Endurance Riding
What
is endurance riding?
It
is a race that held in trails of 50 to 150 miles by horses where the terrain
has different challenges and adventures that riders must get over it. The race
might last to three days. Before they start the race, horses should be checked
if they are qualified for the ride by insuring they are in a god health and
checking the safety, and these steps are been done also during and after the
ride. The winner in this ride is the one who maintain a fast past of over 10 miles
an hour. [1]
History
Horses
before 10,000 years ago were a source of food where people was hunting and
keeping horses in order to eat their meat. Also, horses were kept to herd
cattle and sheep. Then, horses become one of the important transportation methods.
Around 5,000 years ago, horses were first ridden [2] and some of them were ridden to hunt other horses. Furthermore, horses
were used for pulling loads and it became more important after the Sintashta
culture from the Ural Mountains invented the wheel. Then it started to pull
large loads such as food, water and supplies, and also to pull chariots which are
2-wheeled carts. Chariots were used to go into battle and it pulled by either
two, three or four horses. [3]
In
1400BC, horse training techniques has been used by a Turkish horse trainer
called "Kikkuli". These techniques include interval training,
trotting and cantering, lengthy periods of walking. In the middle Ages, horses
were famous to be used by armies in wars and battles. They
were used to carry heavy weight. They were required to carry 300 pounds and walk
over 100 miles in one day. As Reuter, Coree said, endurance's history started
in 1995, where there have been long-distance races. It was first developed in
the United States. [6]
An American
breeder of Arabian horses called "Wendell Robie" started the modern
competitive long-distance riding which was a one day ride for 100-mile. In
1995, this man completed the first Tevis Cup ride with his friends. The ride
distance was from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, California by an old Pony Express
route.
Developments
In
1972, they announced officially in the American Endurance Ride Conference
(AERC) to set rules and guidelines about this sport and spread it all over the
world. The endurance riding become an international sport in 1982, and become
the fifth team discipline under the U.S. Equestrian Team in the year of 1993.
Present
Endurance
riding is becoming a popular activity with more than 3.3 million people with different
nationalities are enjoying this sport, and the number in increase. In addition, number of riders, horse owners, riding establishments,
pony, riding clubs, and trails is increasing these days. Many developments are taking place to improve endurance riding, and one
of these developments is designing the appropriate buildings with high
standards of constructions and maintenance of buildings with making sure that
horses are in a comfortable environment and well cared for. [9]
Several
of facilities are essential and should be provided in each building and they
are related to equestrian activities, such as applications for stables, riding
arenas, and storage buildings.
Nowadays,
there are more than 700 rides each year are launch in the AERC. Also, AREC
encouraging the use, protection and development of equestrian trails, especially
the historic trails. There are many historic trails such as Pony Express Trail,
the Chief Joseph Trail, the Outlaw Trail, and the Lewis and Clark Trail, which
are all multi-day rides. [6]
The
equestrian these days has rules and events. These Olympic equestrian events
are: dressage, jumping, and eventing.
In
dressage, two competitors are participated. There are three rounds where each
rider has to show some movements that performed by the horse.
The
jumping held in an arena with around 15 fences. The jumping required the rider
and the horse to be boldness, scope, power, accuracy and control. The rider
should finish the courses without knocking down any fences and finish within a
certain period of time. The eventing lasts for four days, where day one and two
are Dressage, day three is Cross Country, and day four is for Jumping. Dressage
and Jumping are mentioned in the previous paragraph. The Cross Country is where
the riders should finish a course by walking for between 6270m and 7410 m. [5]
Endurance
in UAE
In
UAE Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (god bless his soul) was directed the
endurance rides, and the Equestrian and Racing Federation (EEF) was established
in 1992. In 1993, there were a first desert ride between camels and horses were
they compete in 40-km in Dubai and 15 horses took the first places.
The
EEF support endurance riding by setting up a restricted infrastructure and
rules. Furthermore, in order to support this sport, the country established
three self-sufficient endurance centres and 22 riding clubs. The sport has a
strong support from the Royal families and several of them are participating in
endurance competitions with large number of different nations from UAE and
foreign riders and visit the outside the country.
The
first participation of the UAE riders was in 1996, in World Championship
endurance in Kansas, USA. The UAE hosted the World Championship Endurance in
1998, which has entered Guinness Book of World Records which this championship
attracted a record of 162 competitors out of which 78 finished the 160-km ride. [7]
Sheikh
Mohammed Bin Rashid is one of the endurance riders who learned to ride as a
child. In 1994, Sheikh Mohammed established his own stables
"Godolphin". He trained his horses and races them all over the world.
Furthermore, he established the Dubai World Cup in 1996 in order to encourage
others, which are the richest horse races that attract riders from different
countries. Sheikh Mohammed's sons, Sheikh Rashid and Sheikh Hamdan are also
participating in the endurance races where they topped the world rankings in
1999 and 2000.Furthermore, in 2002, his son Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed has
become the youngest rider in history who won the FEI World Endurance
Championship in Spain, and also Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed start to join senior
races. Some of Sheikh Mohammed's victories where he was the team captain are
the European Championship in Spain/Portugal in 1999, in Italy in 2001, in
Ireland in 2008. In addition, there are other major endurance victories such
as:
- Al Ahram Al Araby Endurance Ride (Egypt, 2000)
- Villacastin Endurance Ride (Spain, 2001)
- Norwegian Open Championship (Norway, 2002)
- Dubai Endurance City Masters Ride (UAE, 2003)
- FEI CEI Endurance Championship Race (England, 2008)
- Second Round of Giants Endurance Challenge Ride (Bahrain, 2010)
- FEI World Equestrian Games Endurance Championship (UAE, 2010).[8]
There
are several of annual important events which are held in UAE. For instance,
FEI/UAE World Cup Endurance, The Al Wathba Endurance Village, the HH the
President's Cup (160 km), and the National Day Cup (120 km). [7]
References
1-
Blocksdorf, K. (n.d.). Have Fun Over the
Long Haul With Long Distance Endurance Riding. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from
http://horses.about.com/od/horsesportsexplained/a
2-
The
History of Riding. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.horseswithamie.com/ridingstyles/ridinghistory
3-
History of Horseback Riding. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.lovehorsebackriding.com/history-of-horseback-riding.html
4-
Equestrian History. (n.d.). Retrieved December
9, 2014, from http://www.equestrianandhorse.com/equestrian
5-
Perca, R. (2011, March 31). The history
of Equestrian sport. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://hauctions.net/2011/03/31/the-history-
6-
Reuter, C. (2010, August 11). World
Equestrian Games: Endurance. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/world-equestrian-games-endurance
7-
Highlights. (n.d.). Retrieved December
9, 2014, from http://eef.ae/index.php?loading=eefendurance&default=1
8-
The Equestrian. (n.d.). Retrieved
December 9, 2014, from http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=eb0d5c1090cc4110VgnVCM100000706
9-
(n.d.).
Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.google.ae/url?q=http://www.hcbc.ca/_customelements/uploadedResources/LTEDParentsGuideOverview.pdf&sa=U&ei=3pWGVPryEIusUYeUgGA&ved=0CBkQFjAH&usg=AFQjCNEZGKQS_M-3tT1C0MNj-wQqvHL7_g
10-
(n.d.).
Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.winchester.gov.uk/planning-policy/supplementary-planning-documents--spds-/equestrian-spg/
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