Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

This story will take a few days to tell - and I'll eventually have
some fantastic photos to go with it - but here's the first
installment:

What a day!

I don't think I've ever had such fun at a ride - as a
rider, a groom, a spectator, a reporter, whatever? nothing can
compare to this day. There was some Arabian full moon magic happening
with this little group I think.

The sound, image, feeling of tearing across the desert with Arabic
music blaring from the radio, Madiya (Sheikha Madiya Hasher bint al Maktoum)
at the wheel, Grace Ramsey riding shotgun, Claudia Quentin
and I in the back seat, Mercedes Tapia and RAS Kasal galloping along
beside us - this memory will be with me forever. Singing to the music
(country western too), screaming yahoos! and y'allahs!, Mercedes
dancing to the music with her hands, Kasal listening with one ear,
watching and waiting for us, galloping in cadence to the drums?this
was magic. Wild wild women and one incredible horse.

The first chapter of this story opened in Idaho - the wild Owyhee
country - for the CEI*** Abu Dhabi Arabian Nights ride. Emirates
International Endurance Village Committee (EIEV) (Abu Dhabi, patronage
of Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed Al Nahyan ) offered sponsorship for this ride
and we accepted with gratitude and excitement. Now we could do it
big - do it right, and extend invitations to our International friends.
Mercedes Tapia and Miguel Pavlovsky came from Argentina, Leonard Leisens
came from Belgium, plus riders from several other countries.

And the real exotic International rider was Sheikha Madiya. This
most amazing young woman has the spirit. She is truly one in a
million. She has been training with Grace Ramsey and Jan Worthington
for the past two years. They started her on a program - diet,
excersize, riding lessons, everything at her request, to teach her how
to be an Endurance rider. She is the first UAE woman to tackle the
sport. This takes guts.

In Idaho, Madiya finished the Arabian Nights ride, her first 100 mile
ride. At this ride friendships were made, between nations. There is
such a common thread between Endurance riders, of any Nationality, any
genre, an instant bonding - our lives evolve around these incredible
horses, anybody who has done an Endurance ride, especially a 100 mile
ride understands. We are now 'one of them'.

Next chapter Argentina. Many of the riders at the Abu Dhabi Arabian
Nights ride had their sights set on the ultimate goal of riding in the
World Endurance Championship to be held 5 months later in Dubai,
UAE. Leonard, Mercedes, Miguel and I had all nominated to represent
our Federations at the WEC. Miguel and I were selected to the Reserve
squads of our countries, Leonard and Mercedes were selected as first
string riders. I knew Mercedes had a wonderful horse, and thought I
could help her with the whole process - having experience with both
racing and crewing in UAE events - and offered to go along as her
crew.

The horse that Mercedes is riding, RAS Kasal is owned by Claudia
Quentin - who owns and operates a ranch (estancia) in the Argentina
pampas. Claudia raises crops and breeds Hereford cattle and Arabian
horses. She has been breeding horses for many years, and has once
again become involved in Endurance. Almost 30 years ago, Claudia and
Miguel - through the Argentine Arabian Horse Club organized the first
Endurance event in Argentina (25 miles) which took place on Claudia's
estancia - Las Cortaderas ('the pampas grass')- with trails along the
ocean and through the farm land. This was about the same time
Endurance (AERC) started in the US, but it never really became an
organized Federation sport in Argentina. - Until the 1998 WEC in UAE ,
in which Dubai invited the world to attend, and Argentina dove back
into Endurance through FEI.

So Mercedes said yes, she'd love my help and off we go. John and I
flew to Argentina January 3. The plan was that John would stay in
Argentina and help as he could with WEC coverage for Endurance Net,
and I would go to Dubai with Argentina to crew and also do as much
Endurance Net reporting as possible. Eduardo and Mercedes recently
purchased a small ranch in Buenos Aires province, a couple hours from
Buenos Aires - a small quaint ranch which had been homesteaded by an
Italian family, and remained in their family for generations - until
Mercedes and Eduardo found it. The ranch had no electricity or
plumbing, but now it has both, plus Eduardo set up a wireless Internet
communications system with the nearby city of Saladillo. When we
arrived, John did his magic and turned the little ranch 'El Reparo'
into a wireless Internet hot spot. Imagine sitting outside the century
old adobe farm house, under the old grape arbor porch, huge old trees
all around, the gentle pampas wind, and having high speed interenet
connection to the rest of the world. Yep.

Plans were made for people and horses to transport to Dubai, and
through a little luck (and clerical error) I was able to fly with the
first group on January 7, and had three weeks to get settled in and
set up for the WEC. It takes so much time, and seemingly endless
difficulties to get things done in the UAE - it's different from our
Western world, and one simply has to learn the ropes, find the right
people, and the right way, to find your way around, purchase phones
and UAE chips for local service, Internet, rental cars, etc etc. I'm
glad that we had so much time in advance. It seems that every day was
filled with details of planning and procurement - and days at the
barn, training rides, organizing, discussions, stuff?.

Mercedes and Eduardo and I spent a little time with the Abu Dhabi EIEV
committee group - Ted Lewis and HE Mohamed al Saed (committee
chairman). Ted and Mohamed organized the US ride sponsorship last year
(Tevis and Arabian Nights) and met the Argentina group, Madiya, all
the rest in Idaho when they came for the ride. They are also
organizers for the President's Cup event (February 17) and asked that
John and I (Endurance Net) stay and report for it. We were able to
arrange to have John come early, which meant that he could be here for
the WEC coverage. So once again we're all together, on different
soil. A different continent - on the other side of the earth.

Next chapter ? the UAE connection.



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