HH Sheikh Mohammed says UAE is a hub for equestrian endurance sports

Aviamost.ae - Full Article

By viji Sunday, 08 January 2017

WAM -- The UAE has become a hub for equestrian endurance sports, and a factory producing champions who display the high stature of the UAE at global competitions, said Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

This year, the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Festival attracted riders from across the world, and provided a great opportunity to exchange experiences between Emirati riders and world champions, he said in remarks made at the closing of the 10th Mohammed bin Rashid Endurance Cup, the highlight of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Festival.

The event - the largest of its kind in the world- was held at Dubai International Endurance City in Seih Al Salam.

He also expressed his satisfaction with the 160-km race, and praised the organisers for their efforts to produce an event that fits the stature of the UAE and Emirati champions...

Read more here:
http://www.aviamost.ae/en/hh-sheikh-mohammed-says-uae-hub-equestrian-endurance-sports

UAE: Al Mazroui clinches Mohammad Endurance Cup

Gulfnews.com - Full Article

January 8 2017
N. D. Prashant, Staff Reporter

M7 Stables rider makes the most of champion Hamdan’s absence

Dubai: Humaid Matar Rashed Al Mazroui on Rajas of M7 Endurance Stables won the HH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Endurance Cup CEI***160km, presented by Longines, at the Dubai International Endurance City on Saturday.

Al Mazroui finished the race in 6:43:27 hours, followed by MRM Stables’ Mansour Saeed Mohammad Al Faresi on Tiswan Fageole and Salem Hamad Saeed Malhoof Al Kitbi on HLP Bask of M7 Endurance Stables in third.

With defending champion Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, not bidding for his hat-trick, the race was wide open.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Shaikh Hamdan, who had won on Ajayeb in 2016 and Napoli Del Ma in 2015, followed the race closely from the sidelines.

In all, 263 riders took to the race around the gruelling sandy terrain around Arqub Al Jela and Al Bedud, comprising five loops of 40km, 35km, 35km, 32km and 18km...

Read more here:
http://gulfnews.com/sport/horse-racing/al-mazroui-clinches-mohammad-endurance-cup-1.1958125

Shut it Down. Right Now.

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | January 6, 2017

If you want just a glimmer of understanding about what officials are up against in UAE endurance, watch this interview during a FEI ride at Dubai International Endurance City (DIEC) on Wednesday (January 4th).

[video]

It’s nine minutes of hysterics in both senses, from the shrillness of the discussion to the content which would be hilarious if it not so serious. It is a snapshot of the institutionalised disrespect for sporting authority in that region. It is also just a tiny component of the overwhelming evidence that, despite efforts to reform in recent years, desert racing has no business whatsoever sitting alongside properly regulated disciplines within the FEI family.

I have never seen anything like this shouting match between a TV presenter – from endurance specialists YAS Sport – and a senior judge in my 35 years reporting top level equestrianism. You’d almost be forgiven for thinking the cheaters are somehow the injured parties.

Hats off to the ground jury president for valiantly standing his ground regarding the process of fair play, horse welfare, and that he can’t know about rule-breaking that does not happen in front of his own eyes if he is not told about it – endurance isn’t exactly a contained arena sport!

The topic is less significant than the anarchic attitude, though this spat happened to be about ear-plugs, banned under FEI rules since January 2016. Their routine use, in tandem with extreme blinders, is a symptom of shoddy preparation. The trainers need another way to cocoon novice horses from the chaos of a mass start where they may be knocked about by other equally inexperienced horses piloted by people of limited skill.

Some readers may recall the picture that went viral after the 2015 President’s Cup, of the horse wearing taped-shut blinders and earplugs. He turned out to be one of the 500-odd “starters” in the “phantom rides” scandal. He was not, in reality, qualified to start the 160km President’s Cup. For all we know, that was his first ride ever.

The ear-plug ban is yet another FEI rule of which participants claim to be either unaware, notwithstanding their status as “professional” trainers at the premier UAE barns, or aware but proud to ignore. At this far from lady-like ladies’ ride at DIEC, the YAS presenter is claiming trainers cheerfully admitted to sending out horses in ear-plugs (also referred to as “blocks”). Yet, incredibly, the trainers reckon it’s the ground jury, not the trainers, who are at fault for catching and punishing some of the ear-pluggers, but not the others!...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/shut-it-down-right-now/

Endurance - Log In! 'Boudheib Initiative' joins facebook

Endurance riders & horses enjoying natural tracks through the UAE's forestry reserves, unique to Boudheib.

4.1.2017

We are delighted to announce the launch of the new Boudheib Initiative facebook page.

Join us in our cause for the 'welfare of the endurance horse' and returning the sport of endurance back to its origins.

For results, debate, rules, events live streaming, current topical conferences, protocol issues & ideas and lots more besides. See you online.

Happy New Year from His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan
and all of us at the Boudheib Initiative team.

www.boudheib.ae (arriving soon)

UAE awaits Shaikh Hamdan's participation

Khaleejtimes.com - Full Article

James Jose/Dubai
Filed on January 4, 2017

Will Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, make it a hat trick of the His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Endurance Cup will only be known before the pre-ride on Friday.

Shaikh Hamdan had won the CEI*** event, presented by Longines in 2015 and 2016 but is yet to confirm if he will take part in the 160km event to be run at the Dubai International Endurance City on Saturday.

"It is still too early to be sure about the participation of Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and this will be confirmed by Friday when the pre-ride will start in the afternoon," Mohammed Essa Al Adhab, General Manager of Dubai Equestrian Club, said at the Dubai International Endurance City on Wednesday.

"Till then we are not sure if His Highness Shaikh Hamdan will attend or ride," he added.

The 2014 World Equestrian Games Champion Shaikh Hamdan, had won the ride in 2015 in 6.31.33 hours, onboard Napoli Del Ma from the MRM Stables.

Then, he repeated the feat last year by piloting Ajayeb of the MRM Stables to victory in 6.32.50 hours...

Read more here:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/sport/horse-racing/uae-awaits-shaikh-hamdans-participation

The Mongol Derby: American Cowgirl/Artist to Compete in World's Longest Horse Race

Reddit.com - Full Article

December 26 2016
by by wranglermandy

A westerly wind blows and the aspens quake in response. The trees sway with rhythm—back and forth, up and around, arms outstretched to touch their partners. Their little leaves chime with the movement, sounding the deep toll and the delicate whisper that give the wind its voice.
She flicks her left ear forward and stretches her right ear to the side: she notices the dancing trees and can feel the wind deciding whether or not it wants to race towards her. A muscle engages along the top of her neck as she feels the still world come to life. The soft skin of her nose tickles as the wind meets her. Opening and letting in, releasing and letting go: her nostrils flare as her breath takes smoky form in the cool autumn air.

The way of the horse is the way of nature: ever changing, yet always the same.

Horses move with their world in response to the movement around them. They are fluid and free like the river that changes shape as it ruffles over and around the rocks that decide its course. Their energy is not something that we humans can see. It is something that, when we let go of our holds and conceptions of what should be, we are able to feel.

Essentia Equi, Latin for “the essence of the horse,” is my artistic venture to represent through physicality what I feel emotionally within my work with equines. I notice lots of parts; I notice lots of layers, I notice patterns, and I feel how those parts and layers and patterns move into one another, on top of and beneath one another, when I open myself up to the horse’s experience.

I use Essentia Equi to communicate what I feel with horses, for a picture is worth a thousand words. I work to communicate the blend of many truths and every shade of grey within the essence of the horse. I strive to capture the unique movement, fluidity and electricity that comprise the essence of the individual. Through this study, I have learned that horses must be granted the freedom to move and change as they need. I have learned that we are not so different and that I must grant myself the same right—this equality between species offers a true respect for life.

I’ve been learning from these creatures for almost 20 years now. Horses have taught me how to live with harmony and freedom and, as such, my essence is inseparable from theirs. I have long since lost count of the number of times I’ve thrown a leg over the back of a new equine partner, the number of times I’ve been thrown from the back of an equine partner with different ideas from my own, or the number of times my heart has skipped a beat from the mere sight of one of these souls grazing in a pasture by the side of the road.

I believe that very little of what we do with horses is in a position to be measured or quantified because their intense awareness of the world around them is extremely changing and fluid and the most that we can do as humans is to stick with them.
My love for these magnificent animals is infinite and I am committed to sticking with them for as many more years as I have left on this Earth.

I attribute my passion for our planet to the time that I have spent experiencing its landscape from the back of a horse and want nothing more than for my life’s legacy to be that I left this beautiful place a little bit better than I found it. At 25-years-old, I know a lot about horses and I know a lot about nature but I have not yet figured out how to bring this hands-on knowledge into the realm of environmental conservation.

Until I was accepted to compete in the Mongol Derby, that is...

Read more here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMeAnything/comments/5ke6n6/the_mongol_derby_american_cowgirlartist_to/

Kentucky Horse Park one of two finalists to host 2022 World Equestrian Games

Kentucky Horse.com

BY CHERYL TRUMAN
ctruman@herald-leader.com

The Federation Equestre International announced Tuesday that Lexington and the Kentucky Horse Park are one of two candidates to host the 2022 FEI World Equestrian Games.

The other candidate for host city is Samorin, Slovakia, about 4,800 miles away from Lexington.

Lexington and the Kentucky Horse Park hosted the games in 2010, becoming the first venue outside of Europe to host the games and drawing attendees from 63 countries and all 50 states.

The games, which are held every four years, include competitions in all eight of the FEI disciplines: jumping, dressage and para-equestrian dressage, eventing, driving, endurance, vaulting and reining.

The FEI will conduct site visits between January and May 2017. Candidates will be required to submit their completed bids and sign the host agreement by June 2017, with formal presentations made to the FEI Evaluation Commission in the third quarter of 2017.

The final decision will be announced in November.

Laura Prewitt, executive director of the 1,224-acre Kentucky Horse Park, said horse park officials “believe the Kentucky Horse Park is the world’s premier equine tourist destination, and we look forward to exploring the opportunity to host the 2022 Games.”

Don Parkinson, secretary of the tourism, arts and heritage cabinet, said Kentucky “appreciates how important this global event is for the equine and tourism industries. ... We will now focus on what effect these Games would have on the commonwealth and our taxpayers.”

Samorin, Slovakia, was part of Czechoslovakia until the 1993 split of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The town has more than 13,000 residents, including Hungarians, Slovaks and Czechs, and a large sports complex for professional and amateur sports, including Olympic training.

The Longines FEI World Endurance Championships 2016 were held at the Samorin Equestrian Centre in September. The FEI Endurance Committee picked the Slovakian venue over sites in Fontainbleau, France, and San Rossore, Pisa, Italy.

Kentucky did not pursue the 2018 World Equestrian Games after they were pulled from Canada in July because the state decided a last-minute bid would “put the commonwealth and the taxpayers at enormous financial risk,” according to a statement from the Cabinet for Tourism, Arts and Heritage.

Bromont, Quebec, had been scheduled to host the games in 2018 but pulled out. Bromont had been awarded the games in 2014 over Kentucky. The 2018 games are to be held Sept. 10 to 23 at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina.

Laura Brooks, a spokeswoman for the tourism cabinet, said in July that Kentucky “is preparing a strong proposal for the World Equestrian Games in 2022. ... The Kentucky Horse Park is already improving its amenities as its prepares a successful bid for the 2022 World Equestrian Games.”