Canada: Langley lawyer preparing to compete in world’s longest horse race

Globalnews.ca - Full Article

February 28 2016
By Jill Bennett - Reporter / Anchor Global News

Heidi Telstad has been riding horses since she was a little girl – but now the Langley lawyer is preparing for her biggest equestrian challenge yet.

She’s the only Canadian riding in this year’s Mongol Derby. Spanning over 1,000 kilometres, it roughly tracks the postal route created by Chinggis Khaan in the 13th century. It’s often called the longest and toughest horse race in the world, and this year only 44 of the 1000 applicants were chosen to compete in the race, which covers both desert and rocky terrain through the Mongolian wilderness.

“The biggest danger is the wild dogs and they say you won’t see them coming,” said Telstad.

“If you see a dog coming, it usually belongs to a family, but the wild ones will stalk you if you are on your own...”

Read more or listen in here:
http://globalnews.ca/news/2546008/langley-lawyer-preparing-to-compete-in-worlds-longest-horse-race/

Abu Dhabi: Nouf Reda wins Endurance Cup

Khaleejtimes.com - Full Article

February 27 2016

Nouf Abdul Reda, astride 11-year-old Anglo Arabia gelding RR Erebus, landed the 100km Shaikha Fatma bint Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Ladies Endurance Cup for Al Maghaweer Stables, at the Emirates International Endurance Village in Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi on Friday.

Shaikha Mahra bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum headed the 108 riders who started the race under favourable weather conditions at the beautiful venue which was decked up with a lot of side activities at the 'Arts Creative Land' for young kids and especially girls.

The race was attended by Shaikha Fatma bint Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and accompanied by her two brothers Shaikh Mohammed bin Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Shaikh Hamdan bin Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Nouf and RR Erebus covered the distance in 3 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds at an average speed of 29.04kmph. Polish rider Kamila Anita Karet was second on Thaalob and in third was Argentine Sabrina Mendiz on H C E Magfalcada Su...

Read more here:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/sport/horse-racing/nouf-reda-wins-endurance-cup

New UAE endurance rules fail to slow down riders

Horseandhound.co.uk - Full Article

Pippa Cuckson10:55 - 26 February, 2016

“Strong” new measures applied in the UAE from 13 February failed to reduce speeds in the first two endurance rides to apply them.

The Gamilati Cup for mares on 18 February, and a juniors’ race the next day both recorded some of the fastest aggregate speeds over 120km this season.

Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum won the Gamilati Cup with a final loop speed of 32.11kph and average speed of 27.05kph...

Read more at http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/speed-still-an-issue-in-uae-endurance-despite-rules-527979#KCSheMfEP5EOm0Wl.99

UAE: Just Who is in Charge?

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | February 22, 2016

Well, as an American endurance chum put it, that was as useful as a bucket of warm spit.

I don’t know a single sceptic who wouldn’t have been ecstatic to be proved wrong about the efficacy of the “strong new measures” put in place on February 13th for the remainder of the UAE winter season.

There has been no dancing for joy this week among the “clean” endurance community, though. The FEI’s stated aim is to reduce the speeds associated with catastrophic injury. But at the first two rides last week under the “new” constraints, some of the fastest aggregate speeds of any national or FEI 120km ride this season were recorded, with completion rates as dire as ever.

Endurance is about training horses for recovery, and thus a mystery to most other horse disciplines. I have only recently grasped enough of it to appreciate why the correlation is so fascinating and absorbing to those who love classic endurance.

But in the UAE, it’s taken to extremes. They can afford to buy the very best selectively-bred Arabian super-horses. Their agents round the world target horses who are not just fast but that can present at vet gates within minutes, a trait the UAE trainers then refine through methods the rest of us can only imagine.

But presumably the FEI’s own endurance experts don’t understand it, because otherwise they would have foreseen this: if you set a lower heart recovery rate (60bpm in final loop compared with 64 before), but with no other complementary constraint as enacted at Bou Thib, riders will simply delay a few minutes in presenting, having belted along even faster on the loops!...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/just-who-is-in-charge/

Bouthieb (UAE): Why and how does it work?

Enduroonline.com.br - Full Article

Summary of the situation

In Bouthieb, there are no more dead horses during the competitions or horses put down due to redhibitory fractures.

In Bouthieb, the speed is not the main obsession at the expense of the horses.

In Bouthieb, we obtain a rate of no-treatments that would make many organizers, many federations around the world green with envy.

In Bouthieb, ensuring above all the welfare of the horses is about to become again commonplace.

In Bouthieb, the horse has left the status of a tool to become a partner with whom we play.

Bouthieb is the rebirth place by means of the establishment of a concrete way of doing based on obvious facts, all this being made possible by the courage and determination of a prince who is not afraid to upset the world in order to "simply" return to the fundamentals of endurance.

Is it so hard to do the same somewhere else?

ORGANIZING ENDURANCE COMPETITIONS in the UAE

Every year, the National Federation of the UAE publishes the calendar of the season which will be amended if necessary as the weeks go by. It is the result of negotiations between the three organizing committees and the federation.

The resulting official calendar is made in such a way that the distribution of the rides is balanced equally. There are 22 competitions in each of the three venues for the 2015/2016 season, totaling 66 for the country (January 1st 2016 edition).

Bouthieb alone represents 33% of the UAE competitions for the current season. So it is not a minor venue. We could even add that the "qualifiers" being more numerous, the number of horses that pass through Bouthieb make it the most important venue. A more detailed study would probably show that for an average year this site has between 40 and 45% of the overall number of horses in competition.

Then we must stop focusing on Dubai and Al Wathba thinking that Bouthieb represents a small thing in a corner of the UAE. Yet this is what surfaces in the news we can read here and there over the world.

It must be said that many articles are written from far away, and everyone knows that the longest the distance is, the more schematic, the more generalized the result is. And as sensationalism does not come from what is positive but almost always from what is negative, one darkens the picture, stigmatizes easily, turns over and over because of his resentment and forgets what is right and good, though it is necessarily where the future lies.

Without forgetting what is wrong and should not be, we will talk here of what happens in Bouthieb and the booming success of the new rules implemented, which have made the FEI move faster than any other measures had done before...

Read more here:
http://www.enduroonline.com.br/Bouthieb-Why-and-how-does-it-work.php

Endurance Stop Press? Don’t bother, I’ve heard it all before

HOrse-canada.com - Full Article

Cuckson Report | February 15, 2016

wo days ago, the FEI wrested its latest second/third/fourth-chance agreement from the UAE over the breaking of endurance rules and the breaking of horses.

There is no black and white solution. After 20 years of doing exactly what they want, the UAE was never going to roll over in a matter of months.

At first glance, the Emirates federation (EEF) is still bluffing the FEI. The “new” measures agreed on February 13 for the rest of the winter season are a partial re-hash of extant rules that the UAE has cheerfully flouted for years.

But the UAE still hasn’t been quite brave enough to walk away and start its own desert racing governing body (I use the word “governing” loosely.) We can assume they want to stay in the FEI, and so I hope stripping Dubai of the 2016 world championship event remains a live threat that can yet have an effect.

I recently asked the FEI if the likely difficulty in finding a replacement championship venue was influencing its handling of the crisis. I received an unequivocal No...

Read more here:
http://www.horse-canada.com/cuckson-report/endurance-stop-press-dont-bother-ive-heard-it-all-before/

Death by a thousand cuts in equestrian sport

Horsetalk.co.nz - Full Article

Neil Clarkson | 16 February 2016

It’s summer in the southern hemisphere – the season for sand and sandals. In horse sport, it seems to be the season for sand and scandals.

Yes, we’re living the dream. Or is it a nighmare? Followers of horse sport will be well aware of the endurance troubles in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that hit the headlines this past month.

We now have a new deal and, who knows, maybe the dust will finally settle around UAE endurance and the FEI can return to happy families.

It is now a matter of waiting to see if the new measures will make any significant difference, which provides a nice window to look at the issue of reputational damage to horse sport.

Scandals are never far away in any number of sports, it would seem. And the damage can be very real...

Read more: http://horsetalk.co.nz/2016/02/16/death-thousand-cuts-equestrian-sport/#ixzz40HVxlywT