Germany's Sabrina Arnold Wins FEI World Endurance Championship for Young Horses

Germany’s Sarah Arnold and Tsagan Nour won the 120km FEI World Endurance Championship for Young Horses (7 years) in Nègrepelisse, France, leading an all-female podium. (FEI/Pamela Burton)
FEI.org

24 Sep 2016
By Pamela Burton

Smart riding brought Sabrina Arnold (GER) and Tsagan Nour to the top of the podium at the FEI World Endurance Championship for Young Horses (7 years) today in Nègrepelisse, France.

The 120km Championship, which finished with an all-female 1,2,3 yesterday afternoon, with Arnold and Tsagan Nour galloping over the finish line in a time of 05:59:04, culminated in the prize giving today.

Spain’s second-placed rider Emma Rosell Segura riding Danco completed in 06:05:58, followed by third over the line and also from Spain Laia Soria Pinol on Nervi Del Rieral finishing the four loops just two seconds later.

After starting the second loop in 10th position after a 2-minute recovery in the first hold, Arnold was assured that her mount was doing well with the trail conditions. Continuing with good recoveries, the duo were able to move up in the finish order on each loop and took possession of the ride on the final loop to emerge victorious.

France seals Best Condition

The first-placed French rider, Paul Bard, riding Volny Du Leff, finished sixth and later the highly coveted Best Condition was awarded to his seven-year-old chestnut gelding.

Ana Barbas (POR) riding her own E Da Fuica scored fourth and Mohammed Khalifa Al Sowaidi (QAT) riding Dufawan finished fifth, with the rest of the top eleven spots secured by French athletes on this striking trail in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region of southern France.

Young Horses - future champions

These annual FEI World Endurance Championships for Young Horses, first held in Compiègne, France, in 2001, are an important foundation ride for future champion horses as they mature.

A total of 42 combinations from Bahrain, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Slovakia, Spain, USA and the UAE joined 52 combinations from France for this year’s Championship.

Trail tactics - Sabrina Arnold and Tsagan Nour

Tsagan Nour is part-owned by French champion rider Jean Philippe Frances, technical advisor and partner to the 36-year-old Arnold, who has been a distance rider since she was a child. Together they made a plan for the Championship’s challenges:
“These horses are young and it is better for their mind to have a companion,” she explained. “On the first loop we were too fast and I slowed down and rode with two other riders. My horse was immediately good in the vetting and I rode with our second rider on the next track through the third loop. On the fourth, the rider from Qatar rode with me for a while. On the last loop, the trail was very challenging. I had some information from other friends on the trail that we were many minutes in the lead, so I slowed him down and let him breathe.”
First-time Championship trail

The FEI Endurance Championship for Young Horses 2016 was held for the first time in this farming community northeast of Montauban. The course followed forest trails and farm tracks from the equestrian centre in Domaine de Pousiniès through local communes of Saint-Etienne-de-Tulmont, Nègrepelisse, Vaïssac, and Genebrieres. Temperatures for the day hit 26C by 2pm. Organised by Endurance Equestrian Nègrepellsse, and supported by the Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Festival, the trail was contested with four loops of 35kms, 30kms, 35kms and 22kms, beginning at 07:30.

FEI Endurance Director Manuel Bandeira de Mello said of the day: “Horses in Young Championships are not yet at their maximum fitness, and the most important thing for me was how well the riders managed their horses.”

Gérard Aurel, President of Endurance Équestre de Nègrepelisse, said after the ride: ”We are very happy to have organised this Championship with 14 nations and the day went very well.”

Final results - FEI World Endurance Championships for Young Horses 2016
1. Sabrina Arnold (GER), Tsagan Nour - (completion time) 05:50:04
2. Emma Rosell Segura (ESP), Danco - 06:06:58
3. Laia Soria Pinol (ESP), Nervi Del Rieral- 06:07:00
4. Ana Barbas (POR), E Da Fuica -06:13:04
5. Mohammed Khalifa Al Sowaidi (QAT), Dufawan - 0606:13:05
6. Paul Bard (FR), Volny Du Leff 06:13:24
7. Amandine Lorenzi (FRA), Velvette El Mazel - 06:13:31
8. Laetitia Goncalves (FRA), Sadi Lotois - 06:15:59
9. Emilie Brard (FRA), Natfet - 06:17:00
10. Emmanuelle Gaudino (FRA), Cayrel Bashkhaar - 06:18:17
Full Results: http://www.atrm-systems.fr/index0eng.htm
Best Condition: Paul Bard (FRA) with Volny Du Leff

Slovakia: Was fatally injured endurance horse taken to livestock crematorium?

Horseandhound.co.uk - Full Article

Pippa Cuckson
18:46 - 23 September, 2016

The FEI’s equestrian community integrity unit is to investigate allegations that the body of Ajayeb, the mare who broke a leg at the world endurance championships at Samorin, Slovakia, was diverted to a livestock crematorium instead of being taken directly to a pathology lab for her compulsory autopsy.

The FEI ordered the investigation on Friday afternoon after hearing allegations that Ajayeb, the ride of UAE team member Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum, was traced to the crematorium by vets suspicious about her whereabouts..

As part of tougher rules for endurance imposed in 2014, the FEI has insisted autopsies be held for all at-competition fatalities...

Read more at http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/was-fatally-injured-world-endurance-championships-horse-ajayeb-taken-to-livestock-crematorium-598436#RRRkkqVcVF1KddKY.99

Australia: Sisters to mount up for Tom Quilty Gold Cup

Weeklytimesnow.com.au - Full Article

DALE WEBSTER, The Weekly Times
September 20, 2016 7:00am

JULIE Woods will become the oldest Victorian to ride in Australia’s toughest endurance horse race next month when she mounts up at the age of 80 for the Tom Quilty Gold Cup.

Ms Woods rode her first “100-miler” when she was 50 and if she completes the course successfully on October 8 she will collect her sixth Quilty buckle.

With her at the starting line for the first time will be her sister, Lois Sharam, who is making her Quilty debut at age 75...

Read more here:
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/sport/horses/sisters-to-mount-up-for-tom-quilty-gold-cup/news-story/77b62ce01ddb2c961fb07c4e70293bdf

Aussies have right stuff at World Endurance Championships

Weeklytimesnow.com.au - Full Article

FRAN CLELAND, The Weekly Times
September 20, 2016 7:00am

AUSTRALIA’S endurance team finished fourth in the teams section of the 2016 World Endurance Championships in Slovakia at the weekend.

Members were Ben Hudson, Sasha Laws-King, Rebecca Pinder, Jodie Salinas and Alexandra Toft...

Read more here:
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/sport/horses/aussies-have-right-stuff-at-world-endurance-championships/news-story/866774433fd37e6211e6a81fbc2c6c9a

Omani riders clinch fifth place at World Endurance Championships

Muscatdaily.com - Full Article

September 20, 2016
Oman riders claimed fifth place in the team event at the competitive FEI World Endurance Championships in Samorin, Slovakia on Saturday.

Spain’s Jaume Punti Dachs captured individual gold and led his compatriots Alex Luque Moral and Angel Soy Coll to the team title. Moral took the individual silver, with Bahrain’s H H Sheikh Nasser al Khalifa claimed bronze.

The Spanish led an all-European team podium, with France bagging silver and the Netherlands holding on for bronze.

Australia pushed Oman to fifth place...

Read more: http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Sports/Omani-riders-clinch-fifth-place-at-World-Endurance-Championships-4tb1#ixzz4KoMHUCwK

UAE Endurance: The Shameful Saga Continues

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | September 19, 2016

Hands-up anyone who seriously thought the UAE would be on best/better behaviour at Saturday’s world endurance championship (WEC) ride in Samorin, Slovakia?

Having learned nothing whatsoever from the litany of criticism, FEI suspensions and legal agreements, the UAE delivered even worse results than at WEG 2014 and managed to kill their stable star. Not one individual got round by using their trademark burn-out strategy.

Yet all were mounted on seasoned troopers, some prepped by their trainer-mentor Juma Punti Dachs, who steamed through to take two WEC golds for his native Spain with Twyst Maison Blanche. The defending champion Sheikh Hamdan went out for lameness at gate 4 having led with Ramaah.

Only 47 finished out of a field of 134. The sport should be ashamed by both the 35% completion rate and that the provisional first three were eventually ruled out, two for lameness and one for metabolics. Two were Emiratis, one a Uruguayan, another nation fixated on the racing-style sport.

There was some good riding but the overall picture was dire. At Rio, experienced Paralympic dressage rider Philippa Johnson-Dwyer was eliminated for a small spur mark on her horse’s flanks under the blood rules. Philippa lost the use of an arm and has spinal injuries, so any tiny abrasion could possibly have been caused by a totally understandable momentary loss of balance on her part. Yet at a world title endurance ride, for every sympathetic rider you’ll see another that has barely mastered rising trot yet is permitted to crash along for 100 miles hanging on to a mouthful of hardware that would shame the Spanish Inquisition. But then again, large numbers of the public are less likely to watch endurance than an arena sport on TV like dressage: silly me.

The UAE also lost Ajayeb, ride of Sheikh Rashid Dalmook al Maktoum. Ajayeb sustained an open fracture of the cannon bone, the sort seen too often in the desert rides. To add to the catastrophe, witnesses tell me that Ajayeb broke free from a makeshift screen made of sheets and tried to run on three legs after her companions whose riders had continued on their way. She had been up with the front-runners in loops 1, 2 and 3.

Ajayeb was clearly a very special robot who has been passed round the wider Maktoum clan so they can all win something big. Yamamah, winner of WEG 2014, is a previous holder of this dubious honour. Ajayeb won the 2015 Europeans, also at Samorin under Punti Dachs. In January she won Dubai’s most prestigious ride, the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup under Sheikh Hamdan...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/uae-endurance-the-shameful-saga-continues/?utm_source=Enews+Sept+19%2C+2016&utm_campaign=EnewsSept192016&utm_medium=email

‘A very tough day’: horse dies at world endurance championships

Horseandhound.co.uk - Full Article

Rachael Turner
11:58 - 19 September, 2016

A horse has been put down at the FEI world endurance championships at the weekend (15-18 September).

Ajayeb, ridden by UAE rider Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum, tripped and fell on the fourth loop of the 160km track in Samorin, Slovakia.

The 15-year-old chestnut mare suffered “an irreparable leg injury” to her off fore and had to be put down.

“It was a very tough day”, said Spanish rider Jaume Punti Dachs, who took team and individual gold at the competition.

“There were magnificent horses in front of me, but endurance sometimes happens like this. You do everything right and then something goes wrong. It’s like life..."

Read more at http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/tough-day-horse-dies-world-endurance-championships-597513#162v67m4eM6Ub5Ox.99