21 yellow cards issued in first weekend of UAE endurance season

Horseandhound.co.uk - Full Article

Pippa Cuckson
12 November, 2015

Twenty-one yellow warning cards were handed out in a single weekend at the start of the UAE endurance season, as the crackdown on rule-breaking steps up.

Numerous violations were spotted on the livestream from the first major CEI/CEN at Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi on 22 October, in addition to many sanctioned on the day by the ground jury.

There was a completion rate of just 18% in the CEI 100Km (20 of 108 starters), no reduction in average speeds, instances of extra-long reins used as whips, and riders retiring just before vet-gates to avoid the penalty points and mandatory rest periods that follow disqualification for metabolics.

The UAE was suspended in March, reinstated only after signing a legal agreement. The FEI declined to comment how long the UAE has to improve standards before another suspension is considered...

Read more here:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/uae-endurance-yellow-cards-516971

FEI announces adverse drug findings in two competition horses

The FEI has announced two new adverse findings in horses involving prohibited substances.

Samples taken at the CSIO2* in Tehran, Iran, late in September from the showjumping horse Sir de Diamant, ridden by Mohammad Davoud Shekofti, of Iran, were positive for the banned substance stanozolol and its metabolite, 16 beta hydroxy-stanozol. It is an anabolic steroid that promotes muscle mass.

The horse’s sample also tested positive for the controlled medication dexamethasone, a corticosteroid used to treat inflammatory and auto-immune conditions, and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug flunixin.

Samples taken at the Young Horse Endurance Championships in Valeggio sul Minico, Italy, on September 26 from the horse Barbaforte Bosana, ridden by Camilla Malta, of Italy, have tested positive for the banned substance ergonovine, a vasoconstrictor.

Both athletes have been provisionally suspended from November 16 – the date of notification. The horses have been provisionally suspended for two months.

Read more at Horsetalk.co.nz

Uruguayan Endurance Rider's Long Road Back to Health

MSN.com - Video

November 10 2015

Uruguayan endurance rider Oriana Ricca had to overcome life-threatening illness to keep her equestrian dreams on track.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/endurance-riders-long-road-back-to-health/vp-CCccT0

Kelsey Russell Among Longines FEI Rising Star Award Nominees

FEIAwards.org

November 3 2015

Kelsey Russell (USA) Endurance, is one of 6 nominees for the Longines FEI Rising Star Award. This award goes to a person aged 14 to 21 who demonstrates outstanding sporting talent and commitment.

Kelsey won the 2015 North American Junior Young Rider Championship and the Best Condition award. She is currently top of the Young Riders World Endurance Rankings. Kelsey works very hard and trains the horses she competes. In 2014 she was the only young rider chosen by the United States Equestrian Federation to ride on the team at the FEI World Equestrian Games 2014.

A jury of international experts, including FEI President Ingmar De Vos, will select the winners, which will be announced at the FEI Awards Gala on 13 November in Puerto Rico.

The winners will be flown to the glittering gala evening, where over 350 guests representing the 133 National Equestrian Federations, enthusiasts and stakeholders from around the world will celebrate their achievements.

The FEI Awards were launched in 2009 to put a spotlight on the men, women, young people and organisations that are making an outstanding contribution to the progress and excellence of equestrian sport – in or out of the arena.

Apathy Society

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | November 9, 2015

I meant to tell you the Apathy Society cancelled its meeting due to lack of interest, but I couldn’t be bothered...

How many tens of thousands of man-hours have been expended thinking up new formats for the Olympics and WEG, only to end up not far from where we started?

In April, I spent four days travelling to Switzerland, sitting through the FEI sports forum debates on this huge topic, and writing it up for several publications. Multiply that by 270 other delegates, and that’s 1,350 days of collective effort, before you consider all the time put in by FEI executives, committees and stakeholder groups before and since.

Now, on the eve of the FEI General Assembly in Puerto Rico, the results of a further survey of all national federations (NFs) have been published, which by no means endorse the FEI’s Olympic format preferences. However, the FEI could easily argue that strongly articulated opposition to, say, separate contests in eventing for individuals and teams, is not the majority view.
This brings us to a truth that various movers and shakers sometime utter to me in private, but baulk from saying in public.
Only 47 (35%) of the 133 member NFs bothered to respond to the most important thing they will be asked about in the next four years, apart from re-electing a president. That’s 10 fewer than the nations represented at the April forum; just seven more than competed at London 2012; and 27 fewer than represented at WEG 2014. If you don’t have long-term international ambitions, why join a global federation?...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/apathy-society/#.VkDzJhHV-TM.facebook

Wild horses could not keep her away: north-west Qld trainer takes on gruelling race in Mongolia

ABC.net.au - Full Story

November 8 2015
By Zara Margolis and Kathleen Calderwood

A horse trainer and endurance rider from north-west Queensland is one of only 40 people in the world who has been chosen to take part in the Mongol Derby, the longest and toughest horse race in the world.

Competitors ride semi-wild horses 1,000km through the Mongolian Steppe, changing horses every 40km.

Originally hailing from a small country town in France, Camille Champagne moved to Australia seven years ago to work on a property in Queensland, and now lives on Summerville Station, north of Richmond.

The keen horsewoman said she was chosen for the ride because of her experience with horses and success in endurance races in Australia.

She has been competing in endurance races in Australia since 2008, but they are nothing compared to the Mongol Derby...

Read more here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-09/north-west-qld-woman-chosen-compete-mongol-derby-horse-race/6911846

Endurance officials: The gait keepers of equine welfare

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

Neil Clarkson | 9 November 2015

...Horses are nigh-on perfect. Powerful, fast, agile, perfectly balanced. And they’re tractable enough to allow us to climb on their backs and do our bidding for us.

We marvel at their sheer speed on the racetrack and admire their endurance when we ask them to compete over 100-mile distances.

The sport of endurance, at its pinnacle, is about the partnership between horse and rider. Yes, horses are pushed hard, but the rider is attuned to their mount and can sense its performance as surely as any race-car driver can monitor his engine with a myriad of gauges in front of him.

Read more: http://horsetalk.co.nz/2015/11/09/endurance-officials-gait-keepers-welfare/#ixzz3r0cQyC2G