Title: Message
It
would be interesting to know how long ago it was that you were able to find a
fine arab to ride in the desert behind the Giza village, Nazlit el Semman.
With tourism having been in turmoil, many of the horses there are far from fine,
and the government, for reasons best understood by some wizened bureaucrat who
has his desk in the cupboard under the stairs in the basement behind the "Beware
of the Tiger" sign, the entire desert area from the Sphinx to a point a few km
further towards Sakkara has been sealed off with a 2 metre high concrete
wall. Riders from the pyramids stables now have to go through some
interesting gymnastics to get to the desert, and when they do get there they
will find miles of high tension wire bringing electricity from somewhere to
somewhere and the remnants of the construction of the Cairo Ring Road which was
blocked by pressure from the Department of Antiquities and UNESCO some years
ago. Don't get me wrong. As I've said many times before, I love Egypt, it
is my home.....but the desert around the pyramids truly is not beautiful. It is,
however, fairly flat and fast....and these seem to be the most important
attributes when these extravaganzas are organised.
We've
had invitational jumping here, and I've attended it. It was very nice, but
jumping is pretty straightforward. This will be our third extravaganza and they
are neither arranged by Egyptian horsemen, nor are they for Egyptian
horsemen. Egyptian riders in this context merely provide local colour for
the organizers/winners of the event. Hopefully at least one of the riders who
has been informed of this ahead of time had some time to really condition
his/her horse....but the odds aren't great. We have only had something that
passes for endurance for three years. Considering that every horse in Egypt was
dead green to endurance three years ago, and most of the promising ones have
slid off onto the injury list during those three years (usually due to tendon
problems in our deep sand), there likely will be no seasoned compaigners
from the Egyptian side. Those riders who are serious about spending 3 to 5 yrs
bringing along a horse for competion wouldn't be caught dead in one of these
hell-for-leather 22 km/hr barnburners....not at this stage. I don't like
to be pessimistic, but this event is not designed to make Egyptians look
good. It is paid for, from start to finish, by our esteemed guests, and
experience has showed that they don't give a rat's a** about how anyone looks
but them. This event shouldn't generate any negative PR for Egypt....it has
nothing to do with Egypt.
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo,
Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net
Hello
As
someone who has ridden a fine arab in the desert behind the Giza village, I
await further news of this exciting event. If it is anything like the Jumping
event at the Mena House of several years ago ( where the American USET women
cleaned up), the level of competition will be interesting. I only hope this
will not create negative PR for Egypt which really doesnt need any more. I
wish I were there.
Alex Dees
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- [RC] Giza Ride, ATDEES
