Great Britain: Popular Man v Horse race is cancelled for a second year

CountyTimes.co.uk - Full Article

8 February 2021
By Matt Jones

ENDURANCE runners from Powys and well beyond have been dealt a blow after organisers of the immensely popular Man v Horse race announced the cancellation of this year’s event.

The quirky race – which pits people against horses over a 22-mile distance – is one of the most popular events on the annual Mid Wales calendar, but was cancelled last year because of coronavirus. Organisers Green Events had provisionally pencilled in a June 12 date for the Llanwrtyd Wells race’s comeback, but instead they have followed suit with many other events this year by postponing for a second successive year...

Read more here:
https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/19073603.popular-man-v-horse-race-cancelled-second-year/

UAE: Sultan Alawani emerged to top in Al Wathba

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

Info@endurance-world.com
1st February 2021

Emirates International Endurance Village, Al Wathba, United Arab Emirates. Friday 29 January 2021.

After three days of racing the previous week it was time for Junior & Young Riders to battle for first place at the Sheikh Zayed bin Mansoor bin Zayed Al Nahyan Junior & Young Riders Endurance Cup CEN 120.

A total of 100 combinations entered the race and it was Consuelo Marchant – CHI (Gacela 50 – Jumeirah Stables) leading after the first loop with nine riders within the same minute.

Saif Beljafla – UAE (Shadeedah – M7 Endurance Stables) arrived first after the second loop in an important pack of riders but thanks to a good recovery it was Khalfan Beljafla – UAE (Avenir La Majorie – MRM Stables) who took over the lead with an ignorable advantage of two seconds on Saif Beljafla. The only other rider to be in the same minute was Rashed Al Ketbi – UAE (Waterlea Sikorsky – M7 Endurance Stables) in fourth place...

Read more here:
https://endurance-world.com/sultan-alawani-emerged-to-top-in-al-wathba/

In Memoriam: FEI pays tribute to former Endurance Committee Chair Brian Sheahan (1951-2021)

Inside.FEI.org - Full Article

27 January 2021

Dr Brian Sheahan (AUS), former Chair of the FEI Endurance Committee, passed away peacefully on 25 January in his hometown of Samford, Queensland in northeastern Australia. The FEI Honorary Board Member, who was a highly respected veterinarian and a well-loved figure in the international Endurance community, was 69.

He joined the FEI Endurance Committee as a member in 2008, taking over the Chair in 2012 until 2018, during which time he was a member of the FEI Board. He was highly respected for his work with the Endurance Strategic Planning Group and the Endurance Task Force. He was instrumental in creating the FEI Endurance Forum and Conferences, which provided a platform for stakeholders to exchange ideas and voice their opinions.

“The FEI family and the international veterinary community have lost, not just a passionate advocate for Endurance, but also a unique man and a real friend,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.

“Brian often described himself as a ‘humble country vet’, but he was so much more than that and his passing is being felt everywhere he left his mark. As well as his brilliant ability to work with people, and with horses, he will be remembered fondly for his legendary wit and infectious good humour. His family, and huge circle of friends and colleagues will have no shortage of entertaining anecdotes to keep his memory alive. The equestrian community is certainly better off for having known him...”

Read more here:
https://inside.fei.org/content/memoriam-fei-pays-tribute-former-endurance-committee-chair-brian-sheahan-1951-2021

Uruguayan Rider Handed Record 3-Year Ban for Controlled Meds Offence

HorseSport.com - Full Article

FEI warns riders about personal duty of care after a repeat offender fails to educate himself, despite two prior positives.

By: Pippa Cuckson | January 18, 2021

A Uruguayan endurance rider has been handed a record three-year ban for a controlled medications offence, because of his history of prior violations.

Facundo Leites could have been suspended for four years for this third violation in four years’ period, though the FEI and its independent Tribunal felt three years was appropriate. Leites, 27, will have served suspensions totalling four and half years when this latest one ends in January 2024, unless he appeals.

Leites claimed he had accepted the ride at Bou Thib, Abu Dhabi in February 19 on Calandria Noe at short notice and could not have known the mare had recently been dosed with the corticosteroid Flumetasone to treat “chronic arthrosis” in the fetlock joint. The stable vet injected her eight eight days before the scheduled race. The trainer blamed the positive sample on the ride then being brought forward.

The trainer, Ali Nasser Sultan al Yabhouni, said his stable was one of the most “respectful” in the country. He had carried out his own investigation, and found miscommunication between stable staff in recording the treatment and the entry made for the ride, for which he apologised.

However, for the Tribunal, Dianne Pitts agreed with the FEI legal department that this explanation was unsubstantiated...

Read more here:
https://horsesport.com/horse-news/uruguayan-rider-handed-record-3-year-ban-controlled-meds-offence/

Endurance: Pointless to Strengthen FEI Rules if Loophole isn’t Closed

HorseSport.com - Full Article

The UAE can still dodge FEI rules at headlining endurance races due to the cock-eyed definition of ‘Minor’ events.

Cuckson Report
By Pippa Cuckson | January 19, 2021

Well, that UAE suspension seemed over in a flash, didn’t it? It has been business as usual at the epicentre of winter endurance from January 1 ‒ the UAE is packing loads into the next three months, racing four days out of seven.

Its first feature 120km race of 2021, the Expo Cup CEN, saw the usual pitiful completion rate: 44 finishers, 87 vetgate eliminations and 11 of those mysterious “failures to complete” (FTCs.)

Riders were drawn from 24 nations for that opening meet which ran under national rules. All perfectly legit, because demanding endurance events can count as “national” even when they would be of Olympic standard, if endurance was an Olympic sport.

Worryingly, too, so far this year the longer races have not been livestreamed. There could be Covid-related reasons for standing down the camera crews (though no one else seems too worried about social distancing) but equally the wish to reduce public scrutiny may now seem preferable to ego-feeding...

Read more here:
https://horsesport.com/cuckson-report-1/pointless-strengthen-fei-rules-loophole-isnt-closed/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Safety+Vests+%7C+Endurance+Loophole+%7C+Bright+Futures+Medal+Series&utm_campaign=HS-Enewsletter2021-Wednesday-Jan+20&vgo_ee=pDmBh5FOsIwBMbVGZSaGqDpxdzkQNl9LgdxZ9pnzLRY%3D

Equestrian Adventuresses Podcast Ep 84: The Great Mongolian Ride

EquestrianAdventuresses Podcast - Listen

by utetonia
January 15, 2021

On today’s episode Ute talks with Gabriella Schmidt-Corsitto, dental hygienist and horse lover from Switzerland. In July 2021 she will organise the Great Mongolian Ride, a charity ride crossing Mongolia from West to East and covering more than 3000 km in 10 weeks. She tells us all about how she arrived in Mongolia with her husband and founded her NGO Misheel Kids Foundation to help disadvantaged Mongolian children take care of their dental health and how she fell in love with the Mongolian horses and people and finally how she had the idea for her ride which is going to be the longest charity ride in history.

Listen:
https://equestrianadventuresses.com/2021/01/15/horse-podcast-ep-84-the-great-mongolian-ride/

Basha O’Reilly, adventurer and renowned Long Rider, dies at 73

HorseTalk.co.nz - Full Article

January 18, 2021
Neil Clarkson

Basha O’Reilly wasn’t born in the saddle, but it didn’t take her long to climb on a horse and begin a life filled with adventure and romance.

From the moment she climbed aboard her first pony, Mustard, she was destined to be an equestrian explorer.

Basha, who died in France on January 13 after a brief illness, found solace in the saddle, feeding what came to be an insatiable appetite to see the world on horseback.

Her obituary is not a notice about death. It is instead a lesson in love.

Born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1947, Barbara (Basha) Cornwall-Legh began riding at the age of five. She went on to ride at Olympic-level dressage, before being drawn to the adventures of equestrian travel.

After beginning her travels in Mongolia with Colonel John Blashford-Snell of the Scientific Expedition, in the summer of 1995 Basha visited the Russian Steppes.

There she fell in love with a blazing red Cossack stallion named Count Pompeii. That was the start of a 2500-mile expedition in which she beat off a would-be rapist and an attack by robbers...

Read more here:
https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2021/01/18/basha-oreilly-adventurer-renowned-long-rider-dies/