New Zealand: Philip Graham: Endurance rider ready to go the distance

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

May 18, 2018
by Robin Marshall

Any thoughts of easing gently into retirement have completely bypassed North Canterbury’s Philip Graham, who at the age of 63 is preparing to take his horse to the USA to compete in a hundred-mile endurance competition.

Philip and his horse, Sefton-bred Rosewood Bashir, are one of just two Kiwi combinations selected to represent New Zealand at September’s World Equestrian Games in North Carolina. The other is Jenny Champion from Masterton, riding the 20-year-old Barack Obama.

Endurance is a sport where riders are in it for the long haul, both on the day and in training. Riding 160km in a single day is no easy task, but the best in the sport can do it in well under a dozen hours.

And Philip, from Glentui, shows no signs of slowing down just yet: “We won’t be running this race and coming home to retire,” he said...

Read more here:
https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2018/05/18/philip-graham-endurance-rider-distance/

Australia: 10-year-old completes his first 80km endurance ride in 8.5 hours

TheCourier.com.au - Full Article

Ben Freeburn, 10, completed his first 80km endurance ride in 8.5 hours and he's keen to saddle up again as the Colbrook Challenge comes to town

May 18 2018
by Michelle Smith

When you saddle your horse and head off on an 80km endurance ride before dawn, you quickly realise you’re not the only thing moving through the forest as your head lamp picks up the reflective eyes of all the other creatures active in the dark.

Some might find it creepy but 10-year-old Blakeville rider Ben Freeburn finds it calming.

The Ballarat Grammar pupil recently completed his first 80km endurance ride in 8.5 hours, including a five minute nap while his horse Teddy continued on the course.

To qualify for the 80km distance, Ben and Teddy had completed two 40km rides earlier in the year...

Read more here:
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5409502/eight-hours-in-the-saddle/?cs=62

Northern Ireland: An evening to entertain, educate and enjoy with Sally Toye

Farmweek.com - Full Story

By Bree Rutledge -May 16, 2018

MOST people don’t associate endurance riding with a bundle of laughs – an evening spent in the company of Sally Toye on Wednesday, May 23 will soon put that right!

Sally is an experienced endurance rider (and was a commercial airline pilot in a past life), who has successfully competed in some of the longest, toughest and most spectacular endurance rides in the world – including our very own St. Patrick’s Coast Ride. She has an inexhaustible fund of funny (and sometimes hair-raising) stories of her exploits on the trail and the struggles experienced in her training regime – come and hear about nights spent on the open Steppe with a half wild pony in the 1,000km Mongolian Derby or negotiating No Hands Bridge in the dark on an unknown mount in the Tevis Cup or learning how to fall safely from a rearing horse!...

Read more here:
https://farmweek.com/an-evening-to-entertain-educate-and-enjoy/

New Zealand: Horse Racing: Trudi tackles Mongol Derby

NZHerald.co.nz - Full Article

16 May 2018
By: Janine Baalbergen

Levin grandmother of four Trudi Thomas-Morton has been in the grip of adventure for a while now.

She loves horse riding and has been a long distance and an endurance rider both on horses and camels, but her latest venture is truly epic. She plans to ride the 1000km Mongol Derby in August.

That is no mean feat. Travelling from station to station, changing horses each time, with rider and horse undergoing check-ups at each station, each leg of the journey is 40km long and is travelled at speed...

Read more here:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/racing/news/article.cfm?c_id=53&objectid=12052415

Great Britain: Annie Joppe’s endurance blog: the sky is the limit

Horseandhound.co.uk - Full Article

Annie Joppe
10:55 - 15 May, 2018

My life over the past couple of weeks seems to have consisted to a large degree of packing and unpacking the trailer and Jeep and cleaning mountains and mountains of kit. My washing machine (and the husband!) has been complaining loudly as yet another heap of grubby horsey kit has been rammed in and the door jammed shut. All the labour, careful planning and intense action however paid off. What a good couple of weeks we have had.

First up was Fantom with a graded ride of 42km aiming to up his fitness levels. This was another ride in beautiful Dorset situated just below the Cerne Giant etched into the hillside. I thought the previous ride we went to in Dorset was hilly, but this one was even hillier and to add to that, it was a hot day for so early in the season, and of course we weren’t used to seeing much sun at all.

We had pretty much cracked the packing for this ride and managed to arrive with all the essentials for an overnight stay for both humans and horses. The ride itself went absolutely perfectly with Fantom maintaining a good speed quite effortlessly and finishing with a pulse of 40bpm...

Read more at http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/blog/annie-joppes-endurance-blog-sky-limit-652897#oDBAwV5AHY9pSUtv.99

American Eventers to Contest 2018 Mongol Derby

Devan Horn in the 2015 Mongol Derby. Photo by Richard Dunwoody/Mongol Derby
Eventingnation.com - Full Article

By Leslie Wylie on May 15, 2018

Eventers have historically fared pretty well in the Mongol Derby, not because we know the first thing about endurance riding but because as a lot we’re generally tough, scrappy and just psychotic enough to think we can pull it off. Lucinda Green’s niece, Lara Prior-Palmer, won the race in 2013, and several more have found their way to the finish line over the years including (by the skin of my teeth) yours truly.

The 10th annual race, a sort of 1,000-kilometer Hunger Games on horseback, takes place Aug. 5-18 somewhere in Mongolia and will be contested by 45 riders from 13 countries. North America is sending its biggest ever contingent — a whopping 13 riders from the U.S. and two from Canada — and once again there will be a few eventers in the mix.

Let’s break down the American field!...

Read more here:
http://eventingnation.com/american-eventers-to-contest-2018-mongol-derby/

New Zealand: WEG Endurance Representatives Announced

NZEquestrian.org.nz

By Diana Dobson

Equestrian Sports New Zealand has announced the first of its team to compete at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in the United States later this year.

Endurance combinations Jenny Champion (Masterton) aboard Barack Obama and Philip Graham (Oxford) on Rosewood Bashir will wear the silver fern at the event which is being held in Mill Spring, North Carolina at the Tryon International Equestrian Centre.

Graham, a beef and cattle farmer from Canterbury, rode at the 2006 WEG and is chuffed to have once again made the team. “It is marvellous,” says the 63-year-old. “It is not as if we haven’t been trying between now and 12 years ago but it is all about the horses falling into place and doing the right thing at the right time.”

Champion is on début and is also very excited. “It is so special to be named,” said the 53-year-old who will compete aboard Barack Obama who at 20 will possibly be the oldest horse in the field.

Both Champion and Graham say one of the biggest challenges will be preparing their horses through the New Zealand winter.

“Barack will be as fit as he has ever been in preparation for the ride of his life,” says Champion. “We will be chasing the best we have ever done.”

She trains on a neighbouring farm that is near ideal. “It is nice rolling country with good contours and is great underfoot,” she says.

Both will need to raise around $80,000 for the Games if they want to bring their horses home with them, but that cost has Champion and Barack’s owner Mark Round considering leaving him in the US. “It will be just terrible to leave him behind but what do you do?”

Graham plans to bring his 15-year-old horse home. He bought the horse as a foal from breeder Helen Chambers and Rosewood Bashir holds a special place in the hearts of him and his wife Helen Bray. His bloodlines trace back to the stallion Sky Hawk who Bray imported from England many years ago and Rosewood Bashir’s dam was out of a mare she bred in the 1980s.

New Zealand expects to also have representatives in showjumping, dressage and eventing.

The Games are held every four years and are expected to attract around 500,000 people over the two-weeks. The eight core equestrian disciplines of showjumping, dressage, para-equestrian dressage, eventing, driving, endurance, vaulting and reining will all be represented at the Games. The 2014 WEG attracted 984 athletes with 1234 horses, from 74 nations and was covered by 1900 accredited media from 52 countries.

The horse details:
Rosewood Bashir owned by Philip Graham
Barack Obama owned by Mark Round