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Hi Hilga,
I was just perusing thru the race data of the recent Punchestown Open 
European Chapionship and come across the following interesting facts:
1.Thegood Sheikh Mohamad Senior has a dutiful son in Sheikh Hamdan who could 
have won the race by a good 12 minutes on his diminutive horse Gemini but 
Sheikh junior must have put on the break on Gemini to wait for his father on 
the more well known Provocative.
2.Gemini is a horse nobody in France wanted.A "bad"looking horse which my 
colleague Dato Kamaruddin bought 2 years back and "won" in Helguat France in 
2001. I say " won" because this colleague of mine gave the race to his 
French colleague who was riding ,I think ,provocative that time for Sheikh 
Makotum that time.For that act of diplomacy Gemini was finally sold to the 
Sheikh later.Now it seem this is the horse to beat in any endurance world 
event!
3.Sheikh Hamdan who I consider the actual winner of the European Open is an 
excellent rider. He pace well,going at 15+kph throughout the whole race 
except at the last phase when he actually put the bracks on for his 
dad.Gemini's recovery was phenomenal i.e at less than 2 minutes at each 
phase!Compare this with Valary Kanavy's Shahdan who even took 8 minutes to 
recover and her need to speed thing up in each phase up to 16 to 17 kph at 
time , I would say the young Sheikh would be very difficult to beat in many 
many more years ahead.In Gemini,a bad looking horse that no one in France 
wants,he has an excellent campaigner and in himself,you have a very matured 
rider more advance than his age!The WEG was certainly no
fluke as some of the people in ridecamp noted!



Nik


> From: "Hilga Hoefkens" <hilga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "'Nik Isahak Abdullah'" <drnikisahak@xxxxxxxxxxx>, 
> <steph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: AW: Conditioning Miss Gedebe
> Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 11:05:52 +0200
>
> Hi Nik,
> this is a tricky question as I do not know your horse, her conditioning
> up to now, her special problems, her background, and after all I have
> not been to Dubai (so far ;-) and don´t know about the race conditions
> there.
>
> As I see it your first hurdle is the qualification. You need her to
> complete a 100 miler, and I would not wait too long before trying that.
> Don´t wait for the one that might be organised in My, as it well might
> be cancelled again, and then what would you do? You can´t be sure it´ll
> work out at first try. Would be a pitty if she could not make it for any
> minor reason and you would not have the time for another try.
> Good about that: You see how she handles a 100m and as you obviously
> have to ship her out of country for that, you´ll learn about her coping
> with long time transport too.
> Preparing for that and for Dubai I am sure you already condition her
> throughout having laid down lsd and being advanced to interval and
> competition specific work. So maybe now it´s the time to look for her
> "holes" and work on them.
> As I understand you don´t have to worry about season and weather in
> respect to training, footing and winter coat. Still I would adwise not
> to keep her in prime condition all the time, but doing ups and downs,
> giving her hard training and extended holidays over the year. But then
> maybe we get too much used to this schedule due to climate changes over
> the year.
> So all I can do to that respect is, tell you my plans:
> Start early into next season and get my "have to do`s" done nicely to
> qualify. Give her a break after that and bring her back to hard training
> 2 months prior to Dubai if we get selected. My "have to do´s" are CEI
> **** la Burgue in April, CEI** in Aachen as testride for next years
> German Champs and WC in 2006, German Champ in late July or early August.
> I´ll try to fill that up with other rides, to a competition every 4 to 6
> weeks between April and August. We will see how the dates will come
> together.
> My and Paminas "holes" are: We have a hard time turning her fitness into
> speed at rides as she gets screwed up mentally if I go fast. So I need
> to get her used to staying calm with more speed and I´ll try to go for
> tougher races where she can roll up the field from behind in the second
> half, as everybody else gets tired (in that respect maybe Dubay will not
> be "my race" anyway). That´s much better than finishing in the middle of
> the pack with a near runaway over the finishline. My hole: I have to
> shorten the recovery times in gates. That needs some more slowing down
> before we get there (ahem, see above for being screwed up), more
> aggressive cooling most times (weathers), a little more daring and
> gambling, going for intime with her pulse still above 60. At the moment
> I go in at 60 or lower, and the she´ll have 56 or 52 as we are there.
> That´s a waste of time.
>
> All these things may or may not apply to you, but my point is: you´ll
> only see these things as you compete your horse, so go for it. Don´t
> wait for the big day and find out then.
>
> BTW, if anybody (Steph?) has any ideas or comments about my plans,
> please let me know. I am still a relative beginner, only doing Endurance
> since 98 and so far only on one horse.
>
> Best regards and happy trails
>
> Hilga

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