One way of looking at things

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

Jasper came to our ride and worked with one of the local stables. It's 10 pm on Friday right now and I'm having a beer and catching up on my email. While this is a fairly reasonable write up, it doesn't begin to cover the joys of 48 hours without sleep, a bomb squad trying to oust the Jordanian team from its stables at 3 am, and the sheer joy of trying to keep track of a dozen organiser cars (about 25 crew cars too), 60 volunteers working as route stewards (nope, they don't serve soft drinks), paid help for water stops and water for abovementioned stops, some senior DISorganisers with a Las Vegas mentality, the morals of your average hitman and an eye on pocketing the purse money, AND all those very pampered sheikhs.

 

Oh my. If I start now, I'll never catch up on my sleep. But must say that our vets were great. Dwight is a hoot. And just as they were packing up to go a mare went nuts in a longeing ring at the club, impaling herself on a pole. Lucky girl! She had about 8 vets and 14 assistants (senior students) at her side inside 4 minutes doing a brilliant job of sewing her up. She'll be ok and they didn't charge the owner a penny. Now that's what I call service. Wish we had them here all the time, besides they were all really good fun. Had our usual Dr. Bobby from the UAE Federation....says he's coming back in June with his wife for a holiday and we've promised them a REAL ride, not just all this pyramid nonsense (Bobby says he's seen enough pyramids, thank you, but we have to have a couple for his wife), Tony Pavord and Marcy, Dwight, a really great vet from Iraq, an a bunch more. Wonderful guys and so good with our students.

 

More at 11.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Cairo, Egypt

gabbani@starnet.com.eg

 

 

 

 

 

Friday May 19 2:36 PM ET

Dubai Horse Wins Egypt Race

By JASPER MORTIMER, Associated Press Writer

SAKKARA, Egypt (AP) - The crown prince of Dubai and his Arabian horse Falah crossed 62 miles of broiling, pale yellow desert Friday in five hours and 34 minutes to win Egypt's first endurance horse race.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also defense minister of the United Arab Emirates, cantered home less than a length ahead of his elder son, Sheik Rashid, and slightly farther ahead of another son, Sheik Hamdan.

Between the 94 degree heat and the distance, only 18 of the 75 horses that began the one-day race near the pyramids of Sakkara, an ancient royal cemetery about 20 miles south of Cairo, finished the course.

Veterinarians later disqualified Sheik Rashid after finding that his horse had gone lame after the race. Second place was awarded to Sheik Hamdan, while third went to Abdullah Bilhab, a Dubai businessman who rides for the crown prince's stables.

Wearing a blue T-shirt and a helmet in the red, white, green and black colors of the United Arab Emirates flag, the crown prince had trotted and cantered up and down the desert dunes on his brown horse at an average speed of 11 mph.

Official timekeeper Thomas Cathomen said it was ``a good speed,'' considering the high temperatures.

After dismounting, the crown prince and his sons turned east, knelt on sheets to offer Islamic prayers and then went into their white tent to eat lunch.

Sitting on cushions in a tent, the prince credited his family's victory to the superior experience of their horses and riders.

Comparing the Sakkara desert to that in the Emirates, he said: ``The Egyptian sand is deep and there are stones, so you have to watch where you going.''

Veterinarians eliminated 49 horses in the mandatory inspections between the four stages, mainly due to lameness and dehydration. Another eight horses were withdrawn by their owners.

``It's very hard for the horses and very hard for the riders because of the heat,'' said competitor Jimmy Berish, who withdrew his Egyptian horse, Nefertiti, 40 miles into the race.

The two young sheiks, Hamdan and Rashid, were clapped and cheered by their crew and a dozen spectators when they led the field into the last, 9-mile stage. But their father caught up with them and the three crossed the line between two artificial Pharaonic pillars in less than an hour.

All the horses in the race were Arabians.

``Arabians are consummate athletes,'' said veterinarian Dwight Hooton of Albuquerque, N.M.

Lesley Alford, a crew manager for the Egyptian Team FB, said of the Emirates entries: ``That a horse can travel at that speed and come in that condition is amazing.