Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The drive to Hastings was gorgeous, a little cool and windy and wet, as a
front had just blown in. But it seems that in New Zealand (a little tiny
land mass in the middle of a world of oceans) whatever blows in will soon
blow right by. The weather seems to change rapidly, and when the sun shines
it's glorious. (if it's not shining at the moment, just wait a minute). We
drove up to a high point in the center of the island, huge tracks of timber
for paper and wood mills, little farms with sheep and goats and cows, fields
separated by hedgerows, winding canyons with valleys of natural vegetations
(some exotic looking species), the ubiquitous fern (NZ's national symbol),
and green green green.

And NZ seems so healthy! they eat well, the food is good and healthy, a very
friendly and welcoming people. My first (and final) impressions have been of
a very healthy society. They seem content with where they live and who they
are. There seem to be societal issues between the colonialists (Great
Britain strikes again) and the native people - the Maori tribesmen.
Historical grudges, modern inequities, the Maori's have discovered the world
of lawyers and claim to legal rights to what they once had (or perceived to
have had) and they are now making demands on the government for retribution.
Whether it's justified or not seems to be of differing opinion, and really
only God (or gods) know... but that's the status. Same stories can be seen
all over the world.

We arrived in Hastings, riders settled in at the Palm City Hotel, horses to
their pens at the show grounds. Paul and Madonna brought two women to help -
Jo and Jenny - with the horses and crewing (strapping) - hard working,
cheerful, seemingly tireless. Everybody worked so hard. And Casa Enduro
Stable runs a tight ship - everything clean and organized, all the time.
Everybody was exhausted by evening and we all did our own thing for dinner.
Merri and I plugged into the internet at the hotel and started working.
photos and story from previous days, plus I still had to finish up the
Malaysia Kedah stuff. Constant tension between the old adventure (must
finish) and the new adventure (must dig in right away). Lots of hours hidden
away typing and working with one ear tuned to the current happenings. can't
miss anything!

Friday morning the riders went to the showground to ride the horses, I sent
Merri along to take photos of the riders and all the other disciplines (pony
games, show jumping, driving, etc etc). And I hunkered alone for hours to
finish up the Malaysia coverage. I reached a stopping point and got a ride
out to the show grounds for the Endurance ride briefing. Wow! what an
amazing HOY event. the huge arena and stadium was hopping with energy -
horses, riders, shoppers, gawkers. Really a big deal event. We wandered
around, did a little shopping (new Ariats riding shoes), sampled the fair
food - white bait sandwich, little tiny fried dougnuts, coffee (flat black
or long white). A carnival type atmosphere.

The ride briefing was typical - questions, answers, worries? no worries. a
little confusion, but not bad. The South African riders showed up (via SA,
Hong Kong, Auckland) literally just as the briefing started, they looked
exhausted, a bit glassy eyed, but they made it. The OC took everybody on a
tour of the course in a big bus - packed, standing room only, and I think it
made people more confused rather than less... but an adventure in itself.

Horses vetted, put away for the night, team meeting under the awning,
packing, preparing, all the 'night before' activities. My role here was not
rider or groom or organizer. Just to observe, to photograph, to record. I
was able to stay out of the tension and immediacy of preparation. It's
always interesting to watch - see the personalities interacting, the eager
anticipation of the ride. The nerves taut, hopes high... horses munching
warily off to the side, knowing what their job was?

Back to the hotel, Merri and I still had work to do. She with new photos and
story, me with some new stuff, and the last of the Malaysian work. Plus all
the day to day correspondence needed to keep Endurance.Net running, and
throw in a little ride organzer work (I'm hosting our National Championship
this year, plus my standard slate of 100's and multidays... insane :) We
were sharing a hotel room with Cecelia and Tomas, and suggested they take
the bunks in the other room, where they could close the door and sleep while
we worked well into the night. Crashed in the big double bed, and up in a
few hours, the alarm ringing rudely, staggering through shower and coffee...
and squeeze into Kate (one of the vets)'s jeep with Dr. Bala from Malaysia,
his lovely wife Magis, and a few other bodies.

We arrived in time for tea at the showgrounds as the dawn arrived, watching
the riders entering the arena and warming between the huge (and scary)
stadium jumps, gather together in small groups, and off they go. We cimbed
into Nel (assistant to vet Mel)'s truck (a little more room) and headed out
to the beach for the vet gate - all of the holds would be at the beach, with
the finish on the main street back in Hastings.

The farm at the beach was gorgeous. Several hundred acres of beach front and
grassy hillsides, owned by Warrick Hansen (brother to Kevin Hansen, HOY
organizer). It's a huge show jumping horse breeding farm. Really a special
location. The crewing and vetting area was a grassy field with some older
out buildings. The timers set up in a timbered shed, an announcer with a
battery powered PA system, lots and lots of volunteers. Gum boots and
leather 'outback' hats, nice atmosphere.

We (Merri, Carol and I) set up for taking photos and watching the ride. I
was given a quad (4x4) so Carol and I could ride up to the hills above the
ocean, beautiful!!! Sheep everywhere, steep hills, panoramic views of the
ocean. We took photos of riders coming up and going down, winding along the
trails. Breezy but warm up there, very nice. Merri stayed down at the beach
to catch the first riders.

The ride progressed - riders in, riders out, vetting, crewing, fairly
relaxed and 'down home' ride. Paul and Madonna's crewing was tight and
professional, very efficient. They are sponsored by POLAR, and one of the NZ
rep's was doing real time analysis of the horses' heart rates. Graphing
working rates, altitude, recoveries and work peaks. After each loop, the rep
would swap watches with each rider - taking the watch with the recent data
for analysis, and giving the ride a watch which had been reset, to record
the next loop's data. Very cool. And she could print the graphs and datas,
the riders and crew could study it and plan the pace for the next loop.
Which horses were working too hard? Which horses could work harder?

The horses left for the last loop and we packed up to go to the town center
for the finish. Leonard and his mare 'La Chica' were having a bad 'marriage'
day. They did not get along, and this strong minded mare was rebelling - the
more frustrated Leo got, the more stubborn La Chica became. So... he finally
coaxed her out of the last vet gate, but when they got to the final river
crossing, that was where she finally said NO, absolutely NO. That was that.
Leo had to load La Chica into the van for a ride back...

We arrived at the finish for a flurry of excitement. Crowds appeared, a
busload of spectators from the showgrounds. very festive, very fun. and very
scary! The horses were big eyed, ears flicking back and forth and all
around. Many of the finishing horses didn't pulse down at the finish. Too
excited? too hot? Many of the riders here didn't really know how to crew and
how to cool a horse. I think most of them could have reached criteria if
they had aggressively cooled their horses. But, those that didn't learned a
lesson. For local riders the pace was faster than usual, and they didn't
have enough respect for the pace, and the need to cool the horse, even with
the air temperature relatively cool.

So, another event, in another country. Many similarities between New Zealand
and USA. And I've heard that Australia is similar too. Even though it was
FEI, there was a relaxed, almost recreational feeling to the ride. Lots of
comraderie, smiles, helping each other. Much more 'innocent' than the FEI
rides in UAE and Europe.

And next ... off to Paris for the FEI World Forum on Endurance, where the
atmosphere will probably be quite charged!

For now, bye, no worries :)

Steph


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