Duct tape part 3

[Coujurs1@aol.com]

  Now that Darolyn and her Mark and Betty and Steve Baker have arrived, we 
were again invited out to show them Tahnoun's place.  And have the usually 
feast, yes lamb with tongue must be an every meal kind of thing.  (but it 
tastes just like chicken!).  We mentioned to Sheikh Tahnoun that we needed to 
introduce the horses to a camel, since they probably haven't had the 
opportunity, and we sure didn't want it to be in mid race.  He got on his 
cell phone, did I mention that everyone had a cell phone (at least one)?  I'm 
pretty sure they issue them at the airport, kind of like the guns they issue 
at the border of all Southeastern states.  He told us a camel would be 
delivered to our barn area.  
  Sure enough the next day in a turn out pen, near our barn, was a camel.  
Now remember they don't name them, of course we did, Delilia (she had really 
long lashes) and she was nekkid Howard!  Most of the "camel herds" we passed 
on the way to Al Wathba, ride site, all had blankets on them.  We asked 
Ashraf why, he said that it's winter and they think the camels are cold, but 
they aren't.  That day we took all the horses at various times to meet 
Delilia.  Conquistador was a prince, Darolyn said it was because he thought 
it was his long lost relative.  Quistor is 16+ hands, and resembles my 
mothers old trooper Royal Run Amir, none of the body parts seem to fit, but 
the horse looks fantastic once you put him under saddle.  Goat was not 
thrilled at all by Delilia, he snorted blew, and didn't want to have a thing 
to do with her.  I told Duane to go get the camera, because he looked 
beautiful all swelled up!  Duane comes back and starts taking pictures of the 
darn camel!  I said not the camel, Goat, look how pretty Goat looks!  Men <g> 
  We did get some good pictures of Goat, Delilia and Quistor.  All the horses 
finally decided that Delilia wasn't going to eat them.  She was a real 
sweetie, if only she would have fit in the cargo plane!  NOT!
  Okay it's finally getting closer to race time, and we heard rumors that we 
would vet in on Saturday probably sometime around 11am.  Saturday morning we 
get the driver to take us down to the vet check area to see if we can find 
anything out, they say maybe 11 maybe 11:30 we ask for a little notice since 
it is about 20-30 minute walk, they say they will call Dr. Andrew.  Remember 
everyone has cell phones, we had two at one time, and someone called from the 
back-seat to the phone in the front seat!  I lie to you not!  So we get the 
call and head down, our entry fees still hadn't been paid, and they were 
somewhat hesitant to give us a vet card (we did remind them that Sheikh 
Mansour was the person that we were riding for and that this was his 
property, that it shouldn't be a problem).  All 5 of our group vetted through 
just fine, (Quistor, Goat, Jubilee, Abdeel and Corkey).  And they told us to 
"officially" weigh in.  We had been asking all along what official weight 
was, since FEI has gone to 155 pounds, that is what we thought the weight 
was.  Wrong!  
Betty and I were literally out borrowing baggies from Dr. Andrew and scooping 
up sand.  Finally mine read 75.8 Kilos and they wrote it down.  Then Ashraf 
showed up, finally <g>, with the lead weights and saddle pads.  We dumped the 
sand and went in with these weights, they officials said, oh you don't have 
to weigh again you already made weight!  We said that we were changing pads 
and needed to make sure we still weighed in at the proper weight.  Still no 
riders packets, were told first that we could pick them up at the Mafrach 
hotel (where most of the other riders were staying) then told we would get 
them Sunday morning.  Not the most organized event I have ever attended.  
Darolyn said she had been to plenty of rides that were like this, not in the 
SE not since we straighten JD out <g>.  It really messes with my type A a$$!
  Anyway, the ride meeting was unbelievable!  They introduced all the 
dignitaries, and then had a video production of the trail and the procedures 
for ride day, who said they weren't organized?  This video rivaled some 
movies out now!
  Sunday:  Finally at 6pm they start handing out ride packets, a stampede 
start to the line.  I'm behind Howard's woman, Valerie and she tells me that 
she isn't riding Jedi, major bummer.  This ride is his cup of tea.  At check 
in, they give you a bag with a book Called "UAE Endurance, Traversing 
Fontiers" pretty neat, a rider penny, entry list, and a credit card looking 
thing.  This is to be carried in the penny in a special Velcro pocket and you 
present it upon arriving at the vet check, when the horse has met pulse 
criteria, and after passing the vets.  
  Nina and Goat