PRESS
RELEASE Issue Date: 6 November 2007
Endurance GB South West, headed by Nicky
Sherry, British Endurance Senior Team member
take ‘centre
stage’ at the South West Equine Fair on
Saturday 24 November.
Endurance
GB South West will entertain crowds at the Devon & Cornwall
Equine Christmas Fair in the main arena at Westpoint
on Saturday
24 November.
Nicky Sherry, local Cornish endurance celebrity
and part of the British Team who came 5th in the
2007 European Endurance Championships in Portugal
heads the group.
Endurance riding is the fastest growing equine
sport in the world. Endurance GB South West will
show just how much fun and how easily accessible
this sport is for any horse and rider combination.
In endurance, competitors ride anything from 20
miles to 100 miles in a day. Although Arab horses
proliferate, any breed can enjoy the discipline.
This is what the SW Group aims to show
The
demonstration begins with a simulated 100 mile ‘race’ start with Nicky Sherry
on her Arab, Shimmering Blue Jasmine and Nikki
Routledge riding Irish Draft mare, Wickham’s
Just Distinct.
Whilst
these ‘race riders’ go ‘out
on course’, South West Veterinary Surgeon
and FEI Veterinary judge, Kieran O’Brien,
will explain the checks that endurance horses undergo
during competition. Keiran has just published a
book on Horse Health and his tips are well worth
listening to. The welfare of the horse is paramount
in this sport. Crowds will be amazed to see the
breakneck speed with which riders prepare their
horses for the veterinary inspection: it really
is something akin to the pitstop in Formula One
racing! Few of us can dismount, untack, wash the
horse and present to the vet with a horse with
a low heart rate in under two minutes! But it can
be done!
Not many riders can envisage riding 100 miles
and so two more riders will show how the shorter
distance competitions can be enjoyed.
12
year old Abby Chisholm on her ‘hairy’ pony,
Holly and Vicky Mosey on Betty, her 15.1hh coloured
cob will demonstrate how they compete in the CRs
(or Competitive Rides). In CRs, instead of aiming
to win a race, the rider can gain a grading. This
grading is dependent on the average speed and final
heart rate of the horse.
 |
 |
|
Abby Chisholm |
Vicky Mosey |
Do
come and see Endurance GB South West at the South
West Christmas Equine Fair.
You can’t
lose and you might even decide to give endurance
a try!
For more information see www.endurancegbsouthwest.com
END
Contact: Annie Joppe , Chairman EGB South West:
Tel: 01872-540699
Karen Jones 07818 411 383 (karencjones@btinternet.com)
Editor’s Note:
Nicky Sherry competed as part of the British Endurance
Team at the 2007 European Endurance Championships.
She came 34th as individual. She lives and trains
her horses on Bodmin Moor.
Nicky Sherry riding in the 2007 European Endurance
Championships
Nicky
Routledge is a McTimoney Animal Therapist and
competes two Arab mares
in endurance but also
competes Wickham’s Just Distinct for owner,
Dr Angela Osborne. The pair gained a Bronze Award
at the prestigious 2007 Golden Horseshoe Ride (100
miles over two days).
Nicky Routledge & Dr Angela Osborne
Vicky Mosey has been riding for 25 years and her
first taste of endurance was crewing for her friend,
Katherine Letherby. After doing this for some time,
she decided to give it a go her self and took her
very sensible coloured cob, Betty, and found she
loved it! In her first season she was runner up
for the best five results of the season for South
West branch Trophy and the following year was runner
up for the Devon Shield. The pair specialise in
2- and 30 mile rides.
Abby
Chisholm is the youngest member of the group
at 12 years old. Her pony, Holly
is 14 years old
and is now riding at Open level. She comes from
a serious ‘endurance family’. Mum,
Jo Chisholm, has represented Great Britain as part
of the British Intermediate Team and her older
sister Tessa, has just started entering endurance
race rides. Both girls have been helping their
father, Andrew, to crew Mum for many years. It
is a testament to the fun of the sport that Andrew
himself has begun riding in endurance this year!
Kieran O Brien, from Eqwest Veterinary Equine
Clinic in Tavistock, has been involved in endurance
for many years and has written a book on horse
health:
Essential Horse Health: The most common equine
health problems solved
Author: Kieran O’Brien, MRCVS
ISBN -13: 978-0-7153-2542-1
ISBN -10: 0-7153-2542-6
David & Charles £19.99
6/11/07
