Canadian Endurance Riders Receive a Honourary Invitation

Equinecanada.ca

Ottawa, Ont. November 27, 2014 -- Canadian endurance riders, Kathy Irvine of Blackfoot, Alta. and Jessica Manness of Dugald, Man., have been honoured with an invitation to compete in His Highness Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's 8th annual Endurance Cup being held January 10, 2015. This invitation-only event will be a FEI 3* 160km race across the Dubaï desert.

As part of 2014 Alltech World Equestrian Games, both pairs also travelled to Normandy, FRA to challenge the gruelling 160km course. Manness and Greater Glide (Flaming Tigre X Flaming Streak), her 13-year-old Arabian gelding, along with Irvine and Nightwind's Savannah, her 16-year-old Canadian bred Arabian mare sired by Dakotas Keyanti, will travel to Dubaï on December 21st.

It has been several years since Canadians have been invited to participate in a competition in the United Arab Emirates, and both riders are looking forward to this new opportunity to let their horses shine with some very fine international competition.

Accompanying the horse and rider teams as crew will be grooms, Denise Blanchet and Dessia Miller; Canadian Endurance Team Veterinarian, Dr. Glenn Sinclair; and Canadian Endurance Team Coach/Technical Advisor, Kim Woolley.

Spot-the-Marmoog – the new Christmas party game for all the family!

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Blogs Cuckson Report | December 31, 2014
by Pippa Cuckson

A couple of posts ago http://www.horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/hiding-in-plain-sight/, I remarked that anyone who searched randomly through the FEI database was likely, within 20 minutes, to chance upon a horse whose provenance did not stack up. This followed revelations about the failed FEI investigation into whether dressage horse Wily Earl and the three-years-younger Golden Coin were one and the same, a case drawn to my attention after the collapse of the Marmoog horse-swap enquiry on a legal technicality.

Quite a few of you took my 20-minute challenge seriously, and have referred me to horses who seem to have started their careers rather late in life. Others who have caught Marmoog fever tell me they’ve scoured endurance pictures on the internet in search of mid-ride horse swaps. There’s certainly a buzz when you think you’ve spotted a ringer. (This new-found party game has quickly gained popularity thanks, no doubt, to Christmas TV schedules rarely living up to expectations, or running out of things to say to your elderly aunt. It’s fun for all the family, with no prior horse knowledge required – all you need is normal eyesight).

Following the Marmoog affair, the FEI acknowledged “loopholes” in its horse ID systems. During the London International Horse Show (Olympia) I found myself in the same hospitality box as John McEwen, the FEI’s ex-vice president. He talked me through many new measures to thwart passport fraud and horse-swappers that are in the rules for 2015. We were not alerted to these revisions in missives from the FEI General Assembly the previous weekend. Having now read them online, I am not surprised the FEI was reluctant to spotlight them. The relationship between microchip and passport was not so much of a loophole as a sink-hole!...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/blogs/spot-the-marmoog/

World Horse Welfare to take part in Endurance GB panel

Worldhorsewelfare.org

23/12/2014

World Horse Welfare, the international horse charity and independent welfare advisor to sport regulators, has agreed to take part in a Review Panel for the proposed sponsorship contract for Endurance GB with the Dubai-based group Meydan.

The sponsorship is a sensitive issue given the controversy that the international sport of endurance has experienced in recent years, following the excessive rate of injuries and fatalities of horses in some parts of the sport.

Roly Owers, the charity’s chief executive, said: “We fully support the responsible use of horses in sport which means placing the welfare of the horse above all other considerations. We want to see the sport of Endurance continue to thrive in the UK with the welfare of the horse at its heart. We are entering this process with an open mind on the agreement, which we understand will include clauses on both equine welfare and fair play. I have been assured that World Horse Welfare will have the ability to act as it sees fit to fulfil a monitoring function, which I look forward to carrying out with my fellow panel members.”

- See more at: http://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/Article/World-Horse-Welfare-takes-part-in-Endurance-GB-panel#sthash.WU5zB9xk.dpuf

UAE- Al Naqbi steals the show

Menafn.com - Full Article

29/12/2014

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Rowallan claims 120km Endurance Ride title in Al Wathba

Riders in action at the Emirates International Endurance Village in Al Wathba on Saturday. — Supplied photo

Abu Dhabi: Abdulla Rashid Mohammed Saeed Al Naqbi astride 11-year-old Arab gelding Rowallan Dee Jay worked his way through to win the Shaikh Rashid bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Challenge Festival For Private Owners a CEN 120km Endurance Ride to be held at the Emirates International Endurance Village in Al Wathba on Saturday.

Trained by Ahmed Mahfouz at the Al Hayar Stables Rowallan made a smooth progress from the eigth position to hit the front in the final loop and held on very strongly to cross the finish line in four hours 64 minutes and 15 seconds at an average speed of 25.153km/hour...

Read more here:
http://www.menafn.com/1094057899/UAE--Al-Naqbi-steals-the-show

New Zealand: Bulfin completes qualifying mission

Stuff.co.nz - Full Article

12/30/2014

The Marlborough Endurance and Trail Club were in action before Christmas with two days of rides at Sweetstream in the Waihopai Valley.

On Saturday, December 20, a few hardy competitors turned out for the club's annual endurance ride, with distances ranging from 25km to 80km. The following day was the preferred choice for most, however, with 42 horse-and-rider combinations opting for the timed competitive trail riding event.

Saturday's 80km event was won by Marlborough club member Heidi Bulfin, guiding Stonelea Sparkling Rose around the three-loop ride, closely followed by Nelson Lakes' Alison Higgins on Twynham El Desiree.

Neither were in a hurry with qualifying being their main goal and they finished in just over seven hours...

Read more here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/sport/64539929/Bulfin-completes-qualifying-mission

At Endurance Horse Race in Chile, Feeling Thrills of a Fast-Growing Sport

News.nationalgeographic.com - Full Article and Video

Pedro Pablo Gomez trains horses that win—and fetch dollars from Middle East sheikhs.

Katarzyna Nowak
for National Geographic
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 30, 2014

CASABLANCA, Chile—There are compelling reasons for dismounting from your horse and running alongside it in the fourth of five loops in a 120-kilometer (80-mile) race through dusty hill country not far from the capital, Santiago. Especially on a mid-December day at the height of the austral summer, when heat waves are hovering above the ground. And especially when you're going downhill.

"The penultimate loop," says veteran rider and horse trainer Pedro Pablo Gomez, "is what makes Copa Chile [the Chilean Cup] a very difficult race. The horses have already run 80 kilometers, the fourth loop is the hilliest, and it's crucial we reserve energy for our last loop."

I'm in the Veramonte Vineyard, in the dramatic Casablanca Valley, the staging ground for the 2014 Copa Chile, rooting for Pedro and his horse, Otoño (Autumn). Pedro, in a long-ago race in coastal Peñuelas—which he had a crack at winning—chivalrously stopped to assist my friend who had fallen off her horse.

Endurance horse racing, with riders and horses stretched to their limits, is a young sport, like ultra-marathoning. It's growing faster than any other horse sport, with 90 races worldwide ten years ago, and 900 today...

Read more here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141230-chilean-cup-horse-race-santiago-animals-culture/

Golden Horseshoe versus Tevis by Sally Toye

Endurancegb.co.uk - Full Story

27 December 2014)

Sally Toye (who calls herself an ‘almost Wessex member’ as she enjoys the routes and atmosphere of Wessex rides so much) writes about her Exmoor Extra (3 days of 40km) experience. She came to the Wessex 2013 BAM to talk about her Tevis Cup experiences in USA – fascinating – and she has attempted to draw parallels between GHS and Tevis.

Sally writes: With an excellent third endurance season so far, I entered my 9 year old mare into the Exmoor Extra class. 120k over three days. I wasn’t sure how it would go or if “we” were fit enough and after last year’s 80k over 2 days. Exmoor can throw at you curved balls and I hoped our preparation work on a variety of hills and with gates would all come together. This ride is a great test for any combination and we had come away from the previous year having so learnt. Time to see if she was a three day horse.

At the venue before the start there was a bit of time to hang out before the evening briefing. Here some people asked if I was going to the Tevis Cup again after my previous successes (and failures!) And then I get the inevitable question, “is Golden Horseshoe as hard as Tevis?”

These two rides are very different and also very similar. These rides both involve terrain and a time limit and yet there is no fog, sleet, wind or sideways rain in California and no mountains in Somerset!...

Read more here:
http://endurancegb.co.uk/main/news#2015011501