Dubai - fast, hot...fun.

[stephanie teeter <stephanieteeter@yahoo.com>]

Well - it was an amazing ride - 

Results  - the UAE website
(http://www.equestrian-racing-uae.org.ae/)hasn't
posted the results yet, and I don't have anything
official with me right now, but from what I remember:
UAE riders placed 1,2,3 - Terry Wood from Australia
placed 4th. Best Condition was a rider from Spain on a
leased horse (Sheik Mohammed's stable). Sheik Mohammed
finished 7th - and he rode a very impressive ride -
60th into the first vet gate, and just kept moving up
steadily all day. A smart ride and a good example of
pacing and careful riding. US riders - Jennifer Nice
placed 18th on her horse Al Baraq (now owned by UAE),
Karen DiCamillo and SR Sharee placed 24th, Jan
Worthington placed 30th on a UAE horse. 33 finishers
total, 86 started. Valerie Kanavy and Bear Cat were
eliminated at 73 miles (7 miles left to go), Rita
Swift got very sick from heat stroke and had to quit
at 60 miles, Darolyn Butler's horse, Chaser found some
buried rebar and injured his pastern during the first
loop, eliminated at the first vet gate. I pulled
Khruschev at 40 miles. He stumbled and came out of it
lame - he had a crack in his heel where a sole abcess
had worked up through the foot and he probably banged
it when he stumbled. Beecher's thermal-radiographic
unit detected heat (inflammation) in his heel after
the ride. Disappointing to not finish (only his second
pull in almost 3000 miles) but we had a blast while we
were out there!!

It was a VERY energetic start - the horses were all
incredibly eager. Even Khruschev was doing some
serious bucking for the first few miles. A couple
horses went on for a while without their riders .....
We settled into a mid-pack pace for most of the first
loop. It's so flat there that we could see the front
runners moving out on the horizon - dust from the
horses and the zillions of 4WD rigs driving along
beside them. It was incredible - at least one rig for
each rider, driving ahead, hopping out and offering
bullets of cold bottled water for the rider to pour
over the horse. Every 3 kilometers or so the drivers
would have water for the horses and riders. I rode
with Jennifer Nice for the first loop - our horses
went well together, kept up an 18 km/hr pace (about
10-11 mph) for the first 22 mile loop. Jennifer is now
working in UAE and riding for one of the stables, so
she had the stable drive and crew for her and
generously shared their services with me. (John and
Destry stayed in at the camp instead of driving out
with me). The crew guys were great - water and
electrolytes, and hollering out speed and distance at
intervals. Most of the trail was pretty flat, easy
going, but there was a lot of deep sand as well. The
crew rigs were supposed to stay off of the horse
trail, so they paralleled the riders - usually off in
the deeper sand. I stopped counting the number of 4WD
rigs stuck in the sand after the first 10 miles. Very
entertaining - and I think the drivers were as
interested in racing each other as they were in
crewing for their riders!

We pulsed down pretty quickly after the first loop -
and even at a 10mph pace we were already 45 minutes
behind the front runners! Incredible speed on these
fast/flat desert courses. It is certainly different
from the sport that most of us do in the USA. This is
a race... not a ride. 

We spent some extra time at the vet check letting
Khruschev eat more - his gut sounds were diminished -
and doing some emergency shoe fixes (Jaye Perry was
there for the Kanavy crew, but helped everybody out as
well). Khruschev was really cranked for this ride, as
were all of the horses. He was in pretty good form,
though a little chubby for a fast,hot ride. He vetted
in with a 28 pulse! and never even went over a 110
pulse during the entire time we were on the trail -
but ... it's pretty tough to take a horse that trains
in the mountains and ask them to maintain a constant,
fast, pace in relatively flat terrain. Muscle and limb
fatigue is a problem.

We went back out on the second loop in good shape -
his gut sounds were strong, and he was feeling great.
We rode alone for the first couple miles and then
caught up with a UAE rider - on of the Dubai Police
stable riders. Had a nice time riding with him, and he
shared his crew with me - water, electrolytes, etc -
whatever we needed. Great fun - I've invited him to
come ride in Idaho - but I think he was a little taken
aback with the idea of mountains and minimal crewing!
About 3 miles from the vetgate, Khruschev stumbled and
came up lame - we were at a crew point so I was able
to ask to have a horse 'ambulence' come and get us and
drive us back to the village. We went directly into
the treatment tent - very very nice facility - state
of the art - competent veterinarians, friendly,
helpful. The vet gave Khruschev a thorough
examination, couldn't find any soreness in his limb,
thought it might be the foot - released us and I took
K back to the barn. Very efficient, professional care.


John, Destry and I spent the rest of the day helping
crew for the others. Valerie and Karen were doing
well, horses looking good. Rita was pretty sick, but
determined to stick it out if she could. Jennifer and
Jan were both riding as US riders, but they were in
the UAE section for crew, so we didn't see them 
except on the trail. There horses were kept in
separate areas because of quarantine requirements.

It was quite a day - Karen and Sharee did a great job,
Sharee is an amazing little mare (850 lbs max) - their
ride time was 7:33 (I think). The winning time was
6:11 - on an 78 mile course. Fast.... The completion
rate was a little over 40%. It got very hot - 35
degrees centigrade - and the sun was pretty fierce.
The UAE horses - that live and train here - were
impressive. 

That's about it for now - I leave in 15 minutes - back
out to the stable, load the horses in the van, ship
them to Abu Dhabi (2 hr drive) - then we'll load them
on the plane and depart at 7am. 6-10 hour layover in
Luxembourg, then off to LA. About 20 hours flying
time.... long day/night head of us. 

More later -

Steph

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