Endurance Riding Covers New Ground
The versatility of horse sports always amazes me. For anyone who wants to ride, there’s an equestrian discipline to suit your temperament. It’s also interesting that the majority have their roots in history typically using horses work or battle. I’m Susan Allen, OpenRange will be right back. The sports we enjoy on horses today, whatever they may be... roping, jumping, driving, dressage even endurance can be traced to when the horse was the original off road vehicle. And that in essence defines the sport of endurance riding, a race across miles of rugged territory. As an FEI/Olympic sanctioned sport, endurance riding is relatively new but it’s roots trace back to the biblical ages, to King Solomon Arabian horses and the Bedouins in the middle Eastern deserts. Endurance riders today compete on a hundred mile course divided into several sections or phases. There is a mandatory vet check at each phase to monitor the animals condition, vital signs and to clear it to continue. Like a pit stop, the clock keeps running in the vet box, thus a conditioned animal who need little rest time is the most competitive . There’s ground crew that checks the tires, ie “shoes”, sponges the horse, makes any equipment adjustment. Unlike other FEI sports, endurance riders are pretty casual, horses don’t have to be trimmed and there isn’t fancy clothing, rather comfortable and functional attire. Many of the top contenders that will compete at the world equestrian games this September in Kentucky will ride Arabian horses with and come from a wide range of nationalities. So if you enjoy an outback trek horseback Check out the sport of endurance riding.
Endurance riding
