Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Nicky Freud is sending updates on this ride. (managed by Jack and  
Marie Begaud of France). We'll be posting her updates, photos, etc at
http://www.enduranceeurope.net/international/France/2007Quercy/  (it  
will be live/ready soon)

Steph


> One hundred and thirty horses and riders, one hundred and thirty  
> stories why each and every combination deserves to win this jewel  
> in the crown of French rides.
>
> Only the second running but les 2 jours de Quercy is the one that  
> every endurance rider in France (plus several ambitious  
> ‘etrangers’) wants to conquer.
>
> Last year the race provided drama from the first moment when Jean  
> Orecchioni, mingling amongst the 140 other competitors, was thrown  
> from his horse Jason de Trigodina. The consequences for Jean were  
> that he broke both his right thigh and right arm and is now held  
> together by a complicated system of rods and screws. Some of which,  
> during the last year, decided to make their own way out of his body  
> and had to be reinserted by surgeons. Jean is back for another  
> try.  Although he has kept his horse fit tomorrow morning will be  
> their first mass start since last year. His wife is very nervous.  
> It is easy to spot Jean around here, not just because he is under  
> five foot tall but also because he is 71 years old.
>
> Jean attributes his undiminished enthusiasm to what he calls ‘fou  
> de cheval’ – he is horse crazy. It is a condition which crosses  
> boundaries of both geography and age. Camille de Huyvetter has a  
> pony, a ‘fyord cross something’ pony whom she loves and who is  
> actually smaller than Jean Orrechioni, trained for her by Jill  
> Trier of the Ecuries d’Armagnac. Camille had no idea until  
> yesterday, her eighteenth birthday, that by way of a present, her  
> grandfather had entered her and her pony for Lalbanque.
>
> As a bare minimum, in order to enter this ride, both horse and  
> rider have to have successfully completed either a 2* ride within  
> the previous 12 months or a 3* ride within the previous 24 months.  
> Two star rides in this country are 119k divided into four loops  
> with a pulse parameter of 64bpm within 20 minutes. Three stars mean  
> a distance of over 140k with either five or six loops and cardio of  
> 64 within 30 minutes.
>
> However, this ride was so massively oversubscribed that the riders  
> who had the fewest ffe (Federation Francais Equestre) points were  
> balloted out (a sporting exception was made for Orrechioni.)
>
> Fifteen foreign riders from nine different countries are also in  
> the line up, sadly not including Valerie Kanavy who,, gave the  
> locals a good run for their money having been in the leading three  
> riders right up til leaving the final vet gate.
>
> As I’m typing this all the horses are rugged in their stables, the  
> riders are attending the briefing and the caterers setting out the  
> gratis drinks and bar snacks which are (I sometimes suspect) a  
> significant enough inducement to persuade the riders to, yet  
> again,  be reminded ‘not to go too fast on the first loop, it’s a  
> long ride.’ The sun is setting and the temperature is barely  
> hovering above freezing and will dip to minus five (centigrade)  
> tonight ensuring all the horses’ water buckets are ice covered.
>
> A civilised 9.00am start tomorrow morning will take place in the  
> particular regional autumn speciality of the area – really thick  
> mist clearing by midday to blazing sunshine and crystal blue skies.  
> The other regional speciality (black truffles of the sort that are  
> dug up by truffling pigs as opposed to the chocolate variety) are  
> unlikely to make an appearance until the evening.


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