Andrea at Euston Park on Bin Sadaqa in 2019.

Image supplied.

FEI Endurance World Championship: Meet Andrea Laws-King

By Equestrian Life

After a postponement in Europe, the FEI Endurance World Championship 2022 is almost here, with the event now set to take place in Butheeb, UAE, from 20-26 February. Two Australian riders are set to compete: Jodie Salinas riding Baroud Rio and Andrea Laws-King riding Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa.

Here, we catch up with Andrea to find out more about her road to the Championship…

Andrea Laws-King and Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa

Hailing from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Andrea Laws-King lives with a team of five home-bred endurance horses and has one other who resides in France – her World Championship mount, Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa (Chip Chase Sadaqa x Shah Dara), whom she also bred.

Andrea’s affinity with endurance racing began back in 1993, and since then she’s gone on to complete 12,179 successful competition kilometres here in Australia. She’s always had a passion for FEI competition, and competed at the 1996 World Endurance Championship in Kansas and the 1998 Pan American Championship in Oregon.

The endurance bug proved hereditary and when Andrea’s daughter, Sasha Savage (nee Laws-King), was 10 years old, she also began to compete. In those days she was able to enter as a junior alongside her mum, who rode FEI, and together they competed around Australia. It was not long before Sasha was old enough to compete in FEI competitions, and in 2003 – the year she turned 14 – she was the only Australian rider to qualify for the Young Rider World Championship in Rome. Her international career took off from there.

Between study at school and university and then later working as a veterinary surgeon, Sasha’s endurance career continued and she was selected to ride at the 2005 Young Rider World Championship in Bahrain, where she was a member of the gold medal winning team; the 2007 Australian Young Rider Endurance team in Argentina; the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France; and the 2016 World Endurance Championships in Samorin, Slovakia. On one overseas trip, Sasha successfully completed three FEI 3* 160km rides across three continents, in three successive weeks!

Over the years, Andrea took a step back from competitions herself and instead had the great pleasure of training horses and being Sasha’s groom at local and international competitions. Over the years, she’s certainly had plenty of international competition experience from a support capacity! Although Andrea was busy training horses for her daughter, she made a point of maintaining her own FEI qualifications. In 2011, she made the 4300km road trip from Queensland to Western Australia with one of her horses, where she won the FEI 3*160km ride.

International events have always remained a goal, and Andrea had been chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 World Endurance Championships at Euston Park, England – but alas an accident prevented her travelling. In 2016, she made the decision to send Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa to France to be trained, as she felt that he had the potential and breeding to reach World Championship level competition; after all, he shared the same sire as the 2014 World Endurance Champion, Yamamah!

Andrea’s yearning to ride in the beautiful English countryside was fulfilled in 2019 when she made it to Euston Park for the 160km FEI 3* ride with Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa, and this became their qualifying ride for the 2021 World Endurance Championship in Pisa, Italy. Andrea and Bin Sadaqa successfully placed 24th in a personal best time of 9hrs 18 min at the Championship, which was a feat in itself as only 32 per cent of the field completed the course. This completion meant she was qualified for the 2022 World Endurance Championship, which is now scheduled to be held this February in Butheeb.

Andrea and Bin Sadaqa after the World Championships in Pisa, 2021.

Image supplied.

While waiting for the reschedule Championship, Andrea enjoyed success back on home soil when she won the 2022 South Australian Endurance Championship over the 160km course on a half-brother to Bin Sadaqa, who also received the Best Conditioned Horse award.

With the World Endurance Championships now just days away in Butheeb, UAE, Bin Sadaqa is flying in from Europe to compete and Andrea believes she and the horse share a strong bond and he definitely always knows her, despite them living apart. And as for the Championship itself, Andrea says she loves the desert but to date hasn’t competed in the UAE; she anticipates that the course will be very challenging and technical due to the deep sand – but she’s looking forward to seeing how it rides!

Equestrian Life wishes Andrea and Bin Sadaqa the best of luck!

 

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