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[RC] President's Cup: a little hay adventure - Steph Teeter

We've been trying to find a source of local hay for a few days now -  the
grass hay that they raise here -  primarily for the camels. It's nothing
special, some sort of brome mix, higher in fiber, lower in sugars. The
horses really seem to like it though - I think they're spending more time in
the stalls, a righer diet in general (excellent timothy, grain rations) and
are just craving some plain old high fiber grass hay.

I've been asking the stewards if they can bring some in, but I don't think
anybody has really known what it is I'm talking about... finally Dr.
Niranjan (UAE Fed) suggested I go to the camel track and ask for 'Saudi
hay' - and that somebody would understand. Ok, but the hay is in big round
bales (maybe 800 lb bales) and probably wouldn't fit in the back of the
Isuzu. Jackie Shephard (trainer for Cathy Brown) said that one of the
Spanish teams had a pickup truck, maybe we could borrow it. Just as we
looked over to the Spanish barn, we saw the pickup wheeling out of the barn,
headed down the road. They turned off at the King's hill (will explain
later) and started driving up the circular road to the top. So I set off to
find them and ask. As I went up the mountain (counter clockwise) there were
coming back down (clockwise) and I stopped them to ask. My poor Spanish, and
their (better) English, finally they understood what I wanted. Since they
were just headed out to follow their rider on the course and needed a rig,
we swapped. They headed out in the Isuzu Trooper and I took the pickup (very
much an Idaho style rig :)

We set off for the camel souk to start asking for Saudi Hay. Terry Simone
(father of rider Virginie Simon), the trainer Silvain Flores, Jackie, Jenny
Monteath (also helping Cathy Brown) and I loaded into the truck (a
six-pack). At the souk we tried various methods, various men, various
gestures... and were having a very difficult time getting anybody to
understand what we were after. Finally the light dawned, and enthusiastic
gestures and pointing, and they sent us off in the direction of one of the
camel camps. At the camp we started anew, questions, gestures, and finally
an English speaking vet (Indian I think) in a little beat up car came along
and took us to the right spot - a flatbed trailer with 2 big round bales on
it, and the right man. A little negotiating, 60 dh (around $18) and the hay
was ours! I pulled up below the trailer and Terry and the Arab men rolled
the big bale into the back of the truck and voila! We backed up to the hay
tent inside our barn complex and rolled it in. There it now sits occupying
one third of the tent space :)

Arazi is happy!

Steph

p.s. the King's mountain is a huge hill (a mound of sand with a circular
drive around it's perimeter - close to 500' high) that was built to allow
the King to view the first President's Cup ride. 25,000 truckloads of sand,
in just a few days. Now the hill is a major feature on the landscape, which
can be seen for miles. Though it has never been used.


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