Re: WEG:Deep sand/High Humidity

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

Am I missing something???

I read the report from the pre-ride (Lori Stewart's) and it didn't say
anything about DEEP sand or high humidty.  I can't quote it, but I think
it said that the footing and climate were very much like the desert
southwest.

Additional reading of the pre-ride report led me to believe that the ride
was going to be very much like the 20 Mule-Team in Ridgecrest, which was,
I assumed, one of the reasons that Wendy Merendini and Fire Mtn. Flikka
were selected...'cuz that is right in their back yard, and several of the
horses/riders on the team have done well as this particular ride.

And to talk about Flikka (I don't know the others well) as a "mountain"
horse leads me to believe that y'all down there in Florida don't know what
real mountains are :)....but then, I forgot....you guys call those little
bumps of the Shenendoahs "mountains" :) For all I know, you even call your
sand dunes mountains.

And with all due respect with regards to your comments about western sand
being too gravelly and not deep enough. You need to come and ride in
southern Utah before you start making wild statements like that. :)  And
in southern Utah there is that fine, deep, sugary sand....ON the
mountains...at 7,000 ft of altitude with a 15% grade.

AND, if the sand in Dubai (where I haven't ridden) is anything like the
sand in Egypt (where I have ridden) IT isn't that fine, deep, sugary sand.

Why would we send a team of horses from the east to ride at a ride that
is, by all reports that i have seen, like the desert southwest?

Are the reports I have seen wrong???  My Encyclopaedia Britanica says:

Landscape and environment:  "Nearly the entire union is desert,
contianing broad patches of sand and numerous salt flats" (sounds like
the Mojave to me).

"The climate is hot and DRY (emphasis mine).  Rainfall averates only three
to four inches annually...The average January temperature (sorry it
doesn't give me December) is 65 deg F (18 C)....vegetation is scanty and
largely limited to low shrubs..." (sounds like Mojave to me). 

I have never been there, so Dubai may be some tiny microclimate different
from the rest of the country (especially since it is costal....but then,
so is Orange County, Calif....and it ain't humid here:)), but if not, I
wouldn't expect it to be humid there either.

I must confess to being TOTALLY confused by the whining from Carl and
Jerry about this "no eastern horses" "no horses that have trained in
humidity" thing, because I haven't seen anything to indicate that Dubai is
anything like Florida.

No place _I've_ been in the Middle East was anything like Florida.

I just don't get it?

kat
Orange County, Calif.