Canada riders celebrate summer and Canada Day with podium places across North America

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

20 July 2018
Race Report made with the assistance of Sandra Coombe

Canada. 16 July 2018. Canadian endurance athletes have been hard at work this past month, traveling across North America in pursuit of qualifying scores for the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) before the endurance qualification period ended on 13 July 2018.

A large contingent traveled to Ashland, MT for the Fort Howes Endurance Rides, held 8 – 11 June 2018. While the extreme heat was too much for many competitors, several Canadians persevered to earn a spot in the top three.

On 9 June, Canadians swept the leaderboard in the CEI-YJ 2* division, with Lexi Vollman of Regina, SK taking first place. She and her 11-year-old Pintabian gelding, AJ Splash of Pizzaz, rode at an average pace of 9.3km/hr. to complete the 120km distance in just under 13 hours.

Jessica Zwaan of St. Denis, SK came in second on Nazeefs Flashy Rose, an 11-year-old Arabian mare owned by Cheryl Van Deusen. They stopped the clock with a time of 14:20:00, riding an average of 8.4km/hr.

In third place was Charlotte Tremblay of Ottawa, ON, who rode Anya Levermann’s 13-year-old Arabian gelding, Kharmichel LK, at a pace of 7.8 km/hr. to cross the finish line in a time of 15:18:35.

The three Canadian athletes stood alone on the leaderboard, as the three other American entries failed to complete the course...

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/canada-riders-celebrate-summer-and-canada-day-with-podium-places-across-north-america/

Australia: Tom Quilty ride: Safe for horses to cross Bass Strait

WeeklyTimesNow.com.au - Full Article

ROGER HANSON, Tasmanian Country
July 19, 2018

TASMANIAN equine endurance riders are reassuring interstate competitors that it is safe to bring horses across Bass Strait for the upcoming Tom Quilty ride.

Tasmanian Equine Endurance Riders Association secretary and horse-welfare officer Pat Hodgetts said the death of polo ponies on a Strait voyage earlier this year had been discussed among interstate competitors.

An investigation into the death of 16 polo ponies in late January after they had been in Tasmania to compete in the Barnbougle Polo is ongoing...

Read more here:
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/tasmanian-country/tom-quilty-ride-safe-for-horses-to-cross-bass-strait/news-story/31dc74ea906cb2c7fc7e68bc26140c79

Australia: Queensland pays off for Finn

TheAdvocate.com.au - Full Article

July 20 2018
Jarryd McGuane

Elliot’s Megan Finn will compete in the 2018 Tom Quilty Gold Cup to be held at Scottsdale in October after completing the five-stage, 160 kilometre Queensland Endurance Riders Association State Championships at Imbil last weekend.

Needing to complete the event to guarantee her place in the Tom Quilty, Finn crossed the finish line in a time of 15 hours and nine minutes to finish ninth in the lightweight category and also finished fifth in the stallion category.

Finn said she found the latter stages of the race very difficult after losing riding companion Linda Lochtenburg, who broke her arm in the fourth of five legs.

“I was so lucky to be riding the first three legs with Linda Lochtenberg, as she helped me through the hardest points of the track and kept me moving forward,” Finn said...

Read more here:
https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/5537401/queensland-pays-off-for-finn/

Endurance Vets Meet for Conference Prior to WEG Tryon 2018

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

July 20, 2018
by: IVEC

The second International Veterinary Endurance Conference (IVEC) will take place on September 9th, three days before the endurance race of the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, USA. Veterinarians and other endurance professionals are invited for a full day of presentations. Topics include myopathies, pre-purchase exams, assessing conditioning, statistically based race strategies, performance genes and the future of doping.

IVEC is organised before every biannual world championship, providing the international endurance community with the latest research in the sport. Speakers from all FEI groups are represented in the programme.

The first IVEC took place in Samorin (Slovakia) in 2016 and feedback from many of the nearly 100 attendees including veterinarians, scientists, trainers, riders, breeders was overwhelmingly positive ” A unique opportunity to learn and share highest level knowledge and latest research”, said one attendee.

One of the speakers this year will be Stephanie Valberg (USA), the most renowned veterinarian in the field of muscle pathology.

IVEC is very grateful for the support of the co-joined main partner Haras Albar in Brazil and Ameira Endurance Stables in Portugal....

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/endurance-vets-meet-conference-prior-weg-tryon-2018/

Australia: Endurance title in freezing conditions

NoosaNews.com.au - Full Article

19th Jul 2018

IT WAS one of Imbil's coldest nights as more than 150 riders competed in the Queensland Endurance Riders Association State Championships on Saturday at the Stirling's Crossing Equestrian Complex at Imbil in the Mary Valley.

Those participating in the 160km event set off in icy conditions at midnight and it took Matthew Gadsby 11 hours and 48 minutes to cross the finish line and be named the QERA State Champion for the second year in a row...

Read more here:
https://www.noosanews.com.au/news/endurance-title-in-freezing-conditions/3471307/

South Africa: Horse and rider take on Fauresmith at a gallop

IOL.co.za - Full Article

PRETORIA NEWS / 18 JULY 2018, 11:11AM / ZELDA VENTER

NOT even being pregnant or suffering from food poisoning could stop Pretoria lawyer Bianca Rontgen and her purebred Arab horse Lourizon Washington from finishing the gruelling 206.5km three-day Fauresmith endurance race earlier this month.
The 29-year-old Bianca, who is practising at her family law firm Rontgen and Rontgen, together with her father and grandfather, is a keen horsewoman who started riding when she was 4 years old.

The petite, but tough mother-to-be heard three weeks before the race that she was pregnant with her first child, but as she had already qualified for the endurance race in the Free State, and because her doctor gave her the go-ahead to participate because she was so fit, she decided not to let anything stand in her way.

“To know that my baby and I finished this race without any problem, and that my horse was 100% healthy, is amazing. I can one day tell my child that he completed Fauresmith even before he was born.”

Bianca said Fauresmith is - like the Comrades - not for everyone. Not everyone can ride it and not every horse is able to finish it, and this year, 145 horses dropped out of the race...

Read more here:
https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/horse-and-rider-take-on-fauresmith-at-a-gallop-16091976

Nordic-Baltic championship in Jämsä, Finland

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

17 July 2018
Race Report made with the assistance of Heidi Laurinen

Jämsä, Finland. Saturday 16 June 2018. In the mid of June northern riders were competing for the Nordic-Baltic championship in the rugged terrains of Jämsä and in the Finnish midnight sun, when sun does barely go down at all. This was the second time the championship was held in Jämsä, mid Finland.

The first time the endurance community gathered in Jämsä was in 2012. Also this time the weather was on competitors’ side. Sun was shining but the temperature did not rise too much and for this reason the horses as well as the riders managed to complete the steep hills and winding roads fairly well.

The main class, CEI2* 120km seniors started with beautiful sunshine at 07:00. In this event we had 23 riders, who represented Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Finland. Unfortunately not all the Nordic-Baltic countries were able to send competitive attendants for this class...

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/nordic-baltic-championship-in-jamsa-finland/