The WEC Adventure - 2005
The Argentina Idaho Connection - Making Plans

I don't think I've ever had such fun at a ride - as a rider, a groom, a spectator, a reporter, whatever- nothing can compare to this day. There was some Arabian full moon magic happening with this little group I think.

The sound, image, feeling of tearing across the desert with Arabic music blaring out the windows, Sheikha Madiya at the wheel, Grace Ramsey riding shotgun, Claudia Quentin and I in the back seat, Mercedes Tapia and RAS Kasal galloping along beside us - this memory will be with me forever. Singing to the music (country western too), yahoos! and yallahs!, Mercedes dancing to the music with her hands, Kasal listening with one ear, watching and waiting for us, galloping in cadence to the drums - this was magic. Wild wild women and one incredible horse.

Part of this story began in Idaho - the wild Owyhee country - for the CEI*** Abu Dhabi Arabian Nights ride. Emirates International Endurance Village Committee (EIEV) (Abu Dhabi, patronage of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan ) offered sponsorship for this ride and we accepted with gratitude and excitement. Now we could do it big - do it right, and extend invitations to our International friends. Mercedes Tapia and Miguel Pavlovsky came from Argentina, Leonard Leisens came from Belgium, plus riders from several other countries.

And the real exotic International rider was Sheikha Madiya. This most amazing young woman has the spirit. She is truly one in a million. She has been training with Grace Ramsey and Jan Worthington for the past two years. They started her on a program - diet, excersize, riding lessons, everything at her request, to teach her how to be an Endurance rider. She is the first UAE woman to tackle the sport. This takes guts.

In Idaho, Madiya finished the Arabian Nights ride, her first 100 mile ride. At this ride friendships were made, between nations. There is such a common thread between Endurance riders, of any Nationality, any genre, an instant bonding - our lives evolve around these incredible horses, anybody who has done an Endurance ride, especially a 100 mile ride understands. We are now 'one of them'.

Next chapter Argentina. Many of the riders at the Abu Dhabi Arabian Nights ride had their sights set on the ultimate goal of riding in the World Endurance Championship to be held 5 months later in Dubai, UAE. Leonard, Mercedes, Miguel and I had all nominated to represent our Federations at the WEC. Miguel and I were selected to the Reserve squads of our countries, Leonard and Mercedes were selected as first string riders. I knew Mercedes had a wonderful horse, and thought I could help her with the whole process - having experience with both racing and crewing in UAE events - and offered to go along as her crew.

The horse that Mercedes is riding, RAS Kasal is owned by Claudia Quentin - who owns and operates an estancia in the Argentina pampas. Claudia raises crops and breeds Hereford cattle and Arabian horses. She has been breeding horses for many years, and has once again become involved in Endurance. Almost 30 years ago, Claudia and Miguel - through the Argentine Arabian Horse Club organized the first Endurance event in Argentina which took place on Claudia's estancia - Las Cortaderas ('The Pampas Grass')- with trails along the ocean and through the farm land. This was about the same time Endurance (AERC) started in the US, but it never really became an organized Federation sport in Argentina. - Until the 1998 WEC in UAE , in which Dubai invited the world to attend, and Argentina dove back into Endurance through FEI.

So Mercedes said yes, she'd love my help and off we go. John and I flew to Argentina January 3. The plan was that John would stay in Argentina and help as he could with WEC coverage for Endurance Net, and I would go to Dubai with Argentina to crew and also do as much Endurance Net reporting as possible. Eduardo and Mercedes recently purchased a small ranch in Buenos Aires province, a couple hours from Buenos Aires - a small quaint ranch which had been homesteaded by an Italian family, and remained in their family for generations - until Mercedes and Eduardo found it. The ranch had no electricity or plumbing, but now it has both, plus Eduardo set up a wireless Internet communications system with the nearby city of Saladillo. When we arrived, John did his magic and turned the little ranch 'El Reparo' into a wireless Internet hot spot. Imagine sitting outside the century old adobe farm house, under the old grape arbor porch, huge old trees all around, the gentle pampas wind, and having high speed interenet connection to the rest of the world. Yep.

Plans were made for people and horses to transport to Dubai, and through a little luck (and clerical error) I was able to fly with the first group on January 7, and had three weeks to get settled in and set up for the WEC. It takes so much time, and seemingly endless difficulties to get things done in the UAE - it's different from our Western world, and one simply has to learn the ropes, find the right people, and the right way, to find your way around, purchase phones and UAE chips for local service, Internet, rental cars, etc etc. I'm glad that we had so much time in advance. It seems that every day was filled with details of planning and procurement - and days at the barn, training rides, organizing, discussions, stuff?.

Mercedes and Eduardo and I spent a little time with the Abu Dhabi EIEV committee group - Ted Lewis and HE Mohamed al Saed (committee chairman). Ted and Mohamed organized the US ride sponsorship last year (Tevis and Arabian Nights) and met the Argentina group, Madiya, all the rest in Idaho when they came for the ride. They are also organizers for the President's Cup event (February 17) and asked that John and I (Endurance Net) stay and report for it. We were able to arrange to have John come early, which meant that he could be here for the WEC coverage. So once again we're all together, on different soil. A different continent - on the other side of the earth.