Ridecamp: [RC] Nice article

Nice article on the US team from WEG
September 16, 2002 -- In Spain, where dressage is "doma" and eventing is
"completo," their word for endurance riding is "raid."

And it really fit the way the field for the endurance competition at the
World Equestrian Games set off at 7 this morning, in the dark and rain. A
phalanx of riders, some with miners' lights on their helmets, headed out as
if they were on a raid, ready to conquer. But many of them were conquered
instead by the conditions.

The ground that competitors originally feared would be rock-hard turned into
a mire, a giant shoe-pulling machine that took a toll. The U.S. contingent
felt the pain early, losing all three individual riders, and then the team
race, as France took the gold; Italy, the silver, and Australia the bronze.


 It looked like a soccer riot when the winning horse, Bowman, was surrounded
with supporters from the United Arab Emirates after a victory in the
endurance world championships. © Nancy Jaffer
Everything that leads up to the finish line in endurance is hard work, with
little in the way of excitement. Horses are either blazing their way across
the countryside, getting washed or being jogged for soundness, it seems. The
views of the trotting and cantering horses aren't even particularly pretty
here. This is an unforgiving vista, with big stretches of brown unbroken by
interesting scenic high points. The footing became slippery fast. John
Crandall, a U.S. farrier, called it "a pig's breakfast -- slop."

A Belgian rider who ran with his horse to give the animal a break found he
could barely get his foot in the stirrup afterwards because his boots were
so covered with mud. After he finally got on, he found he couldn't get off,
the mud had congealed in the stirrup and trapped him. Rather dangerous, I
think.

But even with the rain, the situation suited the Australian-bred Bowman, the
trim bay who took 16-year-old Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum of the
United Arab Emirates to the world championship. Antonio Rosi, won the
individual silver aboard Alex Raggio Di, and France's Sunny Demedy earned
the individual bronze on Fifi du Bagnas.


Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, winner of the endurance world
championship, jogs, his horse, Bowman, between the ropes for a final
soundness test. © Nancy Jaffer
Asked if he pushed to catch the Arab, Rosi said he wasn't up to snuff
because he'd broken three toes on his left foot and his right leg in a fall
a month ago. As a result, he was "heavy in the saddle" and not in a position
where he could push his mount.

The UAE crowd mobbed the Sheikh as he crossed the finish line. There were so
many people bouncing around and screaming with joy that it looked like the
equestrian version of a soccer riot.

The Sheikh, the son of Dubai's crown prince, had never competed before on
his family's bay gelding. It also was his first world championships outing.
And here's another first: prior to today, all the endurance world
championships had been won by women.

The Sheikh seemed a little bewildered and just happy about winning, period,
but he didn't speak much. His older brother, Sheikh Rashid Bin Mohammed Al
Maktoum, did most of the talking.


USET endurance team leader Mary Lutz and Art Priesz, chef d'equipe of the
U.S. endurance team. © Nancy Jaffer
Despite their high-powered horses, however, the UAE team did not finish.
Once it was obvious they wouldn't make it as a team, Ahmed's brothers and
father, who were his teammates, said he should go for it himself.

The Emirates have been pouring money into the sport, hosting major
competitions and angling to get it into the Olympics. I don't see it
happening; this is not a spectator sport. Sorry.

That was particularly the case under today's mostly gray skies. It was also
an endurance test for anyone who hung around past 9 p.m., waiting for the
team results. Looking as bleak as the weather was America's two-time world
champion Valerie Kanavy, who was among the first casualties. She retired at
the second crew point on the first loop when her horse, Shahdon, lost a
shoe, then a protective boot and got stung on the rocky ground. That's the
short version of all the things that befell her today, but I won't recount
the details.

"It wasn't my year. What can I say," shrugged Val.

Pan American Championship winner Heather Bergantz Reynolds with Crystals
Charm, better known as Red, lost a shoe as well on that loop and was
finished. Kathy Brunjes' horse, Ali Darkness, got mud under one of his pads
and was pulled when the blockage caused him to limp.


 Valarie Kanavy, former world champ, withdrew early with shoe problems. ©
Nancy Jaffer
That left three Americans, all team members, following chef d'equipe Art
Priesz's strategy that ran opposite to that of his counterparts in many
other countries. While they had their riders take it easy on the long, tough
second and fourth loops, he decided his team should make time there, and
then recover on the easier third and last loops.

"On the third loop, we got smoked by the French, and a little bit by the
Australians, too, and that's where the Italians made their break," said Art.
"We ride a different kind of ride at home most of the time, and that's why
we call it endurance riding, not endurance racing. The second and fourth
loops were tough because of their footing and length (about 25 miles each),
but he said, "those were the kind of long pulls they'd (the horses) be used
to" and the thinking was that American horses would be able to recover
quickly as a result. But the footing was "treacherous" and many plans didn't
play out as they should today.

The Americans also have a different strategy long-term than do endurance
participants in some other countries, Art told me. "Over the course of a
season, a horse that is consistently in the top 10 or the top five, winning
races here and there, is considered a true endurance horse. Our riders are
generally true amateurs, their horses are true partners. They want them to
be there this year and two years from now.

"They want the horses to be with them like a favorite dog. In parts of the
rest of the world, that's true; in other parts of the rest of the world,
that's not true. Part of what we talk to our riders about is that we have a
certain stewardship responsibility for the sport."

Art said the reason there's such a drive to improve completion rates for
Americans, and some of those in other countries, is to show that "the horse
is not a commodity. The horse is our partner and should be treated with that
respect."


Dolores Arste
Phone - 518.882.6485
Fax - 518.882.5366
eFax- 845.818.3871
Cell phone - 518.461.3470
Voice/Numeric Pager - 518.865.6113



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