Media covering World Cup Endurance 2001 and GCC Endurance in Bahrein 2003

Media covering World Cup Endurance
21-3-2001
From Gulf News: 

Taher a truly respected endurance rider

While riders from the UAE will no doubt be starting as favourites in tomorrow's World Cup Endurance, Saudi Arabia's Tarek Taher is the one Arab from outside the UAE who is a respected competitor.

Tomorrow's World Cup Endurance, Saudi Arabia's Tarek Taher is the one Arab from outside the UAE who is a respected competitor.

One of the most competitive riders on the international circuit, Taher, is a very popular rider in Europe, particularly in Spain and France.

"Thursday's ride is really going to be very competitive as the event has drawn a strong field. A few new horses who are reported to be very promising will be appearing here and competition is bound to be very tough," said Taher, speaking to Gulf News on the ride route yesterday.

Driving with his crew, Taher was having a good look at the various stages of tomorrow's 130-km event in which he brings his trusted horse Namouk Du Dacour. Namouk Du Dacour, a 17-year-old Chestnut gelding, won the Qatar World Cup with Taher in 1997 apart from quite a few other rides.

"I have been here since a few days and my horse has looked promising. We hope to do well," added the Saudi ace.

Taher, who won the silver medal at the European Open Championship when UAE took the team gold, feels apart from the UAE, Australia and the U.S. riders will be tough to beat.

"I have heard that General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Minister of Defence, has a good prospect while the Americans have also come here with good horses. The Australian horses as always are very good and so a good championship is on the cards," said Taher, who himself will be starting off as one of the favourites.

Taher, who has won rides at home and in Spain, France apart from the Qatar triumph has had a long break since the world championship in Compiegne last August.

Another rider from the Arab world who will be looking to make a mark is Jordan's Abid Fateh. On the rounds yesterday with his horse Alan, Abid is currently Jordan's top-ranked rider. "I have completed four 160-kilometre rides and Alan is a very good horse," said Abid, who has also taken part in rides in France and Egypt.

Abid, who finished 35th in the last world championship in France in August 2000, says the familiar conditions will be of help to his chances here on Thursday. "I have been through this terrain here before and past experience will help me and I hope to do well," added Abid.

Media covering  GCC Endurance Race  in Bahrein 2003 in Arab News

JEDDAH, 3 February 2003 — Saudi equestrian Tarek Abdulhadi Taher, who came second in the 1st GCC Endurance Horse Ride Championship held in Bahrain on Thursday, was given a warm welcome as he returned in his private jet at the ARABASCO Terminal here yesterday. “I’m thrilled and excited by the championship results because the competition was fierce. I got second place in individual championship and our team won bronze (third) in the overall championship,” Taher told waiting media representatives as he emerged from the plane holding his trophy.
His team comprised four riders, including Hadi Al-Dosari. There were 50 participants in the 120-km championship race. He emerged from the plane holding the cup he won and told waiting media representatives that Java, his horse, had been with him for the past five years.
“Java helped me to get the first place in the New Market championship in the UK in 1999,” he added.
Apart from Java, his team had four generations of endurance horses in classes A, B and C, which were being maintained and trained both in Spain and the Kingdom, he added. “Java won us several trophies including the Qatar World Cup 1997 and the coveted King Abdul Aziz Endurance Cup held as part of the Kingdom’s centenary celebrations, and won first place in two competitions held in Jeddah and one in Madinah.
Ignasi Casas, veterinary surgeon, equine sports medicine of Catalonia, Spain, praised Java as an exceptional horse that had been taking part in championships for the last 10 years.
The individual champion of the Bahrain event was Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, Tarek said. Third and fourth places were taken by Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ghunaim and Sheikh Nasser Al-Khalifa, son of the king of Bahrain.
Tarek thanked the Bahrain royal family for hosting the event and offering excellent facilities.
He was looking forward to taking part in various upcoming championships including the World Cup in Debol, Spain, on March 26, Tarek said. “A lot of hard work is going into preparations for the upcoming events, but I enjoy every bit of it and am confident of performing well.”
It was only a few years ago that the equestrian became the first non-European to qualify for the World Cup for endurance. Riding his horse Lizazat, he emerged sixth in the overall ranking at the 1997 European Endurance Championship held at Pratoni del Vivaro, Rome.
Tarek, president and chief executive officer of the Taher Group of Companies and a leading Jeddah-based dealer in custom-made luxury cars, is captain of Almughirat team comprising horses and riders competing in international and local endurance races as well as in local show jumping championships.
The team’s main objective was to participate in endurance races, Tarek said, but its tasks also include training horses for endurance races in accordance with their grades — preliminary, medium and international — depending on their age and experience, and maintaining the breeds of Arabian horses of noble origin.
Tarek’s track record as a rider between 1996 and 1999 was exceptional. He ranked first in the World Cup (Qatar) in 1997 and in the July Championship in France in 1998, both on horse Jalmoud; the King Abdul Aziz Cup (130 km) on Saqr Al Madinah; the New Market Championship (140 km) on Java; and Monte Cup Championship (France) on Jalmoud in 1999. “I broke three records within one year in 1999,” Tarek boasts. He ranked second in the Araw Championship (200 km x 2 days) in Switzerland on Ami in 1996, the Spanish Championship (160 km) on Saqr Al Madinah in 1998, and the European Championship (160 km) on Java in 1999.
He emerged third in Wadi Ram Championship in Jordan on Saqr Al Madinah in 1998 and sixth in the European Championship (160 km) on Lizazat in 1997. While ranking 12th and 14th in a few of the championships he took part during 2000 and 2001, he ranked first with a gold medal and best horse prize in the Todelo Championship (130 km) in Spain on Saqr Taibah and the top prize — a car — in the Jeddah Race (75 km) on Saqr Al Madinah.
“My enjoyment of endurance riding comes from my love for Arabian horses. I feel a close bond with them - their character, their stamina, their wildness and their beauty,” Tarek said.
The King Abdul Aziz Endurance Cup held as part of the Kingdom’s centenary celebrations was the most rewarding of these competitions, Tarek said. “Each championship in which I’ve taken part has been an absolutely wonderful experience. First and foremost I’m a rider. I love to ride and compete. I’m thrilled to be racing against the best. To win is the ultimate honor and achievement for me.”

arabian women participating in endurance sport, Al Asayl endurance

It is wonderful to watch this Youtube clip, and see arabian women participate in endurance racing too, a sign of progress, and some good news about the position of arabian women in the Middle-East, and contradicting all the negative news about women in arab countries.

Other big names and great horses in endurance riding

Other big names in endurance riding also pop up of course. It is a tribute to the endurance sport and endurance horses to show some of their results.

Virginie Atger from France.

Sabrina Arnold from Germany

World champion in Qatar 1997

The finish is definitely the most astonishing and lovely finish I ever watched, when Tarek and the German  Adam Sadler, passed the finish together hand in hand, because Tarek while passing him, compassionately decided to give him the honour of finishing together, and make him in a way a mutual winner. That was a sportive moment, in spite of competion and competing in the end let compassion and friendlyness prevail.

Horses that participated in the races with Tarek Taher





Lizazat

Lizazat

Alredo

Alredina

 

Ainhoa Solmiris

Qualy de Lisa

Media covering New Market race, UK, july 1999

Article in "The Independent", 5th of July 1999
Racing: Marathon to quicken the pulse Over an 87 mile course yesterday an endurance test reached enthralling climax. The scenarario was perhaps, unremarkable, Sheikh Mohammed and his entourage watching one horse beating another by a couple of lengths at Newmarket. The difference was that the famous straight was the final effort in a contest rather longer than usually witnessed at racing's headquarters. The Rowley Mile was the last of 87.

At a minute to three yesterday afternoon the 41-year-old Saudi Arabian businessman Tarek Taher and his brown eight-year-old Java passed the post just ahead of Irishwoman Jane Stanley on her chestnut Sharikh. They and 46 others had set out at 6am to tackle a course that took them looping round the training gallops and out towards the neighbouring town of Bury St Edmunds along Suffolk's lanes and bridleways. The race, run under the direction of the British Endurance Riding Association and sponsored by local equine auctioneering firm Tattersalls, was the highest-powered international event of its type held in Britain. Taher is world champion and over a flat, fast course he and his hard, lean gelding kept up an average speed of 15 miles an hour. Endurance riding is a fast-growing sport with an appeal that is easy to fathom. It is not spectator-friendly like conventional racing but its format makes for considerable excitement. At regular intervals the horses must undergo stringent veterinary checks - a human marathon runner can make the decision not to go through the wall, but the equine equivalents must have it taken for them - and the tension at these pit stops is palpable as the back-up crews wait for their rider.But first in does not always mean quickest. At a compulsory short break the clock stops ticking only when the horse's pulse rate has reached a level low enough to satisfy the vets and a canny judgement of pace can turn around minutes lost on the course. Taher's expertise was such that with a top limit of 60 beats per minute, Java's rate had reduced to a laid-back 48 almost as soon as he pulled up for the final time. But at the 75-mile mark it seemed as though Mohammed might be celebrating a compensatory win after Xaar's near miss at Sandown. The Sheikh, among the entries for the race, had elected instead to join the pit crew of his 17-year-old son Rashid, chasing him enthusiastically round the countryside in a Godolphin blue landcruiser. Rashid, ninth after the first leg, picked off his rivals one by one and, legged up and cheered away by his father, cantered away from the final vet gate on the little grey mare Djamila 10 minutes clear of the field. All he had to do was not get lost to win but, as the Sheikh's binoculars scanned down the Rowley Mile in vain, it became clear that is just what he did. Just like real racing there was a stewards' enquiry, and Stanley was demoted a place in favour of another Emirates rider, Saeed bin Huzaim, on one of Hamdan's horses, Ceylih, for taking a small short cut. The top- placed British rider was Jenny Jackson, 10th on her Connemara pony Burning Best, 37 minutes after the winner. Poor direction markers might have been to blame for Mohammed's disappointment, but where horses are concerned, it is an emotion he understands. And any father of an air-headed teenager would know his clenched fingers, eyes- to-heaven gesture of frustration as victory was snatched away.

Media covering Raid du Luxembourg 25th of june 2011

Arrival finish Raid du Luxembourg 2011




Thursday, June 30, 2011

Belgium: Le Raid du Luxembourg a Great Success

Endurance-belgium.com

Everything perfect for this 'old fashion' endurance ride on the weekend of 25th June.
Old fashion because it was looking like the event organized 10 to 15 years ago, that not being negative, on the contrary. A very nice and cheerful ambiance, smiling ride managers; and the most important, the trail was exceptional, a perfect footing where one could hardly encounter rocks. But the course was technical with many ups and downs and turns; in between many opportunities to canter on a perfect going. So congratulations to the organizers, Valy and Daniel Schmartz.
On the 120km, Tarek Taher from Saudi Arabia made his comeback, riding a young horses trained by JF Frances. Second place for the trainer, Frances and third place for the French rider Nicole Doignon. The day after, the same Frances/Arnold Stables won also the trophy, but this time with Sabrina Arnold onboard.
résultats   here
October 2011, France, "le Raid de Tartas", First place with Patcha de la Marjorie.Media covering in the French newspaper "SudOest"On parlait toutes les langues à Ous Pins ce week-end car le centre équestre accueillait les épreuves du grand concours international d'endurance. On venait d'Algérie, Arabie Saoudite, Finlande, Espagne, Allemagne ou du Sultanat d'Oman. C'est Tarek Abdullhadi Taher qui remportait, sur Patcha de la Marjorie, l'épreuve du CEI** devant Melody Theolissat sur Padichach du Paon, arrivée deuxième tandis que Fanny Roux se classait troisième sur Nafaa La Lizonne. Endurance. Des parcours de 90 km, d'autres de 132 km... une épreuve pour les cavaliers mais plus encore pour les chevaux qu'il faut régulièrement hydrater en les faisant boire et en les arrosant. Entre chaque boucle - le parcours en comptait cinq - il faut arrêter le cheval pendant 40 mn pour lui assurer une bonne récupération et le présenter chaque fois au contrôle vétérinaire. D'où la présence de six docteurs sur le site… espagnols, belges et français qui vérifient les muqueuses, le métabolisme, le rythme cardiaque et les éventuelles traces de boiterie. L'endurance, c'est aussi beaucoup d'eau pour les cavaliers mais surtout pour les chevaux : pour ces deux journées, les équipes d'Ous Pins ont transporté et distribué dix citernes de 4 500 litres chacune. Pour les deux autres épreuves, réservées aux jeunes cavaliers, Virginie Atger remportait le CEI* sur Alberto Aubanel devant l'Espagnole Maddalen Casteron Aguirre sur Foque de Quijas classée deuxième, Danielle Ghyoros prenant la troisième place sur Nedjain d'Ys. Enfin pour la grande épreuve du CEIYJ** 132 km, Lisa Riou remportait la première place sur Favela. Déjà, aux championnats d'Europe, cette jeune Bretonne avait remporté la médaille d'or par équipe en 2008 et 2010 et se classait deuxième en individuel en 2010. Nicolas Del Prato prend la deuxième place sur Driss devant Romain Persicot sur Haissa. Direction Abou Dhabi Cette dernière épreuve servait de sélection pour le prochain championnat du monde d'Abou Dhabi qui se tiendra le 10 décembre prochain, ainsi que pour la Maktoum Cup de Dubaï qui aura lieu en janvier. D'ailleurs, la sélectionneuse de l'équipe de France, Bénédicte Emond-Bon, était sur place avec Mari Galliou-Goachet, la vétérinaire équestre nationale pour les jeunes cavaliers ainsi qu'Alain Soucosse, le directeur technique national adjoint de la Fédération. Huit jeunes cavaliers étaient choisis pour le championnat du monde. Annie Quillon