Australia: Gympie's top five sportspeople of 2017

GympieTimes.com.au - Full Article

20 Dec. 2017
by Rowan Schindler

Gayle Holmes

TOUGH: Gayle Holmes competed at the 2017 Tom Quilty (160km), in South Australia in July (160km), with a broken hand and had only just come back from a shattered foot.

The 56-year-old Widgee-based Holmes recently did the seemingly unthinkable by winning a host of state and national riding titles straight off the back of a serious injury.

Holmes, who has represented Australia at the World Equestrian Games, had her foot shattered when a horse kicked her last year.

The injury required the surgical insertion of a metal plate and seven screws.

She climbed back on after just several months and picked up the Queensland State Distance Rider and Points Rider awards, the State Distance Horse and Points Horse, won the Collier Cup, equal first place as National Distance Rider, second in National Points, second in Horse Points and third in Distance...

Read more here:
https://www.gympietimes.com.au/news/gympies-top-five-sportspeople-of-2017/3295400/

South Africa: 2018 Race the Wild Coast Open for Entries

RocketHorseRacing.co.za

In October 2018 we hold the second edition of Race the Wild Coast: a new breed of horse race. Riders, with a team of three horses, compete for victory over 350km of rugged paradise on the remote east coast of South Africa; navigating through this challenging wilderness, swimming rivers and keeping horses fit for vet checks in this complex multi stage race will challenge the endurance of any horseback adventurer.

What:
• Total distance: 350 kilometres.
• A multi stage format including: dawn start and dusk cut-off, compulsory holds for tide affected river crossings and timed releases.
• Each rider has a team of 3 horses provided by a South African stud.
• There will be two horse changes at prescribed points: 123km and 209km into the race respectively.
• Each stage ends with a vet check for the horses (approximately every 40km). A rider may only continue without penalty if their horse passes the vet check.
• A recommended track with alternative routes or simply a stage destination, dependent on the terrain, will be provided on GPS to aid navigation. There will be no route markings on the ground.
• The race window is a total of 5 days with the organisers expecting the winner to finish early on the fourth day.
• This race will be a complex combination of endurance, horsemanship, navigation, strategy and what Mother Nature throws at you!

Where:
• The Wild Coast on the eastern seaboard of South Africa, from Port Edward to Kei Mouth.
• Competitors will be transferred from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport and fly out of East London Airport at the conclusion of the race.

When:
• 13th – 21st October 2018.
• Pre-Race training 14th – 15th October. Race 16th – 20th October. Depart 21st October.
• Competitors transfer from Durban to the start camp on the 13th of October for a race briefing followed on the 14th and 15th with meeting their horses and back up teams, kit and tack testing, horse orientation (including practice swimming rivers) and team strategy discussions.
• The race starts at 09h00 on the 16th of October with a five-day window to complete the race.
• There will be a prize giving and spectacular celebration on the evening of the 20th, and on the 21st of October our brave adventurers begin their journey homeward.

Who:
• The adventure format of the race requires real horsemanship skills, experience riding long distances and competence in operating a GPS; the critical aid to navigating in this landscape.
• Riders will need to be physically fit, confident swimmers and be comfortable in the wilderness, alone and self sufficient.
• Riders must complete an application form, including details of their qualifications to compete in the race. Acceptance of applications will be at the discretion of the organisers.

Price:
• ZAR97 000.00
• The price includes all food, accommodation, horses, support crew, tack and transfers (from pick up in Durban to drop off in East London).

For more information and to enter, see:

Borneo: Local equestrian fraternity hails another milestone

TheBorneoPost.com - Full Article

December 19, 2017, Tuesday
Jude Toyat, reporters@theborneopost.com

MIRI: Sarawak Equestrian Sports Association (PSENS) reached another milestone in the history of local equestrian sport when they made their debut in the 2017 Piala Ketua Polis Negara Endurance Horse Race held in University Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Serdang, Selangor recently.

PSENS team was represented by Cassandra Ch’ng Duan Shu (rider), Mufasa (horse), Adi Sebli (coach) and Zulkifli Ahamat (team manager).

“Even though not winning the race, we should be proud of our achievements because to be able participate in the race is already considered a success,” Zulkifli, who is also PSENS vice president, told The Borneo Post yesterday.

Cassandra and Mufasa successfully completed the 25km race with a clean bill of health and registered a pass by the juries and also the vets.

“Many of the participants failed to finish the race because of disqualifications; rider fall and injured, the horse injured or lame. A few of them failed the vets test at various check points or at the finish line.

“Congratulations to our rider Cassandra. She is from Miri and she made us Sarawakian proud of her tenacity and bravery to complete the race with flying colours. True to our spirit of ‘agi idup agi ngelaban’,” Zulkifli exclaimed.

He revealed that more events have been scheduled for 2018 while appealing for “more support from our state government and its relevant agencies.”

“PSENS urgently needs a place or field for members of the community and our athletes to train and perform several horses riding and equestrian activities,” he explained...

Read more here:
https://www.theborneopost.com/2017/12/19/local-equestrian-fraternity-hails-another-milestone/

Day and Weekend Passes for FEI World Equestrian Games™ Tryon 2018 on Sale December 20

Tryon2018.com

Games to be held September 11-23, 2018 at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Tryon, N.C. USA
For Immediate Release
Tryon, N.C. – USA – December 18, 2017 – Day and weekend competition passes for the FEI World Equestrian Games™ Tryon 2018 (WEG) will go on sale on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 8am EST. Ticket prices and the event schedule for the Games, which are set for September 11 through September 23, 2018, are available online at www.tryon2018.com.

All Session Day Passes, which grant access to all WEG competitions on a single weekday, went on sale in October 2017 and sold out after one day. Due to the popular demand of All Session Day Passes, organizers are releasing an additional, limited supply of 500 passes per event day on a first come, first served basis for the dates of September 12, 19, 20, 21. All Session Day Passes for September 13 and 14 are sold out due to meeting capacity for Eventing Dressage on both days.

For the first time, All Session Weekend Passes will be available. The All Session Weekend Passes will also go on sale on Wednesday, December 20, 2017, and will allow the ticket holder access to all WEG competitions during the selected weekend. All Session Weekend Passes are available for September 15-16 and/or September 22-23.

Click here to buy tickets.
Click here to see the Official Session Timetable.

All event tickets and passes grant access to the general event grounds including the expo, vendor areas, and demonstrations. Individual competition tickets are expected to go on sale this winter. Organizers are releasing additional ticket package options as demand for those ticketing types has remained high since launching ticket sales in October 2017.

“The 2018 WEG is expected to be the largest sporting event in the United States and fourth largest in the world in 2018 and should be on everyone’s to-do list for next year. We are anticipating a sold-out event,” said Mark Bellissimo, Founder and CEO of Tryon International Equestrian Center.

With all competitions happening onsite at Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) in Mill Spring, N.C., attendees can come for the day, a weekend, a week, or the entire Games. Tickets are available online at www.tryon2018.com. Select “Buy Tickets” from the menu.

Held every four years alternating with the Olympic Games, the FEI World Equestrian Games™ crowns the world’s best athletes and horses as the ultimate world champions in the equestrian disciplines of Jumping, Dressage and Para-Equestrian Dressage, Eventing, Driving, Reining, Vaulting and Endurance. Horse and rider combinations from more than 70 nations are expected to compete in the massive 12-day event.

See more at:
https://tryon2018.com/article/day-and-weekend-passes-for-fei-world-equestrian-games-tryon-2018-on-sale-december-20

FEI Aims for More Transparency Over Endurance Horse Deaths

Horse-Canada.com - Full Article

December 18, 2017
by: Pippa Cuckson

The Emirates Equestrian Federation revised a number of historic endurance ride results on its website over the weekend, amid revelations that numerous fatal injuries on the field of play had to date been ‘airbrushed’ out of official ride results. In response, the FEI has announced a new procedure for its veterinary department to follow-up “unreported” endurance horse deaths.

The CI (Catastrophic Injury) results code was introduced in 2014 to improve transparency over the incidence of ride fatalities. But since then at least 26 horses who died during or hours after a ride have not been declared CI, according to volunteer researchers from the Clean Endurance community.

Clean Endurance compared dates of death later logged with the FEI registrations database with the date of the horses’ last CEI or CEN start. All were the exact same day. Yet on ride results sheets the 26 horses are noted either FTC (Failed to Complete) or eliminated without giving a reason. Between 2009 and 2013, over 50 further “hidden” deaths have been identified so far.

A Clean Endurance spokesman told Horse-Canada.com: “We think many more deaths are yet to be discovered. We have not made a clean-sweep of the whole FEI database. So far we have followed up FTCs that looked suspicious, or checked what happened to horses whose condition worried us when we saw them on the livestream...”

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/fei-transparency-endurance-horse-deaths/