Australia: FROM THE PADDOCK TO THE FIELD: Stuart Lymbery gives an insight into the world of endurance riding

TheRural.com.au - Full Article, photos, video

by Nikki Reynolds
March 1 2018

THE Riverina is home to some of the finest agricultural producers in Australia. It is also a region that is renowned for sporting success stories.

It is not unusual for an individual to juggle the commitments of working in a family farming business or the rural sector and then backing it up with several sessions of strenuous training a week to meet their sporting goals. This week The Rural talks to Wagga Livestock Marketing Centre operations manager Stuart Lymbery who is also a successful endurance rider and horse breeder based at his Big Springs property “Garone Park.”

STUART Lymbery loves nothing more than a big challenge.

For him that might mean completing the toughest endurance ride known as the Shahzada in St Albans.

The Shahzada stretches some 400 kilometres and is considered one of the most gruelling and challenging events in the sport.

It is an opportunity for horse and rider to be matched against tough terrain big distances and it is the ultimate test of fitness and soundness.

Mr Lymbery has successfully completed this event 11 times. And his gelding Garonne Park Walker has also earned the coveted title of best managed horse...

More at:
https://www.therural.com.au/story/5259068/from-wagga-saleyards-to-the-world-of-endurance-riding-photos-video/

Higgins claims the double at ESNZ Endurance South Island Championship

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

Race Report made with the assistance of Daryl Owen
28 February 2018

Cannington, Canterbury, New Zealand. Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 February 2018. ESNZ Endurance’s South Island Championship event took place this month in the picturesque Canterbury region of New Zealand.

This region is renowned for areas of rough stony ground which is not to be underestimated, and so it was, with two of the six starters completing the event.

Alison Higgins and Northwinds Apollo won the 160km Championship in a gallop finish narrowly ahead of Australian rider Naomi O’Shaughnessy riding Castlebar Party Girl. Higgins’ time across the line was 11:18:33, with O’Shaughnessy a second behind. The two rode the whole ride together, along with junior rider Kate James on Chartei. James, in her first 160km event, safely completed the distance in 11:33:38...

More report and photos here:
http://endurance-world.com/higgins-double-esnz-endurance-south-island-championship/

Road To The Mongol Derby: Getting The Trip

ThoroughbredDailyNews.com - Full Story

February 27 2018

By Kelsey Riley

TDN International Editor Kelsey Riley will be riding in the Mongol Derby in August 2018, and will be regularly blogging about her preparations and ultimately, her 1000-kilometer, 10-day ride across Outer Mongolia. Every rider chooses a charity for which they raise money as part of the process. Kelsey has chosen the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s Second Chances Program at the Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, KY. To learn more about Blackburn, click here.

Hello, followers of my awesome, crazy Mongol Derby adventure. Since I brought you my last blog about battling Lexington’s arctic conditions to get in some riding time, I’ve been coming to grips with the fact that in August, I’ll be riding 1000 kilometres across Mongolia (on half-broke horses with no showers, stables or course markers, albeit). One thousand, that’s a reasonable number to come to grips with. Sure, until your creative mind gets going and you think, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to convert that to distances applicable to racing?

The Mongol Derby, recognized in 2011 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest multi-horse race, is 4,960 furlongs. Or 1,000,000 metres. That’s 496 Kentucky Derbys. Four hundred thirteen Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes. Three hundred twelve Melbourne Cups. Eight hundred thirty three Golden Slippers!...

Read more here:
http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/road-to-the-mongol-derby-getting-the-trip/

Who Will Host the 2022 World Equestrian Games?

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Written by: Horse Media Group

A review of the shallow pool of potential host facilities for the 2022 World Equestrian Games.

Following the withdrawal of Samorin, Slovakia, as host city of the 2022 World Equestrian Games, FEI president Ingmar de Vos had remarked, “We are confident there will be [other] candidates.” But who might be financially willing and logistically able to assume the crushing burden of playing host to this mammoth undertaking? We look at some likely prospects in a relatively shallow pool of possibilities...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/magazine_articles/who-will-host-the-2022-world-equestrian-games/?utm_source=Enews+Feb+26%2C+2018&utm_campaign=EnewsFeb262018&utm_medium=email

Endurance rider who used an extra set of reins as a whip is suspended

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

February 24, 2018
Horsetalk.co.nz

A Bahraini endurance rider has been suspended and fined for horse abuse after the FEI Tribunal found he used an extra set of reins as a whip during a 120km race.

Whips are banned in endurance.

Khaled Ebrahim Khalil Khairi was suspended for three months and ordered to pay a fine of 2000 Swiss francs over his treatment of Happy Jack during the CEI2* race in Sakhir, at the Bahrain International Village, on January 14 last year. He was also ordered to contribute 1000 Swiss francs toward the cost of the case.

The FEI Tribunal ruled that Khairi’s actions in using an extra set of reins as a whip met the definition of horse abuse as described in the FEI General Regulations.

It emerged that the FEI had received a protest on January 17 last year in which a witness alleged Khairi had abused Happy Jack...

Read more at https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2018/02/24/endurance-rider-reins-whip-suspended/#zE7l5081E2EitEBy.99

Just When You Thought Desert Endurance Couldn't Sink Any Lower…

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | February 23, 2018

While the world obsessed about alleged abusive riding by Shelley Browning in the US and Bernhard Maier in Austria, a proven horse abuse case was quietly adjudicated by the FEI last week.

The incriminating video wasn’t circulated on social media. But an account of the sustained whipping of endurance horse Happy Jack appeared last week, in the FEI Tribunal decision to suspend the rider for three months.

FEI endurance rules expressly disallow spurs or carrying anything that could be used as a whip. Thus striking an endurance horse AT ALL is abuse. This interpretation was thoroughly tested by Tribunal in 2014 in the first-ever protest by members of the public against abuse on the field of play – lodged by me and colleague Lucy Higginson.

In that disgraceful episode from a 120km ride at Sakhir, Bahrain on February 8, 2014, grooms leapt from the accompanying vehicle and ran onto the field of play, one of them whacking the tiring leader Tarabic Carl with a hand-held instrument. I asked for the FEI’s integrity people to enhance the images in order to identify the gadget, but recall being fobbed off, to the effect that fantasy procedures you see on NCIS can’t be done in real life. Hmm...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/just-thought-desert-endurance-couldnt-sink-lower/

Tenth Endurance Horse Listed Dead in UAE Winter Season

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

February 23, 2018 |
by: Pippa Cuckson

The number of horses officially listed as dead in the current UAE winter endurance season rose to 10 today (February 23rd).

Australian-bred nine-year-old Amihh PP sustained a fatal injury in the second loop of a national ladies race at Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi, after leading the first loop with an average speed of 30.2 kph. He was ridden by Natasha Zakaria, 29, of Jordan, who last week was eliminated from a FEI ride at Boudhieb for “not conforming to many rules” with another horse.

The fatal race was quite a step up in pace for Amihh PP, bought by Nad al Sheba Stables in 2015. He was last ridden in the 120km CEN Jumeirah Endurance Cup in December where he retired at gate one. He also completed a CEI 80km on the October 30, 2017, also under Zakaria, at an average speed of 17.3kph...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/tenth-endurance-horse-listed-dead-uae-winter-season/