Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Brazil! I arrived at the Sao Paulo airport and was greeted at the
customs control by a special group just for US citizens. 11 guys in
black suits clustered around the special lane, just for USA, everybody
else waltzed through the easy lanes. I had to do fingerprints, both
hands, an iris scan, etc etc. Seems Brazil is a little mad at the US
for imposing new visa and entry requirements on Brazilians, and are
retaliating.

Plus the price for a visa for US citizens is 3 times the amount for
others (Canada, UK, etc). Oh well, war and politics...

Henrique Garcia met me at the airport, a friendly, smiling handsome
Brazilian. (how can an entire nation be so beautiful?). Henrique
navigated the Sao Paulo traffic with ease.

Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world, a metropolitan area
of 18 million people, with many different ethnic groups. It is the
heart of Brazil, huge and sprawling, energetic and diverse.

There are some very poor people living here, with tiny brick and
cement buildings packed closely together, and clustered along the
hillside. We drove through some nice sections too, some very stark
contrasts in population.

Henrique headed towards his house in the suburbs, a gated
neighborhood, central to his ranch and clients in the country, and his
wife Amarylus´s veterinary clinice. Both Henrique and Amarylus are
vets.  Henrique does equines, Aamarylus does small animals along with
her mother (also a vet).

Tonight was the night of the National awards for the Brazilian Arabian
Association, so the plan was to meet Aamarylus at the house, and go
together to the awards. But... on the way to the house he decided he
could probably squeeze in one more veterinary call, so he wheeled
around and we headed back out to the country.

We drove around (seemed like circles to me) and came to a small
jumper/eventer stable nestled in the woods. He did a lameness exam on
one client´s horse, and then another rider asked him to look at her
horse too. H is very kind, very human, and also a very good vet. I
think the world is his friend, and he had a hard time getting
away. Finally we headed back to the house, met Amarylus, and cleaned
up. Amarylus in not the typical Brazilian, blonde and blue-eyed, of
Swiss descent, but in her words ´"I am 100% Brazilian!´ These people
have a stong national pride, they love their crazy country."

The awards ceremony was in a nice part of the city, in an old hotel,
tall ceilings, very ornate, and they served a wonderful dinner!
Several courses, most excellent food. There were many awards to
present, and everybody was handed noise-makers (whistles, rattles,
etc) - each award was accompanied by music and lound cheering. A very
animated ceremony! Endurance has only recently become a recognized
sport of the Arabian Breeders Association, and the endurance riding
awards were by far the nosiest. I think I saw a few halter people
cringe :)

The next morning (Saturday) Amarylus had to work at her clinic, and I
went with Henrique to go to his ranch, and to make some more
veterinary calls. He has several endurance horses of his own, plus over
20 that belong to clients that he boards and trains for endurance. He
employs several people to help ride and take care of the horses, and
has a very strict training program. He has daily charts for each horse
with the workout program, heartrate and recovery (before and after
each workout - including a 10 minute CRI for each horse), feeding
schedule, special requirements. Plus he personally evaluates every
horse, every day, to monitor weight, soundness, etc. He has developed
a special feed for endurance horses, a Ca:P balanced rice bran
supplement, and a specially formulated electrolyte developed with
funding from Gatorade.

Henrique´s stable was awarded the High Performance stable of the year
for the 2003 Endurance season by the Arabian Breeders Association -
The most awards, and accumulated points. He is very very serious about
the sport. He has been riding in endurance for 15 years, since he was
a Young Rider at the age of 12. Plus he is probably one of the few, or
only, endurance riders who has completed four World Championships -
Kansas in 96, Dubai in 98, Compiegne in 00 and Jerez in 02. And now he
has another good horse, and hopes for Dubai in 04.

We arrived at the ranch, and Henrique was a flurry of activity,
checking horses, taking blood for papers for the ride this weekend,
filling out passport ID charts, talking with his riders and clients,
etc etc. Nice place, several large grassy pastures, a barn with a few
stalls, tack room, hitching rails, concrete for trotting horses for
soundness, shoeing, etc.

Everybody saddled up and we went for a long, slow ride
(theoretically... some of his clients get a little carried away)
before the weekend ride. I rode a mare of Henrique's, a new horse that
he purchased some time ago as an unbred, broke, horse to prepare for
endurance. Neither was true (but he now has a nice filly out of a
Nat´l champion stallion :) but now the mare is in training. She was
just started this spring, still doing walks and slow trots, but we let
her go just a little and Henrique was very pleased with her. She´s
forward and bold and he thinks she will be a good one - good heart and
conformation.

A very nice ride, along the roads and trails, nice forests, so many
new bird songs and trees and plants, very rich. Sao Paulo is situated
at 22degrees latitude, right on the Tropic of Capricorn - one foot in
the subtropic zone, the other in the tropic zone. Very very green,
brilliantly green, and the blue sky was studded with puffy cumulus
clouds.

I rode with a most amazing man - Luis Oberto - totally blind, but
lives to ride. He was invited to ride last December in Dubai for the
National Day Cup. H and his best trainer, Vilson Suarez, flew two
horses to UAE and both Luis and Vilson rode in the ride. Luis has been
blind since the age of 14, but never quit riding. Horses are his
passion - he said ´I was born to ride, I was born to have four
legs´.

Luis´ profession is Agro-Ecomony (studied at Columbia University), his
English is excellent and he seems to know everything about Brazil. He
explained the people, the agriculture, the geography, and his face
would light up when describing certain areas, such as the Pantonos
region in the southwest of Brazil. (later). Brazil is a land of
cattle, coffee, sugar cane, soya, grain - a highly productive nation,
capable of feeding most of the world. And much of the western
wilderness of Brazil is still unsettled.

Luis keeps his horses at Henrique´s stable, and also rides other
people´s horses. He is confident on the horse, rides just as fast as
anybody else, and only asks to be warned about low branches! Truly
amazing. He knew by smell and feel exactly where he was on the trail,
and corrected me as I started guiding my mare the wrong way - ´go this
way, the horses know´. I followed him down the right trail.

...

More tomorrow.

Steph


===========================================================The whole ride 
experience can be very hard, and at times you question why
you put yourself through such abuse. But then you remember all those
moments when you pop up over a hill and are suddenly surrounded by the most
stunning views.  It's just you and your horse and for a moment time stops
and you can hear the angels sing.  Therein lies the addiction, at least for
me.
~  Leslie Beyers

ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

===========================================================