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Re: [RC] Biltmore/favorite completion! Starting over.... Thanks, Angie - Maryanne Stroud GabbaniNowhere near Angie and Kaboot, but I can really relate.Whatever endurance Egypt has started on my 51st birthday in March of 2000. We had our first 20 km tryout under FEI auspices that day and my husband invited a bunch of my friends from the ride to a surprise birthday party in a Chinese restaurant in Cairo that night. We hadn't really done much, but to a bunch of sun-burned, freshly scrubbed, scruffy riders over eggrolls and spicy fish, we had conquered the world. I'd had a group of riders singing happy birthday to me on the trail and nothing could surpass it....except if I had been able to ride my favourite mare Dorika that day. She was laid up with a snapped sesamoid on an extended rehab that lasted a couple of years through an unplanned pregnancy. Things didn't go so well after that high. We were desperately disappointed with the priorities, planning, and organisation of the FEI on both the national and international level over the next two or three years. When my husband was killed in a private plane crash in June 2000, I found myself with almost no time for my horses, much less endurance, and I watched Ridecamp and riding in Egypt from the sidelines. Ridecamp, my correspondence with all of you, and the chance to volunteer and learn at the Vermont PAC in 2001 were my sanity for those dark years. It's been 3 1/2 years now and I'm pulling myself out of the corporate hell that I've been occupying since June 2000. I'm moving myself and my horses to a palm grove near a lake south of the pyramids of Dahshur where there is some of the best riding I've ever seen in Egypt. I plan on setting up a yoga and meditation retreat there while returning to my old profession of journalism with major publishing firm here. Last weekend, for the first time since my husband's death, I joined my old companions for an early Saturday morning ride in the desert. It wasn't anything special, really, about 12 miles in the desert to condition horses, but I took my love Dorika for the first time in almost 4 years. I was a bit worried, but shouldn't have been. She's been working mostly the countryside, but when she saw horses in a group in the desert, I had a new mare. I have a Kiwi rider/friend staying with me for a month, and Kelly couldn't believe that she was the same mare that she'd known for so long. I let her challenge the others, gallop in the desert, stay ahead and generally refuse a flat footed walk for 2 hours to see just what she had in her....and also because her joy was exquisite. At the end of the 20 km I was reconsidering an invitation that I'd gotten from one of the other riders who was working with our infant endurance group here (non-FEI) the Egyptian Endurance Riding Association to join a 40 km LD ride later this fall. On Friday I'd ridden Dory's elder son with them, and I told them that I didn't have a horse that was ready even for 40 km in the desert and it would be another year for the youngsters. On Saturday, I decided to let Dory try things out later this fall. I know that Dory couldn't do 40 km in the ridiculous fashion that she did our 20 km on Saturday, but she might as well learn to pace herself in a competitive situation. She was tired, but happy, when we got home on Saturday. No swelling, no lameness, drinking, eating, peeing and pooping just fine. Went straight to her hay and muscled everyone else away in true Dory-fashion. Could she have gone out again? At a much slower speed, yes, but I wouldn't have asked her to. She came back from fooling around at all the wrong speeds with plenty of horse left, but I want her to learn to relax a bit. I honestly thought that I would never ride endurance of any sort, and probably for now and maybe forever it will only be LD (40 km is 25 miles), but even to be thinking of trying that out is such a huge step that I am still sort of stunned by my decision. I know that Dory will be in heaven and if I can get my gimpy knee to cooperate (lots of yoga to go) we will both have fun. I had the honour (and for me it was indeed an honour) to meet Angie and Kaboot in Vermont. Her wonderful humour has been a real boost to me at many times when I'd have to go a week or two without being able to even ride. Kaboot has the real desert Arab love of freedom that I so cherish in Dory, and the same wonderful sense of humour and joy of movement that I love in her. Bravo, on your return, and thank you for the push to try again.
On Monday, Sep 22, 2003, at 19:20 Africa/Cairo, rides2far@xxxxxxxx wrote:
This makes 9 years of competition for Kaboot. I fell in love with him all over again out there. I've never been on any horse at any time that was so motivated to always go forward. When he gets around one horses he just looks for the next one.I got to counting and between Josie?s mount & mine we had about 35 years of age, 5000 miles of competition and 21 years of competition. Not bad for 2 sound horses at the end of a ride where 25 out of 64 didn?t complete. Sorry for you guys who had bad luck...it's Mountain High Valley Low. I've had enough low lately. Thank goodness for mountains! Thank you Jaye. Happy, happy, HAPPY!!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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