Woman who quit her City job to become a full-time ADVENTURER...

DailyMail.co.uk - Full Article

Woman who quit her City job to become a full-time ADVENTURER reveals how she almost died crossing India on a rickshaw (and shares the items she NEVER leaves home without)

Katy Willings, 34, signed up for a 3,000km rickshaw race across India in 2009
She was working as a management consultant but fell in love with adventuring
Katy quit her London job and now organises adventures for others full-time
She shares what she's learned rafting, riding and paramotoring around the world

By Stephanie Linning for MailOnline
PUBLISHED: 08:00 EDT, 7 July 2017

Whether it is horse riding across Mongolia's rugged terrain or motorcycling through Siberia, Katy Willings has a knack for looking perfectly at ease in settings that would push most others to the brink of their physical limits.
But then again, she has had plenty of practise. The 34-year-old has completed feats of physical endurance in some of the world's most remote and unforgiving locations.

This spirit of intrepidness is made all the more remarkable because up until a little more than eight years ago Katy was working as a 'depressingly mediocre' management consultant in London.

The new, adventure-seeking chapter of her life began when the tragic and sudden death of a close friend led to her signing up to take his place in a 3,000km rickshaw race in India just weeks before the January 2009 start date.
After that came the Mongol Derby, a 1,000km horseback ride across Mongolia, and by the end of 2010 Katy had quit her job and relocated to Bristol to work full-time for The Adventurists, a company that organises adventures for those who find their daily lives a little on the quiet, safe side...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4647580/Woman-quit-City-job-time-adventurer.html#ixzz4mLR70uvL

Canada: Horses take veterinarians for a run

Producer.com - Full Article

Family affair


Posted Jul. 6th, 2017 by Christalee Froese

CARNDUFF, Sask. — They jointly run an average of 160 kilometres per week and that doesn’t include running to veterinary calls and chasing after three kids.


Dr. Marcel Macfarlane and his wife, Dr. Dawn Pauwelyn, are not only experts on equine colic, feline parasites and bovine prolapse, but they have mastered ultra-marathon running in their spare time.


They have sometimes gone to extreme and unusual lengths to fit lengthy training runs into their schedules. Pauwelyn has run 29 km back to town after dropping off a car at her in-laws’ farm while Macfarlane has jogged 40 km to the U.S. border and back for a parcel. 


Macfarlane can sometimes be found running next to a horse and rider as part of his quest to train for 50 to 162 km races.


“I’m always looking for ways to make training interesting, so I’ll call up my buddy, Jake, and say, ‘you ride, I’ll run,’ ” said Macfarlane, adding that while a horse has more speed, humans can have greater endurance.


Relying on his vast knowledge of equine physiology, Macfarlane said that when the environmental temperatures rise, a horse can’t cool off as quickly and that’s where he can outperform a horse. 


“I’ve done runs with Jake and when we got back in after eight miles, those horses were beat, but I was still OK,” said the 45-year-old vet.
..

Read more here:
http://www.producer.com/2017/07/horses-take-veterinarians-for-a-run/

Scotland: Charities benefit from Peeblesshire endurance ride

Peeblesshirenews.com - Full Article

July 6 2017
by David Knox

ONE of the Scottish Endurance Riding Club’s favourite events of the year took place last weekend in the hills around Broughton.

Almost 150 competitors were received from all over Scotland, and some from south of the border, descended on the Peeblesshire village for this three-day challenge for horse and rider.

While distances ran to a maximum of 80 kilometres over Saturday and Sunday, most riders chose the shorter 30 kilometre as well as the pleasure options – attracted by a different and very scenic route each day...

Read more here:
http://www.peeblesshirenews.com/sport/15391187.Charities_benefit_from_Peeblesshire_endurance_ride/

The Mongol Derby: A Ride of a Lifetime

TryonDailyBulletin.com - Full Story

July 6 2017

Written by Judy Heinrich

Photos submitted

Endurance competitors cover 50 to 100 miles in a single day on a single horse, within allotted times of 12 to 24 hours, depending on distance. There are several mandatory vet checks during rides, to ensure horses are fit to continue and give both rider and horse an hour or so to rest, re-hydrate and eat. Out on the trail, competitors encounter all kinds of terrain in whatever conditions the weather gods decree, from freezing cold to blistering heat, pouring rain and thunderstorms, or some combination. And if they’re lucky, cloudless skies to light the dead-of-night trails. For riders who can’t get enough, there are “Pioneer Rides,” with multiple days in a row of endurance riding for combined distances of at least 150 miles.

It’s no wonder endurance riding is considered an extreme sport. But for Marianne Williams of Tryon, your typical endurance rides just aren’t extreme enough. In August she’ll be competing in the Mongol Derby, deemed the world’s longest and toughest horse race by the Guinness Book of Records. It’s in Mongolia, of course, a landlocked sovereign state in East Asia that’s bordered by China to the south and Russia to the north. The Derby is 1,000 kilometers long – that’s 621 miles – and riders have 10 days to complete it, preceded by three days for navigation and survival training, and meeting the horses.

Unlike typical endurance races for which courses are well marked by friendly florescent ribbons, the Derby course isn’t marked at all. In fact each year’s course is kept secret until right before launch. But you can be sure the riders will experience every type of Mongolian terrain, from high passes, open valleys, wooded hills and river crossings to wetlands, floodplains, sandy semi-arid dunes and, of course, “open Steppe” – the expansive grasslands that cover most of the country.

And forget the trusting longtime bonds that endurance riders invariably have with their horses: Mongol Derby riders are on half-wild Mongolian horses that they switch out every 25 miles. Fresh horses are provided at 25 stations along the way, with choice of horse on a first come-first served basis. So if you’re in the back of the pack, you choose from the horses nobody else wanted...

Read more here:
http://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2017/07/06/the-mongol-derby-ride-of-a-lifetime/

Canada: Local vet explains the art of endurance riding

Citizen.on.ca - Full Article

July 6 2017

By Constance Scrafield

There is all kinds of art, including more than we acknowledge, in the world of sport. To ride a horse in a 50-mile race and bring him in, also winning the award for Best Condition, takes skill, work – and finesse.

Local horse veterinarian Bri Henderson took time this week to discuss the art of endurance riding with us.

The horse in this case is her fabulous grey Arab stallion Stryder, stable name Rivendell Elessar, “one of the most competitive horses I’ve ever ridden,” Dr. Henderson said.

She described their recently won race, the Coates Creek Endurance Competition: “We went out five minutes after the group of riders went so I could keep him calm. He was quiet until he saw the others horses as we caught up to them. He realized what we were doing and then – he hunted [the other horses], passing each one. He hates a horse to be in front of him. I had to hold him back a lot of the time.”

An endurance race, essentially a competitive 50-mile trail ride at speed, is run in stages both as to the trails themselves and the breaks for recovery along the way. These latter are actually serviced stops with vets in attendance, watching the speed at which the horse’s heartbeat recovers and its general condition as to soundness of limbs and lungs – whether it is eating and drinking and is in good spirits – before horse and rider continue on their way. The ride is mapped out in loops that come and go into the area of the pit stop and vet checks...

Read more here:
http://citizen.on.ca/?p=9338

German Championship Races in Neustadt Dosse

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

6 July 2017
Race report made with the assistance of: Dr. Juliette Mallison

Brandenburg’s State Stud, Neustadt Dosse. Saturday 24 June 2017.

The winner of the CEI3* 162 km ride and the new German endurance riding champion is Anne Wegner with her home bred 8 yr. old grey Arab gelding, Salamah Ibn bint Khazzan, his first CEI3* 162 km ride, in 09:17:08 hrs 17.45 km/h.

She won a thrilling finish against Bernhard Dornsiepen with Rio 243 09:17:13 hrs and Dunja Kolossa with Bekele El Djem in 09:17:18 hrs. Rio 243 won the best condition award. Six horses and riders were ranked, a finishing rate of 40%.

Anne Wegner, former Junior and Young rider champion and her horse are members of the German Federation’s perspective group for promising young endurance riders.

This was also the case for the winner of the CEIYJ2* 121km ride, the junior and young rider German champion Moira al Samarraie (18) with Zarah 41 in 06:56:55 hrs 17.41 km/h. and the second placed Nayla al Samarraie (16), her sister, with Warsana in 06:56:56 hrs...

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/german-championship-races-neustadt-dosse/

Great Britain: Long List for European Championships

Endurance.gb.co.uk

European Championships - Long list - (Published:04 July 2017)

The final assessment for the International Squad was held at Warwick on Saturday 3rd June ahead of the European Championships in August. The Squad Management Team were able to work with riders, horses and crews and it can now be confirmed that the longlist of nominated entries are:

Caroline Cowley HS Bellini

Harry Ingram Warrens Hill Chayze

Lorna Kidson Sheer Bliss

Annie Joppe Fantom

Carri-Ann Dark HS Drift

Rachael Atkinson Tannasg Psyches Realm

Nicola Thorne LM Bolena, LR Bold Greyson

The final team training session will be on 20th July where the team will be selected and we would like to wish all combinations the best of luck.