How I spent my summer vacation....the foreign newbie at the Pan Ams (long)

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <maryanne@ratbusters.net>]

Well, I've finally gotten to see how endurance is done in the US. I have two
kids going to university in New York City and their check in date was just
before the Pan Ams, so I took the opportunity to drive up to the Green
Mountains of Vermont to volunteer in the hopes of learning as much as
possible. Along the way, I was able to meet face to face a number of people
with whom I have been corresponding for a few years now. It was a terrific
experience and I have to say that I learned a lot.

The first thing that struck me was that our Egyptian horses would probably
roll about laughing hysterically and refuse to move when confronted with the
sheer GREEN-NESS of Vermont. The Pan Ams were held in a rural area of
mountains, forests and farms that were so lush and rich it was fairly
mind-boggling to even me. Guess I've become more Egyptian that I thought.
The race was held under FEI rules as well, so it was interesting to see how
this would be done in another location than Egypt. The differences were
extremely interesting.

1. The ride was both more relaxed and more organised than any we've had held
here. Although we have had more horses start a race in Egypt, they had WAY
more volunteers and that makes a huge difference. With 80-some riders
starting, there were 250 volunteers working. Volunteers attended at least
two briefing meetings the day before the ride to make them familiar with
their tasks. Because I was coming from so far away, there was some confusion
at first as to what I was to do, so I ended up being trained for hospitality
and for timing....although at the end of the night (and I do mean end, at 2
am) I was checking the pulses on horses at the vet check before the last 4
mile leg of the race. For future ride managers in Egypt the advice is: Get
out those volunteers and have classes for them before the rides. Meet, meet,
meet....train, train, train.

2. There was none of the high tech electronic stuff that has been so much in
evidence at our rides in Egypt. Each  rider was issued a cardboard ride card
that was carried in a ziploc bag somewhere on his or her person once the
horses passed the vet check the day before the race. The prerace vetcheck
was conducted very much as the race vet checks were. The various teams
competing from the regions of the US and Canada, from Mexico, Brazil, and I
believe Columbia and/or Venezuela, as well as a team from Great Britain and
Australia all had their horses stabled more or less in separate stables on
the grounds of the Green Mountain Horse Association center. This facility, I
must add, is wonderful with grounds for dressage, jumping, cross-country,
and miles of trails for endurance training.
	The procedure for vetchecking prior to the race was as follows: Each team
was called up to the vet check area, which happened to be the dressage
field. The rider led the horse by a halter while the "groom", usually a
husband, wife, or friend, brought the tack in a wheel barrow or hand cart.
The grooms were each assigned the same number as the rider so everyone knew
who they belonged to. While the grooms waited the riders were called up one
by one for a pulse and respiration check, general vet check (gut sounds and
so on) and a trot out. There were  no trot out lanes at any point in the
race. Horses and riders simply trotted from one traffic cone to another. One
very important aspect of the trot out was that the horse move in a brisk but
controlled trot, which necessitated some fairly fast jogging on the part of
the riders. Angie McGhee's Kaboot has to be the king of the trot out and he
pretty much dragged her down and back at each check. That boy can really
move!  Once the horse had checked through, the rider had the option of
having the horse weighed as part  of a research project on endurance. I'll
describe the scales later. At this point the groom took the horse back to
the stable while the rider waited with all his/her tack to be weighed
in...this was an FEI ride. I suspect that there were relatively few riders
that needed much in the way of weights, but most of them were pretty fit
themselves. One other difference worth noting was that each of the horses
and riders had been numbered PRIOR to the pre-ride vet check, so if a horse
didn't check out, it was simply a matter of scratching that number. Much
easier than numbering after the vet check.
	The prerace check was held the day before the race so the volunteers could
watch parts of it when they were not in training groups. After the vetcheck
there was a barbequed chicken dinner for which tickets could be purchased at
a very reasonable price so that riders and volunteers could relax a bit.
Then it was early to bed.

2. Race Day: Having found that I was assigned to vet check 4 from about 11
am to 3:30 pm and at vet check 8 from 7:35 pm to 3:50 am, I opted to miss
the start at 5 am, but I was at the second vet gate at GMHA at 7 to see the
first riders come in. The first vet gate was just a pulse check 21.7 kg
(13.5 miles)out. One of the advantages of racing in the mountains and
through farms was that there were many streams and stock tanks from which
horses could drink...and lots of grass to eat along the way. As I watched
the first horses splash through the stream into GMHA for the second check, I
have to admit to hilarious thoughts of chaos as our spun-sugar,
we-only-walk-on-sand homegrown horses would hit something like that. Mind
you, if we stuck a water buffalo in the midddle of the stream, they probably
wouldn't give it a second thought.
To be continued...

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net