law, the committee noted "a lack of consistency in test results from laboratories" which led to credibility doubts, adding international certification would be required.

The government is expected to send the draft to UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan for signing into law.

The draft law also forbids trading in banned substances and the purchase of such a substance is only allowed with special permission from the government. Controlled substances used for treating horses for ailments do not require such a permission but they are banned during the competition season.

The use of a number of mechanical and electrical devices used to massage horse muscles will also be banned, the FNC voted despite objections by a government minister that their use cannot be tested.

Endurance racing in the UAE, where both horses and riders often battle gruelling heat and desert dust in races as long as 160 km (99 miles) in one day, has been also mired in doping and horse welfare controversy.

The draft spelled out several doping cases where UAE riders were suspended as a result over the last two years. The FEI revised the discipline's rules earlier this month, saying its task force is looking at ways that new technology can be used to ensure horse welfare and provide a level playing field globally. (Writing by Martin Dokoupil; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Eighteen-Year-Old on $700 Horse Beats the Greats at Old Dominion

by Suzanne Bush

Extreme sports. You can visualize what they are even before you hear the pulsating music that plays along with the TV coverage. The pictures of skateboarders in midair, upside down, defying gravity, are wondrous and startling. How do they stay attached to those skateboards? The key words that define extreme sports: adrenalin and rush.

Imagine an extreme sport where determination replaces adrenalin and strategy replaces rush. Then spread the competition out over a period of time that overlaps one day's breakfast, lunch and dinner. One day's sunrise and sunset. Add some horses and a couple of rivers and mountains. Then give the sport a name that is both a promise and a challenge: endurance racing. It may not be as well-known as other branches of equestrian sports, but it is a clear and compelling connection to Americans' frontier past. Think about the Pony Express riders, racing across mountains, through snow and rain, night and day.

Most Esteemed

Two of the most esteemed endurance races in America are the Tevis Cup, a 100-mile race from Squaw Valley, Nevada to Auburn, California, and the Old Dominion, a 100-mile race through Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. On a recent sweltering June weekend, a young rider from Norristown, Pennsylvania, defeated some of the country's premier endurance riders in the 32nd Old Dominion race. And that was just one of the highlights of Daryl Downs' weekend.

"He's absolutely remarkable! Only 10 horses finished because it was so hot. You talk about world class riders, and he beat them all!" Mike Marino, owner of Red Buffalo Ranch in Montgomery County, described his protégé's accomplishments. "Daryl graduated from high school Friday night, got up at 3:30 in the morning and drove to Virginia." Marino's enthusiasm and obvious pride erupt spontaneously as he talks about the convergence of events that brought a truly unique horse, an exceptional young rider and a seasoned endurance competitor together.

Downs didn't think about horses at all until the summer he was 12 years old. His mother had sent him and his sister to camp at Red Buffalo Ranch. "This kid came to me at 12. He came here, got into our camp and has never left," Marino said. "I converted him into a trail guide." But the trail guide had some reservations.

Slowest Horses

"It took me three years to get up enough confidence to lead the rides," Downs said. "I used to hang back on the slowest horses." Eventually, Downs began leading rides and then got interested in racing. "I started racing two years ago," he said. It wasn't that he was particularly athletic. He was looking for something different. "Nobody else did it, and it was something I was good at. People hear about it and think it's cool." Downs also wrestles. "Wrestling keeps me in shape for riding," and it also gives him something to do with all his energy in the winter.

But what about the horse? That's another story of chances taken and prizes won. "Here's a horse I bought at New Holland for $700," Marino said.

"Mike was getting ready to sell him, and I asked if I could try him," Downs explained as he described how the partnership between a novice endurance rider and a young horse named "Cincinnati" began.

Cincinnati

Marino chose the horse's name with a nod to history, and it turned out to be very prophetic. "It was the name of Ulysses Grant's favorite horse," Marino said. And it was in Virginia that Grant finally defeated General Robert E. Lee to end the Civil War. One of Marino's other great endurance horses is named Traveller, which was Lee's horse. Another Red Buffalo Ranch rider, Devon Hangey, was riding Traveller and keeping up with Downs for most of the race.

Although final times have not been released yet, Downs thinks it took him about 17 hours to finish the race. "The closest anyone was to him was about 10 minutes," Marino said. Not a bad trip for a relative newcomer. "That was my first 100. I did a 55-mile race in April and got a second in that," Downs explained as he described what it was like to ride through the day and into the night. The pit crews meet the riders at the vet stops, where all horses are checked by veterinarians. The veterinarians can pull horses out at any of these checkpoints. The riders might grab a sandwich at the checkpoint, while the pit crew sponges down the horse. Downs' pit crew included his mentor Marino, an experienced and successful endurance rider who dispensed encouragement as well as advice.

"Devon got pulled at 80 miles because her horse was lame. I was with someone a lot for the last five miles. Toward the end, Mike told me what I could be doing to make sure I stayed ahead."

Steady Pace

The race is as much about strategy as it is about speed. In fact, riders get bunched up together and stay together for long distances. "In the middle we were just hanging out, just trying to keep people from catching up to us," Downs explained. "The pace is pretty steady, trotting and cantering."

After nightfall, things change. "It's hard. You don't really know where you're going and you hope the horse knows where he's going. There are glow sticks every hundred yards. That's how you know you're in the right place."

The Old Dominion course follows a trail that is fraught with history. It starts at the Northern Virginia 4H Center near Front Royal, on a plot of ground originally purchased by the United States Army as an ideal place to train military horses. The trail ascends the Blue Ridge Mountains, and then descends to the Shenandoah River. The Indians named the river Shenandoah, "The Daughter of the Stars." Riders cross the river and follow the trail into Fort Valley and the Massanutten Mountains. The trail takes riders back across the river near Sherman's Gap, and then back to the 4H Center.

"When we got out of Sherman's Gap, there were still other people with me." But then Downs and his horse made their move. "Cincinnati went flying up the hill. We stopped and listened for other horses. Then we went flying down the hill. He lost a shoe, and stumbled, but we kept going." Downs crossed the finish line around 1:00 a.m. He remembers the heat, the darkness and the camaraderie he shared with other riders—many of whom were far more experienced. "They say this is the hardest race. It's hard for me to say because I haven't done that many. It was very dangerous weather to be doing stuff like that," he explained. But he's a careful rider who pays attention to conditioning his horse and how his horse is feeling. "We don't ride with a heart monitor. I rely on what the horse is doing—listen to his breathing."

The Old Dominion whetted his appetite for another challenge, and he's looking forward to his next race, the Vermont Moonlight 100 in July.

Downs and Hangey worked together to condition Cincinnati and Traveller for the race. They spent weeks riding the horses up and down the hills in Evansburg Park, near the Red Buffalo Ranch. "We knew they were ready," Downs said. Then he recalled what someone once told him about endurance riding. "The one who trains the best is the one who has the most horse left at the end." This time the one with the most horse left at the end was an 18 year-old who had just graduated from high school, riding a seven-year-old horse named for one of the country's most successful—and controversial—military leaders.

The Pennsylvania Equestrian

Mohammed follows as Hamdan clinches Italian Endurance Race title

Emirates247.com - Full Article

By Wam
Published Saturday, June 14, 2014

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai attended the Italian Endurance Race at Ancona at which the Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum clinched the title for the second year in a row.

With riders from 13 countries taking part in the event, Emirati riders dominated all four stages of the 120-km race and won the first three places.

Sheikh Hamdan finished first with a time of 05:20.53 hours followed by Sheikh Hasher bin Mohammed Thani Al Maktoum (05:20.54 hours) and Ghanem Al Oaisi shared the third place with Abdullah Al Marri (05:20.55 hours)...

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http://www.emirates247.com/news/government/mohammed-follows-as-hamdan-clinches-italian-endurance-race-title-2014-06-14-1.552861