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Breeding Arabian horses for temperament and athleticism
Australia: A remarkable life
NoosaToday.com.au - Full Article
05/07/2025
Erle Levey
The word legend can often be easily bandied about, but in Bob Sample’s case it reflects what he has done in life – particularly in endurance horse-riding circles.
Yet there is so much more to Bob and his legacy.
It reminds you that through the years you can regularly deal with people, but it is only when you set aside time to really talk with them, and listen, that you discover the full depth of their life.
Even now, in his 80s, Bob has been surprised at how little he knows about the early lives of mates … friendships built up over years in various sporting arenas and careers.
From jackaroo to board chairman, from working with dairy cattle to horses, he has led a full life.
Sitting on the deck at Stirling’s Crossing Endurance Centre at Imbil, Bob and I were watching the riders come in from an event.
There was that far-away look in his eyes as he recalled past rides...
Read more here:
https://noosatoday.com.au/news/05-07-2025/a-remarkable-life/
More than 250 million public land acres in the West proposed for sale
Some proposed land sales abut the Tevis, Pacific Crest, Twenty Mule Team, Virginia City 100 trails, other Endurance ride trails
***UPDATE***
The lands sale was removed from the senate bill and dropped. For now. But remain vigilant, because this is not going away!
June 20 2025
The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Utah Senator Mike Lee, has proposed selling off more than 250 million acres of public lands across the West.
Millions of acres of forest service and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, are eligible under the Lee-Daines amendment to the “Big Beautiful Bill”.
The proposed land sales were scrubbed from the House version of the bill, but once it went to the Senate, this much more drastic version was slipped into the budget proposal late on the night of June 11.
Lee has said, “We’re opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development and get Washington, D.C., out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow,” though the “housing” accessibility and affordability will likely be limited. The administration has also hinted at greatly increasing mineral production.
Once the land is sold to private interests, accessibility to potentially millions of acres by the public will be eliminated, affecting recreation, hiking, hunting, fishing, OHV, riding, camping, ranching, grazing, and more.
As to where or to whom the money from the public land sales will go, that has not been fully addressed.
Follow this link to the map of Public lands eligible for sale in the Senate Reconciliation Bill
https://wilderness.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=821970f0212d46d7aa854718aac42310
US Equestrian Announces U.S. Endurance Team and Young Riders for the 2025 FEI Endurance Pan American Championships
USEF.org
by US Equestrian Communications Dept. | Jun 12, 2025, 8:35 AM
Lexington, Ky. - US Equestrian is pleased to announce the athletes and horse combinations selected to compete on the U.S. Endurance Team and individually at the 2025 FEI Pan American Endurance Championships. Both Pan Am Championships will take place July 18, 2025, at Haras Albar, in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
The following athletes and horse combinations have been selected to compete on the Senior U.S. Endurance Team are listed in alphabetical order:
• Heather Davis (The Plains, Va.) and HM Kaiser Tesla, a 2016 Anglo-Arabian gelding owned by Haras Paso Manzanero
• Alternate: Ring of Fire CA, her own 2010 Arabian gelding
• Thomas Rajala (Hillsborough, N.C.) and Valente Heb, a 2009 Arabian gelding owned by Fernando De Mello Mattos Haaland
• Meg Sleeper (Frenchtown, N.J.) and RG Kares, a 2015 Arabian mare owned by Marcelo Ulsenheimer
• Cheryl van Deusen (New Smyrna Beach, Fla.) and Alcazar Richarson, a 2013 Anglo-Arabian gelding owned by Yvette Vinton
• Alternate: Madjule, a 2015 Arabian mare owned by Jose Ortega
• Nicole Wertz (Auburn, Calif.) and Little Sammy SV, her own 2015 Arabian gelding
The following athletes and horse combinations have been selected to compete as individuals in the FEI Endurance Pan American Young Riders & Juniors Championship and are listed in alphabetical order:
• Avery Betz-Conway (Kingsland, Ga.) and Zendaya Rach, a 2017 Arabian mare owned by Rach Stud Agropecuaria LTDA
• Uma Kraskin (Deland, Fla.) and Maggies Nchanted Pipi, a 2011 Arabian mare owned Evelyn Baig
Competition Information:
The 2025 FEI Endurance Pan American Championships at Haras Albar begins with the opening ceremony taking place at 4:30 pm/GMT-3 on July 16. Competition for both Senior and Young Riders will begin with pre-ride horse inspections at 10:00 am/GMT-3 on July 17 and conclude with Prize Giving and Closing Ceremony at 8:00 pm/GMT-3 on July 18.
More at:
https://www.usef.org/media/press-releases/us-equestrian-announces-us-endurance-team-and
City of Rocks: Year 9 on the way to Decade Team - Merri Melde
The Equestrian Vagabond Blog - Full Story
June 10 2025
by Merri Melde
Planning a ride season nowadays is pretty much a crap shoot, with work and other commitments and the West now always prone to exploding in fire and changing your plans for you.
My main Endurance goals for Hillbillie Willie and me are to have fun and maybe, just maybe achieve Decade Team, which is equine and rider teams who completed at least one 50-mile+ endurance ride each year for 10 years. This is year nine for Team Hillbillie Willie and Me.
We rode and finished a 25-miler at Eagle Canyon in April, but that is one hard hilly ride, and Willie is not a hill horse, so I wasn’t about to attempt a 50 there for his first ride of the season. It was a good hard training ride for him.
So along came the 3-day City of Rocks in Almo, Idaho, a ride we have put on, or helped put on, the last 15 years. This year I’d shoot days 1 and 2, and Cat would shoot day 3 so Willie and I could attempt a 50.
Heat, heat, heat, was in the forecast, though Day 3 was the kindest of them all. A small chance of thunderstorms were in the forecast, which I either prayed wouldn’t happen or just pretended they weren’t going to happen. City of Rocks can have some doozy storms on those hot summer days (oh, wait, it’s not even summer yet.) and boy am I scared of lightning.
I was hoping we’d find someone to ride with. While Willie can go alone or in company, and he appears to enjoy the 25 milers solo, I didn’t think he’d much like blazing 50 miles of the hot trails alone. We ended up starting out with Danielle and Huey, and companionably rode with them the entire day. Willie pretty much instantly makes best friends anybody he rides with and he of course thought Huey the Quarter horse was the Bomb...
Read more here:
https://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2025/06/city-of-rocks-year-9-on-way-to-decade.html
Australia: Keeping it (the Quilty) in the family
NoosaTodeay.com.au - Full Article
25/05/2025 by Erle Levey
It was a gallop finish for the coveted Tom Quilty 2025 Gold Cup with Queensland’s Sample family repeating history.
Imbil’s Matthew Sample and brother Brook, from Kenilworth, were equal winners of the 160km endurance ride in 2009 at Tonimbuk, near Pakenham in Victoria.
Now Nikki Sample, wife of Matthew, and Matty Sample, 21-year-old son of Brook, have tied in 2025 for what is regarded as Australia’s premier horse riding endurance event.
They crossed the line at Sassafras, in northern Tasmania, with raised arms. They were just a couple of minutes ahead of the fast-finishing Ben Hudson – a two-times winner of the Tom Quilty...
Read more here:
https://noosatoday.com.au/news/25-05-2025/keeping-it-in-the-family/