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Re: [RC] Poor Showing at WEC - Maryanne GabbaniOddly enough, after each WEC there has been a similar dialogue about how the US team simply isn't "good enough". In fact, I remember dear Tom Ivers fanning the flames on many such discussions as he LOVED a good heated argument.
Please guys, most of you have never seen industrial endurance in action. I read Meg's email journal and I just shook my head. I think that the US team did brilliantly considering the bad luck and the huge difficulty in organising such a team. There are a number of points that need to be considered and most of them boil down to a difference between family/fun competitive endurance and industrial endurance. 1. Size of countries: The UAE is about the size of Rhode Island. All the horses and riders are essentially in the same place all the time. I think you all know how big the US is and where the horses, riders and rides are. This means that most of the competing UAE horses and riders are seeing each other on a weekly basis and that most of the international team members probably have their horses in a maximum of maybe 3 stables year round. (I'd be curious as to how many of the UAE team horses were in fact simply from Dubai...anyone know?) Training for international or even local events is a yearlong process there...not a matter of selecting horses and riders and trying to collect them together before the event to do some coordinated training. There aren't even that many variations in diet for the horses since pretty well everything is imported in bulk. 2. Size of wallets: I don't think that needs much elaboration. Go to the WEG in Kentucky and check out the the staff, the support and so on if you possibly can. It's been relatively easy for me here because they like to hold their races down the road where I know everyone from the security guys to some of the UAE staff...might be harder in Kentucky. For a little ride like the Pan Arabs here, the UAE had something like 20 professional grooms (these guys work with the horses all the time...they aren't a neighbour or cousin...this is their job) to handle horses pre-, during, and post-ride. The winning horse literally had a blanket of grooms surrounding him. This kind of concetrated, intensive investment in terms of traning facilities, feed, personnel pays off. Ask any TB racing stable, which is, after all, what the UAE effort is based on. US riders have been doing things for themselves all their lives and are still doing it. Do you think that any of the UAE riders were doing the same things for their horses? Think again. 3. Attitude, Attitude, Attitude: To Finish is To Win does not cut the cake in the UAE. They are out there to win when they are racing against their cousins in a local race and they are out there to win the rest of the time. In fact, I suspect that how they do against their cousins is often more important than anything else. To really focus efforts the way they do, the US would have to TOTALLY change the way of picking a team and working it year round. I honestly don't think that you all want to go there. The world is a big place, folks, and doing well in one arena doesn't ensure doing well in another. There was a time when UAE riders would have wiped out at most US rides. I suspect that there are UAE horses and riders who are getting good enough and versatile enough to tackle more technical mountain rides and do well now with horses that can run blisters into some of the US horses. They would, however, have to work out how to train for altitude, which is something that they don't have...maybe some treadmills in some of the C140's with the pressurisation turned off. I didn't expect them to do well in Malaysia if they were riding the way that they usually do, but they are coming up on strategy and versatility. They can buy the best horses worldwide, hire the best trainers, train the devil out of them in ways that most of us simply can't imagine, and ship them where ever they want. They didn't have to acclimatise, like I said, all they had to do was leave the barn doors open and the airconditioning off....they have a ghastly climate. Relax, everyone. Your riders did a grand job and had some filthy luck. You should be proud of them, but it's time to realise that much of the world doesn't run the way the US does in endurance. If it's that important to play and WIN in that arena, you all need to be ready to make some psychological, organisational, and financial changes to do so. Otherwise, do the best that you can with what you have an enjoy yourselves. That's pretty good too. Maryanne going back to taking tourists around pyramids to take pretty pictures. On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 3:40 AM, Steph Teeter <stephteeter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Just now checking email. There will probably be more posts to come, but I don't want to stop the dialogue. I will write more later, but I want to briefly say that the USA effort was awesome. The management was exceptional and the riders were a dedicated and willing and capable part of the whole team - it was a very smooth operation. This alone is a huge accomplishment and speaks volumes for the USA effort. They had a plan, the horses were prepared, acclimated, and in top shape (no issues!), they rode according to plan. Every person was committed to the effort - to the plan - to the team. Maryanne Stroud Gabbani msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx Egypt Face to Face www.alsorat.com Weblogs: Living In Egypt miloflamingo.blogspot.com Cairo/Giza Daily Photo cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com Turn Right At The Sarcophagus haramlik.blogspot.com Da Moose Is Loose (a blog for kids) mstroud.blogspot.com Photos of Egypt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/
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