Suzanne DOLLINGER Newsletter
In this letter you’ll find
§ WEG Aachen 2006
§ Info “Fasna Trail”, NED
§ Message from Harald Grinschgl, AUT
§ Message from Monika Smith, CAN
§ Message from Carol Bunting, GBR
§ Message from Suzanne Dollinger, SUI
§ WEG Aachen 2006
- Prizemoney Endurance 97'500 Euro
- The plans and discussions with neighbouring lands are underway
- The approx. 160 km stretch should lead trough Germany, Holland and Belgium
- The main vet-gate to be at the Tree Land Point, Vaals, Holland
- Approx. expected horses: Endurance 180 / Riders 170
- 160 km/1 day
Informations transmitted by Sascha Dubach,
journalist, PferdeWoche, SUI
Info “Fasna Trail”, NED
The Fasna Trail 2004 takes place at
and around the KNHS centre in Ermelo from 2 to 4 July. There are 3 distances
this year: 91, 125 and 160 k (CEI**/CEI***). The 160 k distance will also be the
route for the Dutch national endurance championships. Like previous years the
competition will have international participation. The route is slightly altered
from the one last year, with a new branch of the route to the south-side.
This year the Fasna Trail is part of the Mid-European Cup, a series of
international (CEI) endurance competitions held in Europe with prizes of several
thousand euros. The Mid-European Cup includes the following participating
countries and competitions:
Hungary (Babolna, Sopron) 1
May
Austria (Leutschach) 19 June
Netherlands (Fasna Trail, Ermelo) 3 July
Belgium (Peer) 31 July
Czech Republic (Zabreh na Morave) 21 August
Poland (Nowecin, Leba) 3-5 September
Germany (Göttingen) 7-10 October
I trust to have informed you
sufficiently. However, should you have any more questions than do not hesitate
to contact me.
Yours faithfully, Hanifa van Limbeek,
www.info@fasnatrail.ni
Message from Harald Grinschgl, AUT
All the official information and recent news about the Central European Endurance Cup
is located on www.distanzreiten.at
Best regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ing.Harald Grinschgl, Endurance Austria
§ Message from Monika Smith, CAN
The discussions on qualifications for world events are crucial. My thanks for Endurance Intercontinental for providing a medium to offer opinions and feedback.
What happens at the highest level of competition has repercussions as to how people start in the sport and a perception on what it means to be an international calibre horse and rider.
We shouldn't be chewing our nails at the vet gate wondering if the horses will get through; or hope that, with a lot of work focused at the ride, a horse will complete when they've never done the distance or speed before.
A Team event is about a nation presenting their very best horses and riders to the world. They should show at least two years worth of training, strategy and conditioning and should be capable, through measurable performance criteria, to put in a stellar performance. At the very least, a personal best that matches a predictive model, and exceeds qualification requirements. The treatment vets shouldn't have to outnumber the competition vets.
Endurance Riding, as a sport and non-Olympic discipline, is very new. We're experimenting, testing, evaluating. That is all good. We have had some 20 years to figure things out and have achieved great popularity. Some things have gone well, but the deaths and high level of eliminations do need to be examined and dealt with. That is real indicator of whether or not our sport is successful. Human Olympic athletes do not go to the Games expecting that one of their numbers will die, half won't finish, and a good percentage need to be hospitalized.
How we get our athletes to a World event is all our responsibilities: individual rider, national organizations, Team officials and crew, NFs, national organizations, and FEI.
If we truly look at our endurance horses as our companions, injury or death are the last things that we want to happen. At the Team levels, we represent the highest levels of experience, knowledge, and ability.
Of course, bad luck happens, but not to 50 per cent of the horses. A well known line from Oscar Wilde's, The Importance of Being Earnest comes to mind, "To lose one parent is understandable, to lose both looks like carelessness." Our sport is difficult enough that horses will get into trouble in spite of everything that we do right. But when so many are eliminated, we have to ask ourselves if we are doing a good job managing the sport.
So, what needs to be changed? What is our collective vision of Endurance Riding 10 years from now? In good conscience, we can not continue with horse deaths and high levels of eliminations.
If we truly believe that what we, the media, sponsors and the viewing public wish to see fast, great, proven horses and riders, then we all must make an effort to deliver prepared, capable and tested horses to the start line.
Sincerely,
Monika Smith, Chef d'equipe, Team Canada West, PAC 03, Calgary, Alberta Canada
§ Message from Carol Bunting, GBR
I should like to express my thanks to all of the countries who voted for me at the General Assembly in Paris earlier this month.The outcome of the election was Hallvard Sommerseth - 57 votes, Carol Bunting - 52. So you can see it was fairly close.Apparently, at the FEI Bureau Meeting prior to the General Assembly, the Bureau Members agreed to support Hallvard, the incumbent chairman. This amounted to 17 or 18 votes, so I was really up against it. However, in my opinion, the majority of the endurance countries voted for change and I am proud to have received such strong support.
Best wishes,Carol Bunting.
§ Message from Suzanne Dollinger, SUI
In the last newsletter it was published that the FEI Endurance Committee got some very good constructive input from Australia, France, Argentina, South Africa and Switzerland on the rewording of the qualification criteria.
That means that only 5 National Federations (!) answered the letter of the FEI Endurance Committee issued to all National Federations on the 17th March 2004 requesting their input on the immediate re-wording of the Criteria.
This is – in my opinion – a very poor result.
The origin of this unsatisfactory situation could be that your National Federation doesn’t inform you properly or that the responsibly within the NFs concerning this matter is not clearly specified.
From my part I will inform you in future immediately when a letter from the FEI Endurance Committee has been sent to all NFs (with many thanks to the NF of Switzerland). From your part you should try – if necessary – to establish an effective way of communication between you and your NF
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