Endurance GB Review Findings

August 6 2018

Endurance GB has completed both an internal process and external legal review following the withdrawal of GBR athlete Charlotte Chadwick from the FEI European Endurance Championship for Young Riders. 
 
The findings of this review have confirmed that, in cases such as this, primary responsibility for eligibility is placed upon the rider; and Charlotte Chadwick’s entry to the European Championships for Young Riders was accepted and facilitated on the basis she was qualified to compete as per FEI rules. EGB does not therefore bear liability for the events surrounding Charlotte’s withdrawal. 
 
The review has also found that no fault lies with the Technical Stewards at any of the events that Charlotte or her mother participated in during the lead up to the European Championships.
 
However, the review has also identified that improvements can be made to our systems and procedures to ensure they are helpful and minimise the risks of situations like this happening again. In the interests of responsible custodianship of our sport and our members, the organisation today outlines new measures to support our commitment to ensuring the highest standards of vigilance and to remove ambiguity with immediate effect. These include:
 
· Robust eligibility checks to be made mandatory as part of the selection process of international team members by the Team Chef or appropriate member of the Team Management, monitored consistently from selection through to competition. 
· The introduction of a new automated rest period audit process for all ride results, which will enable potential breaches of rest periods to be identified.
· Expanding the results spreadsheets used by Technical Stewards to automatically include the current FEI registration status of the horse, which will reduce the risk of a FEI horse being allocated an EGB rest period.
 
It is not possible at this time to automatically calculate rest periods at the entry stage, and the onus remains on the riders to ensure that they are eligible to compete. 
 
EGB will also take steps to underline that riders are responsible for compliance with all relevant regulations by implementing a new disclaimer on all ride entries, to indicate understanding of rules regarding eligibility, and to accept EGB, BEF or FEI regulations.
 
Whilst we reiterate that EGB is not liable for the unfortunate set of circumstances that prompted the introduction of these new measures, we nonetheless welcome the opportunity to review processes across the sport. It is our firm belief that this swift and affirmative response will lead to improved standards for all.
 
We would like to underscore our clear understanding that Charlotte, and her family, hold both horse welfare and the rules of Endurance with the upmost of importance and rules were broken completely unintentionally. The EGB Board is immensely proud of all our Young Riders and everything they have achieved and we are hugely disappointed for Charlie, who is a talented ambassador for our sport.

Great Britain: The Sun Shines over International and National Riders at the Third Euston Park Ride

Equnews.com - Full Article

August 6, 2018
Editorial | Equnews

The third ride in the Euston Park Season saw both national and international riders enjoying the blue skies and beautiful forests and tracks of Euston Park.

Four international rides took place including the CEI2* 120km on Saturday 4th August and the CEI1* 80 km, CEIYJ2* 120km and CEI3* 160km on Sunday 5th, attracting riders from across 12 nations. Although the weather was warm across the weekend, the courses rode well.

Euston Park now looks forward to the H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum UK Endurance Festival which will take place from the 16th – 19th August.

Event Director, Nick Brooks-Ward – ‘It was a very good weekend of Endurance with over 50 international riders and nearly 50 national riders. In what has now become the hottest summer in living memory, I am delighted to say that all horses and riders came home. All our attention now focuses on the H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum UK Endurance Festival which Euston Park will welcome in 10 days’ time. This will be the largest Endurance festival ever staged in Great Britain, culminating in the Nations Cup of Great Britain, the CEI2*, held on Saturday 18th August. Our very grateful thanks to our land owners, officials and course marshals who work tirelessly to make this weekend a success...

Read more here:
https://www.equnews.com/region/the-sun-shines-over-international-and-national-riders-at-the-third-euston-park-ride/

Mongolia: Ride of a lifetime

GJSentinel.com - Full Article

August 5 2018
ERIN McINTYRE

You couldn't drag Christine Roberts away from wild horses. She is traveling thousands of miles to be with them, to compete in a world-famous endurance race she hopes to win and to experience something unlike anything she's ever done before.

Roberts will celebrate her 30th birthday by riding semi-wild horses more than 600 miles through the Mongolian steppe and competing in what the Guinness Book of World Records crowned the world's longest horse race.

Roberts, who first started riding horses as a little girl on her parents' farm north of Fruita, is an endurance racer who snagged one of the coveted spots in the Mongol Derby, a unique race chronicled in a documentary called "All the Wild Horses."

On Saturday, her birthday, she already will be on her fourth day of the race, which will take her and the other riders on an unmarked course across Mongolia, the largest landlocked country in the world. The race is a test of horsemanship, athleticism, endurance, navigation and sheer nerve. The course remains secret each year until the race begins, but each year's race pays tribute to Genghis Khan's network of horse messengers who crisscrossed his kingdom...

Read more here:
https://www.gjsentinel.com/lifestyle/ride-of-a-lifetime/article_bc1cdc04-9864-11e8-9c4e-10604b9f6eda.html

Anglesea women Tania Orlov and Ruth Benney prepare for Gobi Desert Cup

DailyTelegraph.com.au - Full Article

Jaimee Wilkens, Geelong Advertiser
August 2, 2018 8:25pm

TWO Anglesea mums are giddying up for a trip of a lifetime, travelling to Mongolia this month for a six-day endurance horse race through the Gobi Desert.

The Gobi Desert Cup is a 480km ride through some of the most unforgiving terrain on the planet, requiring riders to complete an 80km course each day.

It will test both the mental and physical strength of the riders, with only 20 people from across the globe entering each year.

But confessed horse-loving mothers Tania Orlov and Ruth Benney think they’re up for the challenge...

Read more here:
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/anglesea-women-tania-orlov-and-ruth-benney-prepare-for-gobit-desert-cup/news-story/6b5dba96ff6f3137981fe198f4363b31

Shooting the Messenger – A Setback for Fair Play

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | August 2, 2018

This blog might appear to be about a domestic issue this side of the pond, but there are important lessons for all. Please bear with, for there’s essential background reading first.

First, in endurance, mandatory rest periods are applied to horses after a ride, for obvious welfare reasons. The duration relates to the distance, with days added if you’re vetted out.

In 2016, FEI endurance also introduced a “de-merit” system, with penalty points for issues that prove the most problematic. Accumulating 100 points in 12 months means an immediate two-month ban for the rider with no appeal.

Metabolic elimination = 10 penalty points.

Essential invasive treatment by official vet = 25pts

Catastrophic [fatal equine] Injury during ride = 80pts

Competing horse during mandatory rest; failure to present to final vet; incorrect behaviour = 100pts each, plus automatic two-months rider suspension.

So, as you can see, the FEI puts competing a “resting” horse in its tier of most serious rule-breaches.

Secondly, a bit about “Clean Endurance” – a global alliance of folks with a common interest in salvaging their sport from doping, cheating and fatalities. I first encountered them in early 2015, about two years after I began writing about the UAE et al in-depth. I’d discovered the UAE was faking entire rides on an industrial scale. Some of the Clean volunteers helped me unravel how the Emirates Equestrian Federation (EEF) had forged results (and qualifications) of over 500 horses in 13 rides so convincingly that no-one noticed for years.

The FEI’s Equine Community Integrity Unit readily took up our research in its subsequent official investigation, and two senior EEF executives were eventually suspended (though other implicated officials went unpunished).

Since then, Clean Endurance has regularly engaged with FEI HQ in Lausanne, notably flagging up the many anomalies hiding in plain sight on the FEI database; this includes identifying the horses starting in rides they are not qualified for, which still occurs a lot, even on the basis of un-faked results...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/shooting-messenger-setback-fair-play/

Adventure of a lifetime awaits Tompkins County woman at Mongol Derby

Pressconnects.com - Full Article

Kevin Stevens, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Aug. 2, 2018

Twelve days in Asian wilderness with temperatures ranging from frigid to sultry, aiming to cover 75 miles per day for nine in succession aboard semi-wild horses, replenishing on mutton, dumplings and fermented mare’s milk before sacking out on the base of a nomad’s yurt.

Belongings for the entirety of the expedition are restricted to 11 pounds, roughly the weight of a house cat. The likelihood of separation from those items stowed so meticulously in a bag affixed to the saddle is substantial, as the oft-skittish animals providing transportation rather fancy bucking free of human cargo and tearing off for parts unknown.

Diarrhea is as much a probability as drenching rain, throbbing limbs and utter exhaustion following each 13½-hour riding session.

Pam Karner will experience the above, by choice, and for the mere pittance of a $13,000 entry fee.

And damned if she isn’t pumped!...

Read more here:
https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/2018/08/02/adventure-lifetime-awaits-tompkins-county-woman/777500002/

Road To The Mongol Derby: End Of The Road

Photo by TheAdventurists.com
Thoroughbreddailynews.com - Full Article

Monday, July 30, 2018
By Kelsey Riley

Nine months and a week after receiving the call that I was in, the road to the Mongol Derby has come to an end. on Wednesday, I board a plane to Ulan Bator and brace myself to be thrown into a seismic challenge that I’ve spent every day of the last 37 weeks preparing for, but that I know I could never be truly ready for.

To recap, the Mongol Derby is a 1000 kilometre (620 mile) race across the Steppes of Outer Mongolia on ‘semi-wild’ (aka varying definitions of broke) Mongolian horses. There is no marked course; we’ll navigate to each checkpoint by GPS and change horses every 40km. We’ll ride 14 hours a day for 10 days straight and camp out with the nomads (no showers), mimicking their lifestyle and diet. We’ll do all this with maximum 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of kit carried by saddlebag. Race training starts on Aug. 5, the starting gun fires on Aug. 8 and riders have until Aug. 17 to reach the finish line.

What has preparation looked like? First, seemingly endless winter months of galloping in the Lexington deep freeze, snow, and once even an ice storm. And suddenly, within about two days, riding out in the suffocating heat. Galloping racehorses turned out to be the best preparation I could have dreamed of in terms of fitness, strength, but most importantly, the confidence to jump on an unfamiliar steed and head off at full speed; the mantra of the Mongol Derby.

More recently, I’ve been fortunate to spend time at the beautiful Mt Brilliant Farm hacking their polo horses all over the farm. Truly brilliant for getting a feel for long hours in the saddle, which I believe became more a mental exercise than a physical one. Any spare moments were spent in the gym, researching or shopping for kit, or making frequent visits to the travel clinic for rounds of various inoculations (fun fact about me: I am now vaccinated against rabies-come at me wild dogs!)...

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