UAE Announces WEG 2014-Nominated Riders

Chef d'Equipe Saeed Humaid Al Tayer

Mansour Saeed Mohammed Al Faresi - Norwest
Saeed Ahmad Jaber Al Harbi - Africano
Ali Khalfan Al Jahouri - Farak; Moota Haddeea
HE Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum - Qhashmyr d'Hazel; Yamamah
HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashin Al Maktoum - Ajayeb; Intisaar
Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum - Nopoli del Ma; Novisaad d'Aqui
Abdulla Ghanim Al Marri - Qrafik la Majorie; Quran El Ulm
Saeed Mohammed Khalifa Al Mehairi - Kedjari Des Serres
Saif Ahmed Al Mozroui - Oso Larrikin

Keep up with news on the August 28th World Endurance Championship in France here:
http://www.endurance.net/international/France/2014WEG/index.html

Canada Announces WEG 2014-Nominated Riders

Chef d'Equipe Maura Leahy
Team Canada veterinarian, Glenn Sinclair DVM
Assistant team Canada veterinarian, Roxy Bell DVM

Kathy Irvine - Nightwinds Savannah, 16-year Canadian Arabian mare owned by the rider
Jessica Manness - Greater Glide, 13-year-old Arabian gelding owned by the rider
Leanna Marchant - Samson’s Fire, 15-year-old Arabian cross gelding owned by the rider
Yvette Vinton - Petit Loup d’Jolie, 11-year-old Arabian cross gelding owned by Cecile Dumas; Teese, 14-year-old Arabian gelding owned by the rider

Keep up with news on the August 28th World Endurance Championship in France here:
http://www.endurance.net/international/France/2014WEG/index.html

Morgan Watson Wins NAJYRC Endurance Race

USEFNetwork.com

RELEASE: July 18, 2014
AUTHOR/ADMINISTRATOR: USEF Communications Department

Lexington, Ky. - The North American Young Rider Endurance Championship began bright and early on Friday morning, as 14 entries raced through the Kentucky Horse Park and surrounding farmland. After little more than six hours and 14 minutes on the trail, it came down to a single second that separated the first and second-place finishers.

Teammates on the Southeast team, Morgan Watson and Cassandra Roberts, showed their team spirit as they cantered the home stretch side-by-side. It was Watson (Clinton, Tenn.) and her own My Lords Elisha who crossed the finish line first in a time of 6:14:23, with Roberts (Bronson, Fla.) and Janice Worthington’s Golden Lightning finishing second in 6:14:24. Christina Kimery (Bixby, Okla.) and Jeremy Olson’s Noslo’s Selket Da Yankee crossed third in a time of 6:44:32.

The Southeast team finished Friday with the best cumulative time of 19:16:37. The team is composed of:
Michael Bishop (Raleigh, N.C.) and Mary Farris’ Thundering Overtime
Mallory Capps (Cumming, Ga.) and Jeremy Olson’s SA Belshazzar
Morgan Watson (Clinton, Tenn.) and My Lords Elisha
Josie Whelan (Leicester, N.C.) and Cheryl and Stagg Newman’s FFC First Csea Lord
Cassandra Roberts (Bronson, Fla.) and Janice Worthington’s Golden Lightning

The Central team was the second and final team to complete the course in a time of 23:01:12. The team is composed of:
Mary Kathryn Clark (Eatonton, Ga.) and Mustafa Tehrani’s Chasing The Wind
Emilynn DiBassie (Magnolia, Texas) and her own MK Spyder
Jessica DiCamillo (Las Cruces, N.M.) and Karen Binns-DiCamillo’s SHA Strike Two
Christine Kimery (Bixby, Okla.) and Jeremy Olson’s Noslo’s Selket Da Yankee

For full results or to learn more about the Adequan/FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by Gotham North, please visit www.youngriders.org.

Canadian Endurance Rider, Katya Levermann, Finishes in Fourth in NAYRER

Photo Credit -- www.stockimageservices.com Facebook.com/equine.canada

Riding Tracy Reynolds' TEF Sunflash (CRF Jalal x Lewisfield Sunraf), a 14-year-old Arabian gelding, Katya Levermann of One Hundred Mile House, BC finished in fourth place in the NAJYRC-CH 4* FEI Championship race.

The race, 120 km in length, consisted of five loops around and just outside of the Kentucky Horse Park grounds.

After the first loop, Levermann and TEF Sunflash were in 11th place, and the pair moved up to fifth place after the second loop. Following the third loop, they slipped to sixth place. They were sitting in fifth place, 13 minutes off of third place, heading in to the last loop. With a very fresh, fit horse, Levermann strategically planned her advance. The pair quickly gained ground and completed the ride just over a minute behind the bronze medal winner.

"First and foremost I would like to thank Tracy Reynolds for lending me such a wonderful horse, Flash," said Levermann, who is attending her first NAJYRC. "I am just thrilled with his performance, and I couldn't be prouder to represent Canada. Coming in fourth was dream come true."

"Katya did an absolutely incredible job and her fourth place finish today will be a personal best," said Maura Leahy, chef d'équipe. "She worked every loop to progress, and we are absolutely thrilled with where she finished. Our whole team--Tracy Reynolds, the owner; Glenn Sinclair, the team veterinarian; Peter Levermann, Katya's father and Katelyn Reynolds, as a guest--did a huge job helping Katya and bringing her through to the finish today."

For more information and complete results for NAJYRC, please visit www.youngriders.org.

Senior Dutch endurance official steps down over WEG selections

By Horsetalk.co.nz on Jul 19, 2014

A senior endurance figure in The Netherlands has resigned from a key role over his concerns about three horses in the frame to be competed by Dutch riders at the World Equestrian Games.

Marc van den Dungen announced last Monday he was standing down as independent chairman of the Endurance Technical Commission of the Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation, the KNHS.

His resignation followed the nomination of three riders for the Dutch endurance team with horses, at least two of whom are owned by interests in the United Arab Emirates.

Van den Dungen’s concerns centre around the racing workload of the horses and he accused the Dutch equestrian body of not putting horse welfare as a top priority – a claim the federation has rejected. The federation backed the selection of the horses in question, saying it was in line with recent FEI rules.

Van den Dungen said: “The reason for discontinuing my function is the fact that I do not want to be associated with an organisation which pays lip-service to horse welfare that, when it comes to success at the World Equestrian Games 2014, no longer places horse welfare at the top of its agenda.”

Read More ...

Great Britain: New qualification for Brechin rider

Brechinadvertiser.co.uk - Full Article

Brechiner John Thomson, who is an Endurance rider for Great Britain, has qualified as a sports psychologist.

The achievement follows a successful Cairngorm 100 (Blue Mountain 160) endurance test ride.

The MA (Hons) graduate, who originally studied psychology at the University of Dundee, gained a Diploma in Sports Psychology with Distinction.

Being no stranger to the stresses and strains of top level competition, John dug deep into his own experiences during the diploma course.

Endurance is a tough, challenging sport that places huge amounts of physical as well as psychological stress on it’s serious competitors and demands high levels of focus, motivation and concentration for long periods of time. He said: “Sometimes the race is played out in a five and a half square inch court – the space inside your head!...”

Read more here:
http://www.brechinadvertiser.co.uk/sport/local-sport/new-qualification-for-brechin-rider-1-3477097

USA's Kelsey Russell: The "Gonna Go Someplace Kid"

July 17 2014
by Merri Melde-Endurance.net

Kelsey Russell, a Young Rider, is one of the USA Endurance Team riders for the 2014 World Equestrian Games Endurance Race in France

"She's as cool and calculating as any of the senior riders," says USA Chef d'Equipe Emmett Ross of Kelsey Russell, the first Young Rider to ever make the senior World Championship USA Endurance Team. "And of course she's a chip off the old block, because she rides for Valerie Kanavy, and Valerie has been coaching her ever since she's been a kid."

Kanavy hardly needs any introduction in endurance circles, being a 2-time former World Endurance Champion in 1994 in The Netherlands, and 1998 in the United Arab Emirates. Being only 18, Russell isn't as well known yet, but that's not because she's been hiding in the stables.

"I've been on horses pretty much my whole life," Russell says. "With my aunt I do barrel racing and western riding." It wasn't till about 5 years ago that Russell boarded her horses in Kanavy's stable across the street and discovered endurance. "I started riding endurance with her the following winter, and I have been ever since."

It was obvious to Kanavy that Russell was a horsewoman from the beginning. "She was like a little monkey that hung on, no matter what. Sometimes the horses would do things, and we'd be going, 'Oh no!', but she didn't come off," Kanavy laughs.

Russell, from Williston, Florida, did her first endurance ride in January of 2010 on one of Kanavy's horses, Layla Z Gold. Since then, Russell has racked up over 1800 AERC miles, a first place finish in the 2011 North American Young Riders FEI Championships aboard Kanavy's My Wild Irish Gold, a 6th place finish aboard Kanavy's Gold Raven in the 2011 FEI Young Rider Junior World Endurance Championship in Abu Dhabi, and a 5th place finish with My Wild Irish Gold in the 2013 Young Rider Junior World Endurance Championship in Tarbes, France.

Russell will be riding My Wild Irish Gold on the USA Team in the 2014 World Equestrian Games Endurance Race in Normandy, France on August 28, 2014. "Irish" is a 10 coming 11-year-old bay Anglo-Arabian mare, owned and bred by Kanavy's Gold Medal Farms. She is Russell's favorite horse in the stable to ride. "She's comfortable; she likes to go, but she has a brain. She doesn't get stupid, and she doesn't waste her energy," Russell says.

Russell's first endurance ride on Irish was a 2nd place finish in the Goethe Challenge 75-miler in December of 2010. Since then, they've completed 10 endurance races in the USA together (including 4 wins and a Best Condition), and the 2 overseas races. Their best ride, Russell says, was the Young Rider Junior Championship in France last year where the mare covered the 120-km course in 6 1/2 hours.

Russell is not daunted at all by riding alongside experienced senior riders in such a prestigious Championship race in France. "I ride with quite a few of them and I hang out with them at the rides so I know them pretty well. It'll be different than the Young Riders, but I think it'll be fun and it'll be a really good experience," she says matter-of-factly.

Kanavy knows Russell can handle the pressure, and is delighted with her accomplishments. "I'm pretty proud of her all the way around. I'm proud of her for what she does in school and all her other activities too; it's not just about riding. She's an all-around 'Gonna Go Someplace Kid.' She has great family support, and I think where she is, and what she's accomplished, is because she's determined, and she is a dynamite worker. I'm more proud of the way she's conducted her whole life; and her good will and determination to go somewhere and be somebody, and be the best you can be - she takes that to another level."

Russell will be riding at the top level in France next month, aboard a top level mare, with a top level team, coach, family, and mentor rooting her on, and it's likely she will take it all in stride.

Correction:
Kelsey Russell is the second junior to ride as a senior team member.
Joe Mattingly rode as a 16-year-old as a US Team Member at the 1988 World Championship in Front Royal, Virginia and placed 7th overall. In 1990, at the age of 18, he was a US Team Member at the 1990 World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden at the first ever World Equestrian Games (his horse retired at 75 miles).