The horses have been training in Williston, FL since the last training session/selection Sept 12-14. Jan Worthington took care of ours (Reveille) for the first 2 weeks, and since then Dave and I have leapt frog between NJ and FL to split caring for her and those at home. It has been difficult, but good in many ways- mostly because the temperature is close to that of Terrenganu (although the humidity here is lower). However, in spite of meeting many wonderful people down here (Bob and Colleen Marr are among the best!!), the insects seem to be on steroids and I cannot imagine living here long term. Brown recluse spiders, black widows, scorpions, oh my!! BLECK!
We still have no final travel arrangements; we only have itineraries…no confirmed tickets, although we leave on the 16th. If those itineraries are correct, the horses go through Amsterdam with Jim Bryant, and we all go through Hong Kong to arrive in Malaysia 2 days before the horses. That means Jim will be caring for all 6 USA horses for the 2 ½ days they lay over in Amsterdam. It is certainly imperfect, but we are hoping some local friends that can help him care for the horses those days. It will be a long transport for them…5 days total.
For those of you who would like to follow the events during the ride (or to see things from the organizers perspective), the official website is: HYPERLINK "http://www.malaysia-wec.com/index2.html" http://www.malaysia-wec.com/index2.html I think they will have an event broadcast, pictures, etc (the event starts at 3:30pm local time on Nov 7th-). I think there is an 11 hour time difference, but will try to figure that out. Also HYPERLINK "http://www.endurance.net" www.endurance.net often has good reports.
I am hoping we can organize a trip to visit the leatherback turtle refuge and information center (great idea of Mark’s!). Apparently, Terengannu is one of only 6 places in the world where they nest. Although in 2007 no turtles returned here, 2 females did return this June. Unfortunately, there are very few males, though, and none of the eggs have hatched since 2000. Tomorrow should be good because once the horses arrive, we won’t have a lot of down time, but we are still a little jet laggedϑ
The quarantine vet looked at her name and said “Ah, shyrocco- a seaward breeze…do you prefer to pronounce it SHrocco or SIrocco?” How cool is that after most people in the US stumble over it?:) After everybody was through the exams, we took all of them for a nice long walk (except Theatric…Kathy iced his legs) and then gave everyone IV fluids. Unfortunately, it took a long time to organize the fluids, so we weren’t back here until 10pm. Transportation has been interesting as well. Fortunately we have a small pick up truck with a short bed. We can reasonably comfortably fit 5 in the front 2 seats. Unfortunately there are 10 of us, so depending on how many people go somewhere, some always have to sit in back. Coming back from the barn last night, we also had bags of clothes to bring back (which had been sent with the horses) and all 10 of us. We managed to squeeze 5 of us into the bed, squished between and on top of duffle bags….then it started to rain. The locals were quite amused and someone even asked Kathy if she knew it was raining…yes, maybe it was the rain dripping down our faces. We just finished dinner and are now heading to bed so that Kathy and I can be back on the 6:30am shuttle to do early morning duty. More later…
Yesterday, Rev gave me a real scare when she rolled into the paddock fencing and got her 2 hind legs caught for a minute or 2. She seems fine although for the first 5 minutes after she wouldn’t walk on her right hind leg, but kept holding it in the air and stomping with it. The main result is residual white paint scuffed on her leg, a small skin laceration and a few abrasions. The problem is the pens are only about @12 X 20 foot, and it just doesn’t leave much room for a horse to roll, particularly if he or she flips over. I am hoping that is our big (and only) scare for this ride, since there always seems to be something and also hoping that she has learned she just doesn’t have room for a big roll in these pens. However, there aren’t a lot of options and she needs to get outside, so right now I am still holding my breath when I put her out.
We drove some sections of the trail yesterday, and it appears they have done a lot of work to prevent the flooding that occurred last year. There are sections they have built up with gravel (fortunately the gravel sections are not too long, but definitely more than last year). Also, they have taken out most of the palm plantation. There is a new loop which is actually pretty rolling (not flat) and goes into the jungle. That one is the fifth loop and should make it interesting since the horses will hit it when they are pretty tired. While driving we saw a pretty large (maybe 3 ft long) monitor lizard sitting on the trail and a monkey in the trees. Apparently there is an elephant reserve nearby, and wild elephants are fairly close, but not sure we will see any unless we drive a bit. It is too built up this close to Terengganu. Guess that is about it for now…
Life lessons I have learned the last few days:
While it is surreal and humorous to hear Christmas music (Jingle Bells) when you are checking out at a Malaysian department store, continual Christmas music during meals becomes irritating after 3 days.
I adore lox or whitefish salad for breakfast, but finding fish in your breakfast roll when you are not expecting it is disturbing. Best to break all Malaysian breakfast rolls apart before biting into them because you cannot otherwise tell whether it will be empty, contain fruit, or salted fish.
Jet lag is a convenient way to make time for writing (there is not much else to do between 4 and 6 am).
A little later on 10/23
The shuttle has improved a lot. The first few days it was running about 45 minutes late (which made for 11/2 hours each way if you are depending on it. It is a lot better now, though-today it was actually on time!! Rev’s back legs were swollen again (I forgot to wrap them before leaving last night because we were rushing to make the shuttle), and somehow overnight she rapped and scratched her front leg in the stall, and while the scratch is very superficial…it is really sensitive and swollen. So, since we still have plenty of time we are treating her pretty aggressively (bute today and an antibiotic for 3-5 days, depending on how she responds). I feel as though I should bubble wrap her, but at least it is early and she is sound, so nothing too scary. Otherwise, it was a good day. We finally got to ride (an hour of walking, but nice to be in the saddle). Blood work was done and all the horses look really good. It was overcast all day and drizzled off and on. Actually, a very nice change!! The humidity has been ranging from 70% to 100%, with temperatures ranging from 75-95°F. When the sun is out mid-day, it is really hot!!
Steph Teeter offered to set up a blog for Kathy and Becky, and Becky suggested I do one as well. However, I think I will continue with these emails….it just seems more personal.
I now have 2 other Americans using the latex glove technique for stall pickingϑ
Spending this time with her yesterday, Becky, Jim and I were at the barn basically the entire day (and actually, I have been on the early crew for feeding every day since I get up early anyway and usually we don’t get back until 7 or 8pm). We went to a welcome BBQ at the Sutra last night, so we left the barn at 4pm to make the trek back to our hotel for showers and make the 7:30 shuttle to the Sutra. The food was excellent, and it would have been a nice opportunity to see the foreign riders, but I was not much in the mood and we were all exhausted. We all ended up packing into the truck to leave early, which still didn’t get back to our hotel until 11:30pm. This morning was the first time I have actually slept until the alarm goes off.
It is evening now, and she looked good today…thank goodness. I walked her 4 ½ miles this morning, and another 4 ½ miles this evening while the others went out for a night ride. She wasn’t too happy being left behind, and it was more of a “drag meg for 4 ½ miles” than anything else, but we both survived it fine although we didn’t get back to the hotel until close to midnight.
One of the Canadian horses has anhydrosis, and Jim has been helping them with that. He and Becky have been pitching in with stalls and hand walking, and I think we have been working them too hard. Actually, they made us all go to the beach along the trail over lunch time when the barn was closed for a little down time. It was nice to see some clean beach (pipes drain into the sea near our hotel in Terengganu) and we all relaxed for an hour or so. Dana, I got some nice shells for you!
Off to bed, now!
Rev looked great today and it was wonderful to ride her!! I ended up taking her out twice (about 7 miles in the morning and 7 miles in the afternoon), gradually building up the amount of trotting. She trotted out great afterward, so hopefully things are finally on the right track. Dave was impressed that she will stand for 20 minutes with both her front feet in bags of ice…what can I say, the princess is learning, but it did take me a few days. She did have a temper tantrum on our first riding session this morning. Two of the Canadians came up behind us on the loop. Rev was not scared, but wanted to take off racing them and ended up rearing and trying to bolt a couple of times. The Canadians were impressed that she didn’t actually fall over backwards and suggested next time I step off when she goes that high. I replied that I don’t plan on there being a next time and will ride her with a running martingale until the edge is off of her (boy I hope it is off before the start of the race!!). The remainder of the training track they discussed whether horses are more likely to fall over backwards on a high rear because of the rider pulling on the horse’s mouth or the horse losing balance. When I got back to the barn, I told Dave he made her feel a bit too good;-) Steve B. also took her out for a 4 ½ mile hand walk, so she got out a lot today. Steve also brought 2 telescoping manure forks, which he made specially to bring (so much for us coming up with our own patent!). The entire barn was thrilled!!
I got a couple of questions about anhydrosis and I guess I should try to explain it a little farther. It is most common (but still very rare) in horses which leave a cold environment for a hot one. Jim saw a few cases when he was a resident in Florida. I had personally never seen one. Apparently, they will often sweat fairly normally the first few days, but then they stop sweating. Since sweat is the primary way horses cool, you can imagine it could be dire in this kind of environment. Hopefully, this horse will respond and be able to start at the championship, however if he doesn’t, it would not be safe to compete him here. It is a shame after so much work to get here. Megan Davis emailed that we should consider acupuncture and it was sort of embarrassing that we didn’t think of it. Anyway, Jim passed it on to the Canadians, and has actually started acupuncture in the US horse with the elevated muscle enzymes. That horse is doing great, by the way, and enzymes are heading back down to normal. So, a couple of bumps along the way, but things seem to be on track now. Most of us are pretty healthy now, too, with just an occasional bout of nausea or cramping. They have excellent sushi here, and although I was really worried after being sick again last night, I had 4 pieces for lunch and a couple more for dinner. So far, so good…;-) We are now supposed to be eating lunch and dinner at the ride site, which ends up requiring a pretty long day before we can get back to the hotel. We plan to rent our own car tomorrow, which will give us a little more flexibility. We were going to share with Kathy B, but there are just too many crew people here for that to work out. I am still hoping to get my hair cut, too. Jim B let Grace R shave his head with horse clippers. She tried to convince me, but I am still not that desperateϑ
It seems as though we all have good days and not so good days as far as the GI stuff. An immodium a day is better than an apple for keeping the Dr. away in this country! Dave is still healthy, but the travel hit him yesterday. Also, he keeps getting asked to shoe horses. Jeff P is the farrier for the USA, but David Parro is a vet friend from Chile and one of their horses needed shoes. Dave ended up spending most of this afternoon in the South American barn, which worked out great because the money will help pay for the rental car (they are paying $2-300 per horse!!)…we decided to splurge on a rental through the organizing committee, an SUV at $75 per day, but it is worth it since Dave, Steve and Jeff are all big guys and I just don’t think we would fit in a toaster (one of the small, cheap rental cars).
I rode again this morning and over lunch Cheryl and I finally went and got our hair cut. It cost me 8 ringats (less than $3) and I really like it. It feels soooo much cooler and the people were wonderful!! They took my name and email and I am hoping to stop by and drop off some pins or stickers for the kids before we leave. Steve walked Rev for about 6 miles this afternoon and we went through the icing routine, etc, etc. Now on the way to a BBQ at the Sutra resort. Unfortunately, it ends up being a lot of driving, but we are planning on leaving for the barn at 7am tomorrow, so will be able to sleep in a little.
Anyway, while last night was a lot of fun, now we are focusing on the race. It is only 3 days away, and things are getting a lot busier. We are still icing Rev 3 times per day, riding her once and walking about 5 miles once (Dave or Steve have been pitching in to do most of the walking since they arrived). We practiced taking bullets (liter water bottles) from crew while riding today, and that made the same old loop a little more fun. Rev has always been good about letting me take bottles at a trot, but we tried a couple at the canter, and that was fine, too. I doubt we will be going that fast here, but was fun anyway. I am planning on starting at 9mph for the first loop, and will decide about the later loops once we see what happens at the first vet gate. I have spoken with Dr. Martha (head treatment vet) and several officials who are very concerned about the race. Right now there are 144 horses entered and they are expecting 1/3 of them to finish and 1/3 to need treatment. I am sooo curious about how people will ride. I know there will be some who go out like gangbusters (hoping there will be many), but some will ride smart. I don’t think many horses will be able to maintain a 12 mph pace here with the humidity, but it is possible the weather will make it an easier night as it did last year. I am actually hoping for a really hot, humid, god awful night, because as nasty as it will be for us, I think we will be able to ride smart enough to get through (and hopefully do well). There are also several miles of deep sand in the 1st and 3rd loops, which will make it a little more technical as well.
It has also started me thinking about Kentucky in 2010 (the next world equestrian games). This event will be a difficult one to follow. There are 34 countries here (actually 33 since Brazil had quarantine problems and won’t be able to come) and that is doubtful for Kentucky. The King of Malaysia has paid the vast majority of the bill for this event (including horse, rider and groom transport), which has enabled many countries to compete that otherwise could not (Russia, Guatemala, etc.). It will also probably be impossible to match the grandeur of this event. Opening ceremonies will be in a arena that seats 40K, and it is expected to be full (largely because the king is competing). There have been advertisements for the race scattered all over in the media, including ESPN. All lunches and dinners at the ride site (for riders and crew) include pasta stations, various hot foods, sushi (I have eaten sushi for lunch and dinner the last 3 days!), and dessert buffets including a chocolate fountain. It is a long cry from what endurance is really all about, but I am sure we will be getting a harsh reminder on the 7th!
Nov 5th
Just checked online and saw the election was called….very happy about that!! I came to the media room to get online and check, and got kicked out by two journalists (this is MY seat and I am with the media). Whatever, I found a spot to sit on the steps outside…For some reason have been having trouble sending out messages, so you will probably be receiving mine a little late. When the connection is slow, emails just sit in my outbox waiting to be sent. Anyway, got a ride in this morning and they did a mock vet gate for all of us. It was a little fumbly, but better to practice now than the real day. We have gotten our hold box space, so the grooms and handlers are walking through with Becky H now to plan strategy. I have to check my weight on the official scales. Opening ceremonies are tonight at 8:30, and we have several meetings this afternoon (plus another hand walking for Rev). The horses are all looking really good…pretty full of themselves and Jim did some more bloodwork yesterday after work. Rev (and a couple others) are a little low in sodium, so will be adding more salt to her meals…
Later on the 6th
All horses vetted through and looked really good. Flame was a bit of a raving lunatic, but all the others were pretty well settled in spite of the excitement. I was worried about making weight and fudged it a little by wetting my sponge, carrying my reins and keeping my easy boot in my cantle bag (although those are not supposed to be included. I weighed in at 75.6 kg (the minimum is 75 kg) so that was a relief because I did not bring riding weights. I was pretty tired today, and Dave essentially booted me out of the barn this afternoon. It took a while because I couldn’t find a ride (everyone is sort of running to their own tune today), and I kept thinking of last minute things I wanted to do. However, I was finally able to catch a ride with Grace and Jan at 4pm, so I got home at 5 and actually slept for an hour before meeting with Vonita B, while Dave stayed at the barn to help shape shoes and take care of Rev. Vonita is going to be my road crew person, so I wanted to let her know what I wanted at flybys along the trail and what to expect with Rev. Rev and I don’t have a person to swipe the card at the in gate (there are not a lot of extra crew people here and they were all snagged), so the plan is that Steve will swipe my card and then run to help start cooling Rev while I unsaddle and carry my own saddle to the crew area when I come into the hold. Imperfect, but will hopefully work.
The team had to be declared this evening, but we riders still do not know who it will be. I expect we will find out at the last meeting with Becky tomorrow morning. Dave is the eternal pessimist and worries that we will be chosen to ride as individuals rather than on the team because of Rev’s foot injury during transit. He may be right, but there have been issues for everyone along the way, so I am still hopeful. However it turns out, I think we have 6 horses that look really good- and that is the most important thing. There have been problems for a lot of the foreign horses here. The Canadian anhydrotic horse overheated following a 10 mile training ride a few days ago and needed to be treated, so he will not start (but he is fine). There have also been tie ups, colics and lameness issues in the other quarantine barns, so vetting all 6 USA horses, 5 of 6 Canadian and 2 of 2 Japanese horses (all the horses in our barn but 1) was great! I do not yet know the total number that will start, but will probably be somewhere around 130. Looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight and that should get me ready for being up overnight for the ride. Will probably not send another update until after the ride (hopefully that means later in the day on the 8th after I have finished and slept!) but keep all extremities you have crossed for us!!!
Nov 8 Well, it is the day after the ride started, and most of you probably already know the results, but it was quite the endeavor and I will give you a play by play of what happened, as much as it hurts. The team was announced that morning and was me and Rev, Kathy and Theatric, Jan and Leon and Cheryl and Reason. Reason had developed scratches on one foot the morning of vetting in, and had been very lame. However, they were able to get him vetted through with a “B” for gait (and a lot of work!!). I had thought that might bump me onto the team, but it turned out it didn’t matter and we would have been on it anyway. All the riders napped or at least relaxed the afternoon before the ride started. We saddled up an hour before the ride started to warm them up and all headed over to the ride start. I think the final starting number was 129 horses. I had been very worried about Rev at the start with the announcer, horses milling around and general chaos, and Becky had agreed we could start after the melee and do the first loop at a speed of 9mph. However, it turned out that she was actually one of the most relaxed. She just walked around quietly and actually grazed while I was riding her with a heart rate of 37bpm. Theatric and Flame were whirling dervishes, and Becky came over and asked if Jan and I could ride the first loop at 9.5 mph because she wanted to start them (Kathy and Val) at a slower speed to get them calmed down We left the start line in the last 1/3 of the horses and Leon and Rev were really pretty good. It was a little crazy as horses passed us, particularly one loose horse galloping up on us on the trail. However, we managed to keep them fairly settled and did an average of 9.7mph. At the first check, Rev’s heart rate was down within 2 minutes. Actually, her recoveries were phenomenal all day. Jan and Leon and I were supposed to ride the entire day together, so the plan was both horses would enter the vet gate together when both heart rates were down. I adore Grace and Jan, but they had been telling us the entire time we were in Florida that Leon recovered the best of all the US horses and they were concerned about having to wait on another horse, so it was actually a little gratifying that Rev out recovered him by 1-2 minutes at every check, and we were waiting on them. Cheryl and John were a little ahead of us, and our 2 horses got through next, but Kathy and Val gave us all a scare because Theatric and Flame almost did not recover within 30 minutes (the time required to continue in the ride). In fact, we ended up getting a gift there, because Theatric’s pulse was too high when he entered the vet gate, and when he finally did recover and re-entered the gate it was over the 30 minute time, but the card swiper was not working and the officials didn’t realize he was over the time allowed. Whew we were lucky and all US riders were through the hold.
For loop 2, the first loop in the dark, Becky asked us to ride at 10.5 mph, which we were able to maintain pretty easily except for one pretty scary hitch. During this loop, we had a bad thunder storm and quite a bit of rain. Near the end of the loop, we were nearly struck by lightening and the horses bolted. I saw the bolt of light and sparks all around us. The thunder clap was immediately after and both horses bolted. Unfortunately, Leon bolted into Rev and pushed both horses out into the jungle. We hit a tree, and both horses went down and rolled. Jan and I both managed to hold the reins and I got up right away because I had not hit very hard. I had pulled Rev’s bridle nearly off her head, but managed to hold onto her. I looked for Jan, but she was still on the ground under Leon. I got over to her, and was at first really scared because her face was bloody. Fortunately it was just a bad scratch, but it took several minutes before I could ascertain whether she was OK to stand and to get her back on the horse. Then I mounted and we finished the loop. Because there had been quite a bit of rain, we were riding in ankle deep water a lot of the way, and I kept praying we didn’t get zapped again. The horses actually vetted through the gate quickly and we got Jan fixed up during the hold. It turns out a bolt had hit the venue as well, and since everyone was standing in water over their feet because of the rainfall, they had actually felt the electricity run up their feet. The organizing committee has each of us riding with a GPS unit with a red button we were supposed to push in an emergency. They had emergency personnel prepared to get to any point on trail within 6 minutes (and we all had to ride with a card stating our name and blood type). However, I didn’t even think about it until later in the day. Anyway, I think we were all very lucky to have come through the storm. Unfortunately, at this hold Sunny (John Crandell’s horse) got pulled for lameness and Cheryl Dell, who started vomiting at the first vet gate, withdrew from the ride. She had only eaten watermelon that day, so we aren't sure if it was nerves which started her vomiting and then dehydration set in, or if it was food poisoning, but she just got sicker and sicker. That left us with only 3 team members left and all would have to finish. As it turned out, Reason’s scratches were not a factor.
On the third loop, Becky asked us to go back to a slower speed because a lot of people were getting pulled, and the horses were slogging through some deep footing and puddles. The goal was 9.5-10.5 mph, and we did it at 9.8 mph. Although we cantered the entire loop, we needed to stop to cool very frequently (the humidity was 98%). Most of the water points were set up with generators with hoses so the stewards could hand the riders a hose and you could spray the horse down while you were sitting on him or her. Unfortunately, only about ½ of the checks had generators to allow this, but Rev actually let me hose her off from her back…I couldn’t believe it!!, and we probably stopped to do that 2 or 3 times during the loop.
Both Leon and Rev looked great at the check, and Becky asked us to bump up the speed for loop 4. She asked for a speed between 11 and 12 mph. She also told Val to pick up her speed to try to catch us. Rev had been leading Leon the entire day, and I told Becky it would be nice to give her a break and allow her to draft off someone else for a bit. The plan was for Val to catch us during that loop, but Rev continued to be very willing and we cantered the loop at 13 mph. Stopping to hose them slowed down our overall pace to 11 mph, but we still managed to pick up our placing and pass a fair number of horses and Val wasn’t able to pick up any time on us. At the following vet check (#4), the vet said Rev had the best mucous membrane color of any horse he had examined so far that day, and her CRI was 52/48 (which is great!).
Sooo, Becky asked us to pick up speed again for the 5th loop. The goal was 13 mph. I told her we had cantered most of the last 2 loops at that speed, but cooling slowed our overall pace. She suggested we ride at a slower pace if it meant we could stop at fewer water spots, but to try to maintain as close to 13mph as possible. We cantered most of this loop at 13 mph, but this was the first loop the horses didn’t drink well, so we ended up stopping at most of the water points to offer water, resulting in a pace of only a little over 10 mph. The horses pulsed through rapidly again and we headed to the vet gate. Unfortunately, Rev limped. It was her LF, and the examining vet allowed us to re-present at the exit exam (which gave us the hold time to try to figure out what was going on). We couldn’t find anything in the leg, but iced it and re-presented an hour later. She was still off, so we were done at 84 miles (there were 2 short loops left). That meant the team was out. At least it was unrelated to her shipping injury (that was bruising in the RF foot), but VERY small consolation. Over the next few hours she developed filling in the LF ankle, and it was the LF which Leon had collided into when we had the thunder bolt accident, so we assume she had an injury then, and the miles gradually took their toll. Jan went out on her own the last 2 loops and was the first US horse to finish, but Leon was pulled at the finish. He was lame in the RF…once again the leg involved in his accident with Rev.
So, Kathy and Val ended up being our only finishers….sort of ironic considering we were worried whether these 2 horses would get through the first vet check. The final verdict was only 3 countries finished a team (we think…). I second guessed my ride briefly…”If I went slower after the fall on the 2nd loop, would we have finished, etc, etc”. However, that’s not why we are here. At the world championship, we need to push the envelope as long as we do not endanger the horse. We had planned on a top ten finish (and hoping on top five) and we were on track to do that. There is no point in just going around for a completion. If I knew she was sore, of course I would have backed off to try to eke out a completion for the team, but she had felt fine on trail. The same was true of Jan, so second guessing is pointless (and just causes ulcers). The arabs stopped by to try to buy Rev, but I told them she was not for sale. Dave and I had talked about it before we came and decided we would not sell for less than $2 million. I guess it’s nice that they liked her, though:).
I think our result is incredibly depressing in that it will once again get drug though ridecamp as a failure for the team, although I really believe the system worked. This is the 3rd world championships I have participated in, and I think the process has improved significantly beyond my past experiences. I think we had horses capable of doing very well here and we were on our way to doing it. None of our horses had metabolic problems, and Becky, Jim and Todd were simply wonderful. I feel terrible for letting them down, but we need to focus on moving forward and continuing to improve the system. That’s it for here…
Meg