Endurance has existed in Poland, but this is the first one hosted by Mag's barn. Photos by Tomas Emil.
It is fascinating to me to see - the horses, the people, the attire, the tack, and of course the European manner in which endurance goes down.
I was alarmed at how young the horses are - then again the Polish Studs send around half their young horses to the flat racetrack. Mag was one that escaped that (good, bad, no idea).
I was most surprised to see the lack of my demographic. There were no adult women to be seen riding in this two-day event. 99% of the riders look to be teenaged girls. With no teenaged boys. I counted 4 adults in the rides, all men.
Almost all the horses wore leg protection, and dressage saddles. The horses required intense handling at the vet checks - many handlers stood directly in front of the horses and had one hand on either side of their bridles, holding on with all their strength.
Not a single saddle bag, but that's normal for out-of-US.
Interesting huh? Does anyone know if endurance.net still covers global endurance rides? Merri's work?
6 comments:
I watch the endurance riding hashtag on Instagram and it's always interesting to see how endurance is done overseas. The difference in tack in these photos is quite stark! It's interesting to me that there were no adult women at this event when that's the demographic that dominates here in the states! Thanks for sharing. Very cool!
Dom, I saw a girl with your name in the event and it caught my eye. I am glad you noticed the same things I saw. Does Merri Meldi still do international endurance coverage?
An important question I have - do these young riders know these young horses from Michalow? Are they meeting these horses on that weekend? If I could speak Polish I could ask the people who were there.
No adult women at all. WTH. I remember riding in the dust of a senior citizen who'd done thousands of miles, and who said to me, "Slow down a bit from this trot, or we'll never finish this 75" (She was right, I did not.)
So, Michalow hosts the event--are all the horses participating from the state stud? (I only see Arabians in the photos, was wondering if there were other breeds at all, or if it's only Arabs?)
Interesting that, although the horses all look like arabs, they don't seem to be "cookie cutters" of the same body type. I kinda like the big grey #17. But the dark grey #42 looks like a baby!!!
I have a friend who reads Polish, she might be able to help you? I'll ping her on FB to see if she's available to take a look. I'll also ping Merri and send her this link!
Aarene, I wish I knew if these were all Michalow horses! I can't make out any brands and only one had a Michalow halter on.
In the first link below you can see they hired an ambulance for the event, which is very typical of Europe. I heard when Buck Brannaman visited Germany, they also had to hire an ambulance.
Here are some facebook links to all the images (there are like 2 non Arabs - but Michalow doesn't just breed Arabs, so *shrug*):
https://tinyurl.com/sqofwvq
https://tinyurl.com/wxart5f
https://tinyurl.com/v78hh6w
Ooooh, thanks for the links! I do see a spotty horse, and a few non-typy arabs. Of course, I always want to see the big clonky heads and the legs like telephone poles. :-)
I'll send the link to my polish-speaking friend.
I'm gonna guess that these horses are privately owned, if only because the tack is so varied. Yes, mostly english/dressage saddles, but a wide variety of seat styles (fleece seat savers of all shapes and sizes) and headgear. Lots of biothane halter/bridles, but also leather, figure-8 nosebands (what?!?! that's crazy), and some very simple western-style biothane headstalls. And the rider's outfits are not very uniform. Even one person in jeans. To me, that says they don't all ride/train together, since there's often variations on a theme within a close group, but not huge differences.
Very few breastcollars. No hills?
My polish-speaking friend says there were two classes at this event: the "touring class" needed only a horse passport, no license. The "pro class" needed license information for both horse and rider. Interesting. I wonder what distance they went!
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