Boudheib Endurance Rules Put Welfare of the Horse First

Horsereporter.com - Full Article

by Pamela Burton

"Reform or stop, no compromise," said HH Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan

11 March, 2016, Abu Dhabi ~ The 1st International Boudhieb Endurance Conference was held on 10 March, 2016 outside Abu Dhabi at the Boudhieb Endurance Village. Disrupted by extraordinary storms and a deluge of rain, the 1st International Endurance Seminar had to be postponed for a day, but this did not stop participants and guests from enjoying a most interesting and thought provoking event which set out to discuss and expand on what has become to be known as the Boudhieb Rules.

His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nayhanthe moving spirit for not only the Conference but also for the Boudhieb Rules was present throughout, and he was delighted by the attendance and appreciated the strong support his ideas received from the speakers and guests.

The Boudhieb Rules have sparked an intense debate both Nationally and Internationally about the meaning of endurance, whether the long distance flat races run against the clock as seen in UAE can legitimately be called endurance or whether other criteria which ensure the welfare of the horse are not more relevant to the spirit of the sport. For His Highness there is no doubt and the Boudhieb Rules reflect his ideals. He issued an ultimatum, “Reform or stop – no compromise...”

Read more here:
http://www.horsereporter.com/boudheib-endurance-rules-put-welfare-of-the-horse-first/

FEI Tribunal publishes decisions in UAE Endurance cases

FEI.org

11 Mar 2016

The FEI Tribunal has this week published decisions in three Endurance cases in the United Arab Emirates involving Dr Hallvard Sommerseth, Abdul Aziz Sheikh and Ali Mohammed Al Muhairi.

Dr Hallvard Sommerseth, former Head of the Veterinary Department at the United Arab Emirates Equestrian Federation (EEF), has been suspended as an FEI Official for a two-year period for non-compliance with FEI Rules and Regulations and his involvement in a number of events from which duplicate results were submitted to the FEI.

The FEI Tribunal found that Dr Sommerseth had been “grossly negligent with regards to his duties as an FEI Official” during the events. Dr Sommerseth had been provisionally suspended by the FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez since 31 August 2015.

The FEI Tribunal suspension, which prevents Dr Sommerseth from acting as an FEI Official or having any involvement in FEI activities at a national or international level, runs through to 15 April 2017. The FEI Tribunal, which also fined Dr Sommerseth CHF 4,000 and ordered him to pay CHF 1,500 towards the costs of the legal procedure, took into account the ongoing provisional suspension imposed by the FEI Secretary General and the period from 12 March to 27 July 2015 when the EEF was suspended.

Dr Sommerseth has 21 days from the date of notification (10 March 2016) to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The full decision is available here.


Abdul Aziz Sheikh, former Head of the EEF Endurance Department, has been suspended from acting as an FEI Official or having any involvement in FEI activities at a national or international level by the FEI Tribunal for an 18-month period.

Mr Sheikh was provisionally suspended by the FEI Secretary General on 13 October 2015 for consistently failing to observe the FEI Rules and Regulations over a period of several years and for allowing a number of Endurance events to proceed without accurate timing systems.

The FEI Tribunal has now suspended him until 12 April 2017, taking into account the provisional suspension imposed by the FEI Secretary General. Mr Sheikh has also been fined CHF 3,000 and ordered to pay CHF 1,500 towards the costs of the legal procedure.

Mr Sheikh has 21 days from the date of notification (10 March 2016) to appeal the decision to CAS.

The full decision is available here.


The FEI Tribunal has also issued a decision in the case against Ali Mohammed Al Muhairi (UAE) regarding breaches of the terms of a four-year suspension imposed in March 2012 following an Equine Anti-Doping Rules violation. Under the terms of the suspension, Mr Al Muhairi was not allowed to participate in any capacity or be present at any Event authorised or organised by the FEI, other than as a spectator. The FEI Tribunal extended the period of ineligibility through to 21 April 2016 and ordered Mr Al Muhairi to contribute CHF 500 towards the costs of the legal procedure.

The Parties have 21 days from the date of notification (10 March 2016) to appeal the decision to CAS.

The full decision is available here.

FEI World Equestrian Games Endurance Competition Formats Proposals

During the in person meeting of the FEI Endurance Technical Committee, held on the 16th and 17th of February 2016, the Committee following the FEI Bureau request, considered the following proposals:

Number of combinations in the Team and Individual competitions by NF for 2022:

- The Committee agrees on having NO DROP SCORE in the Teams competition;
- The Teams will be composed by 3 combinations per NF, that cannot compete in the Individual competition;
- The Individual competition will be allowed to have 2 combinations per NF, that cannot compete in the Team competition;
- Each NF will be allowed to enter at the most 5 combinations, 3 in the Team and 2 for the Individual competition;
- Reserve combination/s will not be allowed in either Team or Individual competitions;

It’s of major concern to the Committee to ensure an existing podium for the Teams competition, therefore the following proposals were considered:

- Endurance will have two days of competitions, one day for the Individual competition and another day for the Teams competition;
- Day 1: Veterinary inspection for 160km individual competition
- Day 2: 160km WEC
- Day 3: Best Condition Judging 160km WEC
Veterinary Inspection for Teams Competition
- Day 4: Teams competition;

For the format of the competitions the following proposals were considered:
- 160 Km Individual / rest day/ 120 Km Teams
- 160 Km Individual / rest day / 150 Km Teams relay (each horse one loop of 50 Km)
- 160 Km Individual / rest day / 2 days 100 Km Teams
- 160 Km Individual / rest day / 160 Km Teams

For information, last November the FEI General Assembly approved to reduce the number of combinations from 7 (with two drop scores) to 5 (one drop score) with 4 combinations in the Team, plus a reserve combination This is a very significant change in Endurance made last year for the 2018 WEG.

As for qualifications, they have already started, so it’s not possible to change them at this stage for 2018, but it will possible for 2022 once a final format for the competition is found.

The Committee also considered two proposals:

From the Swiss NF

Philosophy:
The race is carried out over a qualifying phase of the first ca. 140 Km at a controlled speed, demanding mostly endurance and tactical skills, and is followed by a final phase over the last ca. 20 Km at an unlimited speed on adapted technical terrain and topography, demanding endurance, tactical and technical skills.

Description:
The race consists of two parts:

a) Qualifying phase:
1 – ca. 140 Km with Vet Gates (VG) etc. as defined in existing regulations;
At fixed speed, to be defined for each race, but always ≤17Km/h resulting in fixed exit
time at the last VG (calculated from fixed speed over ca. 140 Km including compulsory
halts) for the last loop;
Horses faster than fixed speed are held in last VG at ca. 140 Km until fixed time exit;
Horses slower than fixed speed have to pass compulsory halt and individually leave the VG
later than the fixed exit time;

b) Final phase:
Mass start (?) of all horses having passed the compulsory half time in last VG at fixed exit
time;
Last ca. 20 Km at unlimited speed on good ground, adapted technical terrain and
topography;
Final ranking depending on chronological passing the finish line (the first horse wins);

From the Alliance of Endurance Organisers

Two levels of competition
The “Elite Status” does not apply in either case.

Championship: CEI 5* over a distance of 160 Km
Criterium: CEI 4* over a distance of 140 Km

Two events over two days:

1st day: Championship
Ride over 160 Km
One or two riders per country
Individual ranking only

2nd day: Criterium
Ride over 140 Km
Three or Four riders per country
Team ranking only

For discussion:

• Up to five horse/rider pairs per country can take part

• More open to countries that are developing endurance

• Fewer starters for each event

• Use of facilities and tracks for two days

• More attractive to spectators

• Two different events: more countries can be represented

• Elite system up to the level of Championship

Inquiry into issues around Australia’s Hendra horse vaccine

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

Horsetalk.co.nz | 26 February 2016

Issues around the Hendra vaccine for horses will be the subject of a Queensland parliamentary committee inquiry.

Queensland’s Parliament has asked its Agriculture and Environment Committee to examine the EquiVacc vaccine, including claims by some owners of adverse reactions in horses after receiving it.

The committee will also examine the stance of some veterinarians in refusing to treat unvaccinated horses and what effects that has on horses, the industry and the economy. The committee will report back by August 22.

The availability of the vaccine for horses has been hailed as a major advance in the fight against the disease, but some horse owners are reluctant to use it.

Some vets are refusing to treat horses that have not been inoculated amid fears they will be prosecuted under health and safety laws if they treat an unvaccinated horse that later presents with Hendra infection...

Read more: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2016/02/26/inquiry-issues-australia-hendra-horse-vaccine/#ixzz42QDdXpK1

Arabian horse legend Sheila Varian dies at 79

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

Horsetalk.co.nz | 8 March 2016

Renowned US arabian horse breeder Sheila Varian has died at the age of 79 after a battle with cancer, which was diagnosed in 2013.

Varian, who died on the morning of March 6, had been breeding horses since 1954 and was considered one of the world’s leading breeders of arabian horses, but she was also well known in western riding circles.

Ridden by Sheila, Ronteza (*Witez II x Ronna by Faronek) notched up three “firsts” at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in the 1961, the first Arabian, the first female rider, and the first amateur rider to “win the world” – the Reined Cow Horse World Championships, a contest dominated by quarter horses.

She was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2003.

The Varians were among the first to import arabians from Poland. Varian said: “I didn’t breed my stallions to follow any trends. I’ve always tried to take the best stallion and breed it to the best mare for the purposes I had in mind. I have had a deep fondness for the Arabians from Poland – however I recognize that all Arabians came from the desert originally so quality is more important than origin...”

Read more: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2016/03/08/arabian-horse-legend-sheila-varian-dies-79/#ixzz42GHYTIHH

The Rebirth of Endurance Tests

AwareWelfare.net - Full Article

by John Crandell
February 28 2016

• Prologue
• The Time Is Now
• The Genesis of Modern Endurance
• Expansion Across North America
• FEI Enters the Scene
• Back in the USA
• Our Issues are More Alike Than We Realize
• A Rebirth Begins
• Building Wise Endurance Testing Programs
• Roadmap to the Future (COMING SOON)
• Creating Healthy Goalposts and Incentives (COMING SOON)


Prologue

Endurance riding was once on the vanguard of equine welfare, generating new definition in the meaning of equine welfare itself. Now that honorable position is obscured under a mountain of saddening imagery on the internet and a growing contempt from other equestrians over the level of equitation and horsemanship displayed at endurance races.

Who’s to blame? We all are, and perhaps especially those of us that have been engaged in the discipline as long as myself. I’ve been endurance racing for over forty years now; long enough to have won two Tevis and Haggin Cups, first to finish at six Old Dominion 100 mile Rides, and FEI championship medals as early as 1986 and as late as 2010. I certainly should have known better, should have spoken out more at the right time way back when. Well, no time like the present.

It’s impossible address the governance issues we’re now facing in a way that guarantees that they’ll never return if we can’t openly identify our collective mistakes that allowed this travesty to develop in the first place. So please notice that as I dissect this calamity of errors, I offend people on both sides of highly polarized positions equally. I have been party to both camps and am therefore as culpable as anyone.

I will show that the root issue here has been brooding for a long time, and goes back to a time before the involvement of the Federation Equestrian International (FEI) and well before the Persian Gulf countries participation in internationally sanctioned endurance racing.


The Time is Now

At this time the entire world, especially the equestrian community, is aware of the alarming spectacle of endurance racing activity in the United Arab Emirates. This has devastated the already fragile reputation of the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), which sanctions these races. The FEI has been supplying the public years of image posturing and repeated announcements that is making “sweeping changes”, but the carnage has continued with its renewed sanctioning.

Meanwhile in the United States the endurance riding disciplines national governing body is in a different kind of downward spiral. The economic demography of the U.S.A. has lured the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) into a dangerous trap. When businesses and organizations here listen to their constituents too democratically what they will always hear most loudly is that “we want more quantity, less cost; and we enjoy being patronized gratuitously”. Following this mandate usually creates economic growth initially, but it then leads to departure from the organizations original purpose, alienation of its original supporters, and declining standards until there is nowhere lower to go in order to acquire new members.

This is written as a warning to other regions with developing equestrian programs not to follow in our footsteps. The following is chronical of the foolish choices we’ve made that led to this mess nationally and internationally. Review this history to learn by our mistakes as the modern endurance riding discipline begins an inevitable rebirth.

There is a great spark of hope in the initiatives demonstrated at the Bouthib racecourse in Abu Dhabi. This is essentially a step back in the discipline’s history to the point in time before we began to let it go so far astray. This is the place from where we need to start again, a little wiser this time.

Our goal needs to be much more than just a tolerable amount animal suffering for the benefit of our sporting amusement. As worldwide awareness of the animal welfare sharpens, equine sports are under increasing pressure to evolve into exercises that genuinely benefit the animals. Just to “do little harm” as the general public may see it, to have image managed by skillful public relations tactics, is no longer enough. The modern world is demanding scientifically sound definitions and equitable practices of animal welfare.

Endurance riding has potential greater than any other equestrian discipline to have a positive impact in the future health and happiness of equines. The disciplines ability to closely mimic the natural challenges that forged horses as we have come to know them makes it the ideal platform for maintaining vital knowledge in genealogy, and of naturally good husbandry of the animals. This species that has carried mankind to prominence on earth desperately needs us to get this right, and we need to get this right for ourselves as well.

I’m going to point out how at time decades ago, when the world was looking to us in North America for concepts and inspiration, we had begun to make a pivotal error in the way we were allowing the distance riding discipline to be structured and governed. That fundamental flaw became embedded into the very foundation of endurance racing as it developed into an international sport with utterly dysfunctional result.

What at first seemed small and tolerable deviation from the noble philosophies that spawned the first modern endurance races here in America half century ago as has become a fundamentally dysfunctional system. In the most recent three decades it has become layered with additional distortions of best practices in order to better support the pomp and image of an international circus.

In North America that same error has had a nearly opposite effect as elsewhere, creating a loss of motivation to pursue equestrian excellence in all its aspects. This has forfeited the disciplines potential to adequately support the best breeding practices, and caused a visible decline in basic horsemanship and equitation in the distance riding community. The impact on equine welfare here has been more insidious, but it is no less tragic for horses in the end. We have simply learned how not to see it in our midst...

Read the rest here:
http://awarewelfare.net/2016/02/28/blog-post-title/

Uproar in Arabian Horse World

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Heads of Poland’s State Studs Janow Podlaski and Michalow have been dismissed

February 24 2016
by: Horse-Canada.com

The Arabian horse world is in turmoil as it has been announced that the heads of Poland’s State Studs Janow Podlaski and Michalow have been dismissed.

On February 19th, news broke the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Property Agency has released Janow Podlaski director Marek Trela, Michalow director Jerzy Bialobok, and the Agricultural Property Agency’s chief Arabian horse specialist Anna Stojanowska from their long-held positions.

In response, the global Arabian horse community is calling for their reinstatement. Petitions in Polish and English are circulating. The English language petition has already gained more than 3,000 signatures.

Organizers of the petition claim that the removal of Trela, Bialobok and Stojanowska leaves the Polish Arabian in jeopardy. It is feared that the tradition of breeding excellence is now at risk, as these knowledgeable professionals are replaced...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/uproar-in-arabian-horse-world/