Endurance and Perseverance

Who's this then? Not a thoroughbred galloper (of course), but an Anglo-Arab endurance horse called Royal Rebellion, who has just one on his first outing in Al Wathba in the Emirates. And why on this blog? Because he was 'made' by our good friends Nicky Freud and Richard Allen, met through other good friends in Montourtier (Philippe Morin and Michel Desnier) who are also keen endurance riding practioners. Nicky and Richard have a property near Gevres (30 minutes away) with exceptionally good raspberries and home made bread among other attractions. I will leave you to follow the wikipedia link to find out more about endurance riding and give you the beginning and end of the item on endurance.net in which they tell of the path to the top of 'Mr McHenry' and 'blow a trumpet for all those who have a horse not 'bred in the bone' for endurance but have persevered with a horse who they believed in'
Then: "four years ago we bought a four year old Anglo Arab unseen (apart from some photos) from an internet horse- selling site for 1500 pounds delivered. His registered name is Royal Rebellion but we were going through a Magic Roundabout phase at the time and called him Mr McHenry.
Now: "Fast forward to his first ride for the new owners, a 3* with 92 other horses. At 8, he was one of the youngest, and being ridden by the trainer's brother. We were following the ride from freezing France on the website and cheering to the cats as ... the nervous horse from Wales without a drop of endurance blood in his veinscrossed the line over 2 minutes ahead of anyone else and pulsed at 58."
As a result of this success Nicky says he would cost £250k to buy back today. But the only money in developing, training and racing endurance is through making horses successful and therefore attractive the sheiks.. so congratulations on 4 years of hard work and perseverance and here's to the next Mr McHenry among the residents at Les Mulocheres.