Portugal: Weed in pasture was behind horse’s failed drug test, FEI Tribunal finds

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

December 11, 2018
Horsetalk.co.nz

An endurance horse who tested positive for scopolamine most likely came to have the drug in his system through ingesting a paddock weed, the FEI Tribunal has ruled.
Fadista Das Tapadas, ridden by Carlos Cunha, of Portugal, took part in a 1-star 80km endurance ride in Madrid, Spain, on May 19 last year.

Samples taken from the horse on the day subsequently tested positive for scopolamine.

Scopolamine is a parasympatholytic drug used as a smooth muscle relaxant for the treatment of gastro-intestinal spasms. It is listed as a controlled medication under the equine anti-doping rulings.

From January 1 it will be formally identified as a specified substance – a category of substances recognised as able to enter a horse’s system inadvertently due to a credible non-doping explanation, such as pasture contamination...

Read more here:
https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2018/12/11/weed-pasture-horsedrug-test-fei-tribunal/

Valerie Kanavy Joins Endurance Temporary Committee

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

December 5, 2018
by: Equestrian Canada

Valerie Kanavy (USA), the former athlete representative on the Endurance Committee, is to replace her compatriot Dr Margaret (Meg) Sleeper on the Temporary Committee set up in October to urgently review the Endurance rules in order to address the issues currently affecting the discipline.

Meg Sleeper, who was initially announced as one of the members of the Temporary Committee chaired by Dr Sarah Coombs (GBR), has resigned after advising the FEI last week that she could be in breach of the FEI rules on mandatory rest periods after competing in two national events in the US...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/valerie-kanavy-endurance-temporary-committee/

Australia: Sarah Lymbery wins at prestigious Orange endurance riding event

TheRural.com.au - Full Story

December 5 2018
Nikki Reynolds

A WAGGA endurance rider has earned top accolades at the Matar Stables Bullio Cup in Orange.

Sarah Lymbery is from a family of endurance riders and competed in her first 20-kilometre ride on her fifth birthday.

Her long association with the sport, and a commitment to training, has allowed her to perform at the highest level. She won a saddle for her efforts in Orange recently. “It felt surreal and overwhelming,” she said after returning to Wagga.

“I feel so proud of my horse to have been able to win the cup against these riders on a such a challenging course,” she said...

Read more here:
https://www.therural.com.au/story/5794754/going-the-distance-in-endurance-riding/?cs=6528

Australia: Wild Ride: Former NT stationhand’s crazy time during Mongol Derby

WeekyTimesNow.com.au - Full Article

Andrea Davy, Rural Weekly
December 3, 2018

SHORT hooves, a kind eye and something that looked like it was ready to run.

Those were a few of the features Kathy Gabriel looked for when picking a semi-wild horse for the Mongol Derby — a 10-day race that stretches 1000km across the vast country.

“But basically … I was just looking for something that wouldn’t kill me,” she joked.

This year, Kathy, who is the rural personality behind popular, and often humorous, Facebook page Experience Australian Agriculture, pooled much of her resources into competing in the iconic race.

She was injured on day three, after a fiery ride on a bolting horse that only came to a stop with the aid of two handy Mongolian horseman, and eventually pulled out by day five from a shoulder injury.

Despite this, she is determined to save again for the $18,000 entry fee and take the risk riding half-broke foreign horses...

Read more here:
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/rural-weekly/wild-ride-former-nt-stationhands-crazy-time-during-mongol-derby/news-story/7dfc1ad26ce3fd4baa48c1d8621e9e49

The Next Four Years: Random Thoughts on Ingmar's Road Map

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | December 3, 2018

Since the FEI general assembly in Bahrain two weeks ago, the FEI website has featured a portrait of Ingmar de Vos, re-elected president unopposed. “The sky really is the limit” says the blurb, in a somewhat sweeping statement. Broad brush strokes are indeed the theme of Ingmar’s “road map” for his next four years.

There is not much sport-specific detail. Eventing gets mentioned once, in the context of future Olympic venue selection. Dressage is mentioned in terms of needing a title sponsor for the World Cup series – now in its second season funded wholly by the FEI after the contract serviced by Haya’s buddy Reem Acra expired. No mention of rollkur, notwithstanding the oft-repeated mantra that welfare is TOP priority.

The only thing that to me has the sky as its limit is Jan Tops’s Global Champions Tour. My word, how the Global has mushroomed during the first four years of Ingmar’s presidency – and despite the FEI, not because of it.

While bringing riches to jumpers akin to other top sportsmen, the Tour has unwittingly undermined the very Olympic participation that most senior jumpers believe their sport compromised itself to maintain. I can only comment on what I am hearing in the UK, but there have now been several championships and key Nations Cups for which Scott Brash and Ben Maher were unavailable, due to commitments to the Tour. Plenty of folks are murmuring that riders who don’t help GB qualify (as we are not there yet) should not be on the Tokyo team. Whether or not that bites off one’s nose to spite one’s face, the mindset hardly builds camaraderie.

Still, the Tour is hard to knock from a spectator perspective. Because of its pay card-related business model, a number of get-rounders are par for the course, but the cream always rises to the top. No principal class jump-off all season has been less than electrifying.

And now, significantly, the Tour moves indoors for the first time, with the new “play-off” show in Prague (December 13-16) boasting an eye-watering 12m euro (US$ 13.6m) purse. If a Global winter indoor league is being developed, more than the FEI Nations Cup is at risk.

Incredibly, there is not one mention of the E-word in Ingmar’s road map, despite endurance being the FEI’s biggest public relations/welfare problem of all time. Endurance’s “issues” are hardly top secret, why not discuss the strategy, unless there isn’t one, of course...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/ingmars-road-map/

Ireland: Successful year for ILDRA’s Ulster Branch

Farmweek.com - Full Article

By Bree Rutledge - December 4, 2018

THE 2018 Irish Long Distance Riding Association (ILDRA) Ulster Branch season kicked off with a New Year’s Day ride spent at the beautiful Gosford Forest Park. Horseback riding is always the perfect way to wish in the New Year and the CTR riders were out in force at this pleasure ride event to begin their training for the 2018 endurance season.

Several stunning venues have been visited by ILDRA during 2018 and many of these venues are the hidden gems of the Northern Irish countryside, offering beautiful off-road riding in safe, scenic landscapes. Whether those attending are keen endurance riders or pleasure riders, everyone always enjoys the day out with their four-legged companions exploring the endless trails. The enjoyment offered by attending Ulster Branch events is evident in all the riders, they always return from their rides with beaming smiles and kind words of thanks for the ride organisers, praising their hard work and admiration for the riding venues offered by ILDRA...

Read more here:
https://farmweek.com/successful-year-for-ildras-ulster-branch/

FEI announces new member of Endurance Temporary Committee

Inside.FEI.org

4 Dec 2018

Valerie Kanavy (USA), the former athlete representative on the Endurance Committee, is to replace her compatriot Dr Margaret (Meg) Sleeper on the Temporary Committee set up in October to urgently review the Endurance rules in order to address the issues currently affecting the discipline.

Meg Sleeper, who was initially announced as one of the members of the Temporary Committee chaired by Dr Sarah Coombs (GBR), has resigned after advising the FEI last week that she could be in breach of the FEI rules on mandatory rest periods after competing in two national events in the US.

Dr Sleeper competed with her horse Syrocco Cadence (FEI ID 102UO89) in a national ride on 22 September and the mare completed 137.6 of 160 kilometres before being eliminated for irregular gait (lameness). Dr Sleeper then entered the mare for a second 160-kilometre national ride on 27 October, which she won, but was subsequently advised by her National Federation that she could be in breach of FEI rest period rules.

This has now been confirmed to the FEI by US Equestrian, and the FEI today notified Dr Sleeper that she has been given 100 penalty points under FEI Endurance Rules Articles *815.3.1 and 815.3.3, resulting in an automatic two-month suspension commencing today (4 December 2018).

“We are sorry to lose Meg Sleeper, and we appreciate her honesty and transparency in immediately advising us of this issue, even before it had been confirmed by her National Federation, but it was clear that her position on the Temporary Committee was untenable in these circumstances”, FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez said. “This meant that we had to find a replacement and the FEI Board has agreed that this should be Valerie Kanavy, who is an athlete, a former member of the FEI Athletes’ Committee and also an organiser, so she brings a wide range of experience to this new role.”

Dr Sleeper, who has competed in FEI Endurance since 2005 and is also a trainer, official veterinarian and veterinary cardiologist, commented: “As soon as I realised that I could be in violation of FEI rest period rules I immediately contacted the FEI and my colleagues on the Temporary Committee and explained the situation. Once it was confirmed, I knew that the right thing to do was to resign. I made a mistake and I bitterly regret it, but the work of the Temporary Committee will shape the future of my discipline and that is too important to allow my mistake to deflect from that goal.”

Valerie Kanavy, who won individual gold with Pieraz at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Den Haag (1994) and took the world title again four years later with High Winds Jedi in Abu Dhabi (UAE), was a member of the FEI Athletes’ Committee and the Athletes’ Representative on the Endurance Committee for the four-year term 2014-2018. She has been competing at the elite level of the sport for more than three decades and won her most recent FEI event, a CEI2* 120-kilometre ride with Amir El Arab AT in July of this year, a week before celebrating her 72nd birthday.

The other members of the Temporary Committee are Tarek Taher (KSA), an international Endurance athlete elected by his peers as a member of the FEI Athletes’ Committee earlier this year; Pieter Wiersinga (NED), chef d’équipe of the Dutch Endurance team, a Police Commissioner and former Head of the Mounted Police in the Netherlands; and Dr Tim Parkin (GBR), who was elected onto the FEI Veterinary Committee at last month’s FEI General Assembly and who heads up the scientific research conducted at the University of Glasgow as part of the FEI’s Global Endurance Injuries Study (GEIS).

The Temporary Committee is chaired by Dr Sarah Coombs (GBR), a top FEI Endurance veterinarian who has many years’ experience of officiating at FEI Endurance events. Dr Coombs was formerly the British Endurance team vet, is a Trustee of the global equine charity World Horse Welfare and is also chair of its Veterinary Advisory Committee.

FEI Vice President Mark Samuel (CAN) will also be involved in the work of the Temporary Committee and will help facilitate communications between the Committee and the FEI Board.

The first in-person meeting of the Temporary Committee will be held at FEI Headquarters in Lausanne (SUI) on 12 December. This first meeting will establish the methodology to be used to fulfil the Committee’s remit to carry out an in-depth review of the rules in order to identify the most effective way of bringing the discipline back to its original roots of Endurance riding as opposed to Endurance racing, with horse welfare and horsemanship at its core, while still maintaining the competitive aspect of the sport. The Temporary Committee will also use this first meeting to determine the crucial consultation process with relevant key people in order to tap into their expertise and in-depth knowledge of the discipline.

Notes to Editors:

In order to protect horse welfare, FEI rules on mandatory rest periods apply to both international and national events, even in cases where the National Federation rules do not include rest periods.

*FEI Endurance Rules, Art 815.3 Mandatory Rest for Horses
If a horse participates in a CEN during the mandatory rest period, the Athlete will receive an official notification from FEI Headquarters. The 100 penalty points will be applied on the date of the FEI notification and consequently the Athlete’s two month suspension will take effect as of the date of the FEI notification.

About Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) www.fei.org

The FEI is the world governing body for horse sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was founded in 1921. Equestrian sport has been part of the Olympic movement since the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

The FEI is the sole controlling authority for all international events in the Olympic sports of Jumping, Dressage and Eventing, as well as Driving, Endurance, Vaulting and Reining.

The FEI became one of the first international sports governing bodies to govern and regulate global para sport alongside its seven able-bodied disciplines when Para Dressage joined its ranks in 2006. The FEI now governs all international competitions for Para Dressage and Para Driving.