UAE: Boudheib Endurance Season Opener Puts the Welfare of the Horse First

HorseReporter.com - Full Article

by Pamela Burton

The Boudheib Initiative - Driving the Future of Endurance

26 November 2017, Boudheib, UAE ~ The first event of the 2017-2018 endurance season incorporating the Boudheib Initiative got underway at the Boudheib International Endurance Village outside of Abu Dhabi from 23-24 November 2017 with over 101 horses starting in the day one, 120km Open CEI** Al Ain Endurance Cup.

The idea to take back endurance and guard the welfare of the horse by reducing speeds to limit injuries on the endurance tracks is called the Boudheib Initiative and is sponsored enthusiastically by His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nayhan. The Boudheib endurance track features stretches of natural desert that work best if taken at the speeds recommended.

The two-day November program also included: 40km CEN & 80km CEN qualifiers, 80km CEI*, 120km JYR** & a 120 CEI**, and an 10km special introductory ride for young riders on Friday 24th...

Read more here:
http://www.horsereporter.com/boudheib-endurance-season-opener-puts-the-welfare-of-the-horse-first/

Great Britain: National Awards celebrated at EGB's Gala Dinner

Endurancegb.co.uk

Saturday 25th November saw the annual EGB Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony take place at the Daventry Court Hotel, Daventry and was attended by nearly 250 people – a nearly 20% increase on last year! It’s a fantastic opportunity for our members to gather together and celebrate the achievements from the year and, as always, included an ‘Ode to the Horse’ – the most important partners in our sport.

A full list of award winners will be published on the website in the next couple of days, but in the meantime we wanted to highlight our Championship winners. 2017 was a hugely successful year for our Young Riders and we are extremely proud to share with you that this year, Endurance GB’s Overall Champion is Young Rider Emily Cooke, having achieved a fantastic points total of 2288 with her horse Lady’s Man.

In receiving her award Emily told attendees how proud she was of Lady’s Man and that it had taken some time for them to build the bond they now share. She attributes her success to their shared understanding and the time and dedication she puts in, alongside her Mum, Lise Cooke, to training and preparation. Winners of the other Championship Awards as follows:


Overall Championship - Lady’s Man (Emily Cooke) - 2288 Points

Senior Championship - Warrens Hill Rubyn (Sarah Rogerson) - 1194 Points

Young Rider Championship - Lady’s Man (Emily Cooke) - 2288 Points

Junior Championship - Redwings Milky Way (Ella Pomroy) - 1085 Points

Veteran Championship - Bizout (Hannah Lydon) - 1716 Points

Novice Championship - Mistletoe (Caitlin Birkitt) - 670 Points

2017 FEI General Assembly Meeting - Endurance Decisions

FEI held its General Assembly 2017 meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay on 21 November. Decisions in the sport of endurance are as follows:

The General Assembly approved changes to the Endurance Rules to be implemented on 1 January 2019.

The General Assembly voted separately on a proposal to reduce the minimum weight for CEI 3, 4 and 5* and Championships from 75kgs to 70kgs. This was approved.

The General Assembly also voted separately on raising the competition age of horses for 5*, CEIOs and Championships, where horses must now be at least nine years of age (previously eight years) and for Young Horse Championships and Championships under 130km, where the minimum age must now be eight years (previously seven). This was approved.

Other main amendments approved en bloc (also to be implemented as of 1 January 2019) include: Increases in mandatory rest periods, based on scientific presentations at the FEI Sports Forum last April and the FEI Endurance Forum last May. An additional rest period of seven days will apply for horses that reach average speeds of 20 km/hr or higher at completion. This rest period will also apply to horses which do not complete the competition whose average speed of completed phases is 20 km/hr or higher.

A new star system for Endurance events, CEI 4* and CEI 5*, will be introduced to have prime events and a higher standard of competition for horses and athletes. The new star system is not solely defined by prize money, but sets specific requirements for organisers to ensure compliance with FEI rules and high standards of horse welfare.

In order to avoid having minors registered as trainers, the minimum age of a registered trainer has been set at 18 years old.

Qualifying criteria established for new 4* and 5* events, proving the full experience of athletes and horses to guarantee a high standard of competition level, and clarification to novice qualifying criteria in relation to experienced horses and athletes. Plus a new set of rules to define qualifications of horses and athletes for Regional Championships.

New general requirements and test event rules for Championships.

These changes can be viewed here in due course. 

More information from the meeting can be seen here:
https://inside.fei.org/fei/regulations/endurance

World Equestrian Games 2022 Open for Bids… Again

Horse-Canada.com - Full Article

November 22 2017

The FEI has announced that it will re-open the bidding process for the World Equestrian Games 2022.

The announcement was made during the FEI’s General Assembly that Samorin had recently decided not to sign the host agreement. Despite lengthy discussions with the FEI, the Samorin team has withdrawn its bid and the FEI Bureau has decided to re-open the bidding process.

Under a revised timeline, the FEI World Equestrian Games 2022 will be allocated at the in-person FEI Bureau meeting in November 2018...

Read more here:
https://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/weg-2022-open-bids/?utm_source=Enews+Nov+27%2C+2017&utm_campaign=EnewsNov272017&utm_medium=email

All the Wild Horses Takes Top Honors at Equus Film Festival

November 22 2017

The documentary "All the Wild Horses" took top honors of Best Equestrian Feature Film, Best Director, and Best of Festival at the November 17-19 Equus Film Festival in New York City.

ALL THE WILD HORSES follows international riders from around the world as they compete in the Mongol Derby in Mongolia, the longest and toughest horse race on the planet.
 
In this race across one thousand kilometers of Mongolian steppe the riders are on their own, navigating from horse station to horse station where they change horses every forty kilometers. They battle dehydration, hypothermia, exhaustion, extreme weather, swollen rivers and wild dogs. 

They stay the nights out in the wild or with nomad families. One wrong horse and they can get bucked off, lose their mount or suffer serious injuries.

More about the movie at:
http://allthewildhorsesmovie.com/index.html

UAE: Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum finishes in style at Al Wathba Challenge

Endurance-world.com - Full Article

by Admin
22 November 2017

Emirates International Endurance Village, Al Wathba, United Arab Emirates. Saturday 11 November 2017.

After a series of qualifying races and races for private stables we saw this Saturday with the Al Wathba Challenge the first ‘open race’ for the season in the United Arab Emirates.

The national race, CEN 120km, was divided into four loops of 40, 35, 25 and 20km.

According to UAE standards it was a rather small entry field with 148 participants, because the organiser only accepted up to 4 horses for each stable.

The Al Wathba Challenge gives enough resting time for the horses ahead of the National Day Cup and is considered for many stables as a try out for the bigger race.

“Absolutely correct” was the comment of one of the leading stables, “maybe today we did not see all the best horses in the country, but the field was very competitive and as you could notice after two loops they were flying...”

Read more here:
http://endurance-world.com/sheikh-rashid-dalmook-al-maktoum-finishes-in-style-at-al-wathba-challenge/

UAE: Latest Endurance Horse Deaths Raise Concerns About “Airbrushing” Results

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

November 20, 2017
by: Pippa Cuckson

Concerns that endurance horse deaths are being airbrushed out of official results have been raised again following two deaths at the 120km Al Marmoom Cup in Dubai Saturday.

Catswhiskers Tiro Centauri and Kurrajong Unique were listed as Catastrophically Injured (CI) in the early stages, both travelling at about 25kph. At the end of the day Tawqeet, the Dubai-owned timings operator, amended their listings to show the pair as Failed to Complete (FTC) instead. Yet on Sunday both were shown as dead on the updated horse database held by the FEI.

The Al Marmoom Cup was a UAE national ride, though was staged under FEI rules under the terms of the Emirates Equestrian Federation (EFF) legal agreement with the FEI, signed when the EEF’s suspension for horse welfare issues was lifted in July 2015.

Four other horses were listed FTC at Al Marmoom. Only 32 of the 129 starters finished...

Read more here:
https://www.horse-canada.com/horse-news/endurance-horse-deaths-results-concerns/