Can This Latest Endurance Review Make a Difference?

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | December 10, 2018

The temporary committee charged with reinventing endurance (yet again) has been bombarded with ideas before its first face-to-face meeting with the FEI on December 12th.

The committee’s new athlete representative, Tarek Taher, is also launching a long overdue riders group – the True Endurance International Riders Association (TEIRA.) It should eventually enjoy the same MoU with the FEI as the rider groups for jumping, dressage and eventing.

TEIRA hasn’t hung about, commissioning a detailed survey which, among other things, showed that most of the 700 respondents want stricter qualifying criteria to improve riding standards and encourage longevity in the horse...

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/latest-endurance-review-make-difference/

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/