Ep. 306 Rough Magic Author Lara Prior Palmer On Horse Racing In Mongolia, Writing A Memoir And Being Brave

Gapyearradiopodcast.com - Listen

POSTED ON: DECEMBER 9, 2019 POSTED BY: GAP YEAR RADIO

Today we welcome bestselling author Lara Prior Palmer to talk about the gap year that inspired her book, Rough Magic. At the age of nineteen, Lara Prior-Palmer discovered a website devoted to “the world’s longest, toughest horse race”―an annual competition of endurance and skill that involves dozens of riders racing a series of twenty-five wild ponies across 1,000 kilometers of Mongolian grassland. Lara ultimately became the youngest and first-ever woman to win the race. Margo, Julia and Lara discuss the entirety of Lara’s gap year, what it was like competing as a woman and why she thinks all young people should consider the magical uncertainty of gap time.

Listen:
https://gapyearradiopodcast.com/ep-306-rough-magic-author-lara-prior-palmer/

New Zealand: Kohuratahi rider wins Trans-Tasman endurance ride

NZHerald.co.nz - Full Article

Stratford Press
By: Alyssa Smith
11 December 2019

A Kohuratahi horse rider has shown equestrian skills run through her blood, winning an event in the Endurance Trans-Tasman Competition.

The competition had two distances 120km ride and a 80km ride.

The New Zealand and Australian teams each had four members. One of the team members had to be a junior/ younger rider.

Two members of each team had to compete in either the 80km endurance ride or the 120km ride...

Read more here:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=12291492

FEI decision-making: is one country, one vote sustainable?

Horsesport.com - Full Article

The rights of countries with a minimal international presence to decide upon FEI rules are under the spotlight

By: Cuckson Report // Pippa Cuckson

There was an awkward moment at the FEI’s General Assembly in Moscow last month when the rights of new countries to join were challenged by Norway, a FEI founder member in 1921.

President of the Norwegian federation, Tore Sannum, spoke out as Mongolia, Ivory Coast and the Bahamas were being welcomed to the FEI family. The addition brings FEI membership to 137 national federations (NFs). In future, he asked the FEI to insist upon a minimum level of domestic participation, as other sports governing bodies do; without this, the FEI has “credibility” issues, he warned.

Mr. Sannum’s suggestion that countries should not be allowed to join unless they have riders at world championship level slightly backfired, because world championships cannot be entered UNTIL a country belongs to the FEI. The day’s business moved swiftly on – but nonetheless, Mr. Sannum was articulating what delegates from leading NFs often discuss in the bars and lobbies away from the conference hall.

It has always been one-country, one-vote at the FEI, whether you are as established and well medalled as the US (another FEI founder member), Canada (joined 1950), Germany (1927), Great Britain (1925), or as new as Mongolia, Ivory Coast and the Bahamas. That’s democracy – but is it common sense?...

Read more here:
https://horsesport.com/cuckson-report-1/fei-decision-making-one-country-one-vote-sustainable/

Under starter’s orders for toughest horse race

TeesdaleMercury.co.uk - Full Article

8 December 2019

Only about 40 competitors worldwide are selected to take part in the annual Mongol Derby, which is described as “the world's toughest horse race”. Teesdale’s own Fiona Kearton will be taking part in 2020 and Wendy Short went to meet her on her smallholding near Bowes.

THE Mongol Derby covers 1,000km across the Mongolian Steppes, with riders racing across the gruelling terrain in just ten days. Competitors navigate the route with minimal assistance on the local Mongolian horses, which are switched every 40km and spend each night with the native horse herders.

Fiona Kearton has been involved in endurance riding for several years and first heard about the Mongol Derby in 2014...

Read more here:
https://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/country-life/under-starters-orders-for-toughest-horse-race

Team Mexico claims historic Gold and Silver at the North American Endurance Championship

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

6 December 2019

Broxton Bridge Plantation, Ehrhardt, SC, United States of America. Thursday 14, Friday 15 and Saturday 16 November 2019. This year’s NAECH counted with a much larger Mexican team representation.

One 5-rider team for the CEI 1*, a 4-rider team for the CEI 2* and one Young Rider in one of the 25mi CEN AERC rides. In past editions and other WEC, and WEG events Mexico had presented a maximum of 3 riders but failed to ever finish as a team to score, so they took the opportunity to vindicate themselves and show the team strength.

On Thursday 14 November, riders José L Flores, Mercedes Acuña, Camila Gutiérrez, Carolina Galán, and Enrique Partida along with chef d’équipe Ricardo Galán started their CEI 1* 80km ride at Broxton Bridge Plantation with a clear objective: to finish at least three riders as a team preferably all five without risking any horse for a better individual position.
Endurance World Team Mexico.03The ride started 7am under cold conditions but no rain yet at the venue. The team rode together as a pack from the beginning and it wasn’t until gate 3 that they lost 2 of their horses due to slight lameness most likely as a result of the cold conditions. “It was important to ride as a pack as we knew our horse’s strength was based on their reliability to finish, not that so much on speed. I asked the team to hold a steady pace and keep together most of the entire ride as we had lost two mounts it was of the upmost importance to be cautious.” Said Ricardo Galán, chef d’équipe...

Read more here:
https://endurance-world.com/team-mexico-claims-historic-gold-and-silver-at-the-north-american-endurance-championship/

In Like A Lion: Mourning the End of WEG

HeelsDownMag.com - Full Article

December 4 2019
By Erin Gilmore

In like a lion, out like a... well, the World Equestrian Games as we know it are just plain out. And Tryon 2018, now the final WEG on record, was anything but a lamb.

During a non-announcement/announcement regarding WEG disciplines at the FEI’s annual meeting two weeks ago in Moscow, it was revealed that the FEI has not awarded the 2022 World Equestrian Games to one bidder, but instead divided out disciplines to several different countries (Italy: eventing and driving, Denmark: show jumping, dressage, para dressage, vaulting). No one came out and plainly stated it, so I will translate for you: no more World Equestrian Games as we knew them.

I attended three editions of the WEG as a journalist and photographer and I’m just going to go ahead and say it: this news really bummed me out. Since 1990, the WEG concept had been built out until it became an all-encompassing, two-week championship of the eight FEI equestrian disciplines. The official party line is that the WEG format of all eight disciplines being held at one venue had become too expensive and unwieldy. It is true that WEG was expensive, and the concept of each of the eight FEI disciplines holding its world championship at the same venue over a two-week period is rather “unwieldy.” But damn, it was worth it...

Read more here:
https://heelsdownmag.com/in-like-a-lion-mourning-the-end-of-weg/

New Zealand: Trans Tasman Endurance Challenge hosts more than 50 horse riders near Waiouru

NZHerald.co.nz - Full Article

4 December 2019
By: Staff Reporter
news@whanganuichronicle.co.nz

Top equestrian endurance riders had a long day in the saddle at the Trans Tasman Endurance Challenge in the central North Island.

Australian Equestrian Endurance team members on borrowed horses joined New Zealand riders at Waiouru on Sunday for a 3am start to the Trans Tasman event, riding into the darkness across hilly farmland. They competed in 80km and 120km rides over five farms between Tangiwai and Hihitahi...

Read more here:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/north-island/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503932&objectid=12290421