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Sitting in the little reception room, dark outside - and windy and chilly - the 
TV is blaring from the back room, music and talk show. I guess I'm a little 
homesick tonight... Just a few minutes to type and then I'll be picked up to go 
to 'the function' . I think this is sort of like ride meeting, dinner, etc. 
Tomorrow the horses vet in. Today they inspected the horses to pick the senior 
and junior teams for the Championship (Namibia, Botswana, South Africa). 
Serious stuff, reminds me of USEF!  The ride is both the Namibian National 
Championship ride and the African Championship (continental championship event 
- like our PanAms or North Americans). It's a big deal event, and by combining 
the two, they can better afford to put on the rides (FEI rides are very 
expensive - they have to bring in foreign vets and judges, etc) and it can also 
give the ride a little more oomph and promotion. 

We drove the trail today- that was great fun! It's really really desert here. I 
can't send any photos for now (this computer won't take my USB device to 
transfer photos - plus the link is pretty slow, might not be able to send much 
anyway). So I'll have to just keep writing, and do photos later. Everybody 
piled into and onto the LandCruisers and headed for the trail. Over to Dune 7, 
past the place where Hollywood has set up camp, building a little 'town' and 
filming the 10,000 BC movie - supposed to be a blockbuster type film. Speaking 
of films - the stable that they are using for the ride camp was built for 
another Hollywood movie "Flight of the Phoenix"  with Dennis Quaid. Supposedly 
Wesley Snipes is here too, filming some other movie. Wow - Namibia is on the 
map - partially thanks to Angelina and Brad I think! The locals talk about her 
all the time. 

Anyway - the trail - looked an awful lot like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Egypt - sandy - 
beautiful flowing dunes, scrubby gravelly sand flats, washes, a 'river bed' 
that looked like a moonscape in places - very desolate, a few plants hanging on 
to life. A vine with roots that go down 50 meters, bringing water to the fruits 
that the thorny bush produces. Lifeline of the bush people in the past. The 
Namib desert is the 'oldest desert in the world' - I'm not geologist and don't 
quite know what that means, but it is something they are very proud of! Water 
is precious here, very precious. Walvis Bay (2nd largest city in Namibia - 
80,000 people at most) gets its water from the Kousk (sp!) river - which is 
entirely underground except in extremely wet conditions - but has a good clean 
water supply from the mountains. But water is precious and people don't waste 
it. 

Deep deep sand - this is going to be a very challenging trail - more deep sand 
and dunes than any other ride I've seen. These horses have to be tough. I've 
seen some fantastic horses so far - the Namibia market is still wide open, no 
foreign buyers yet. South Africa has already seen sales boom from sales to the 
middle east market after the export laws were softened. There are lots of 
breeders of Arabians here - both halter and endurance - they are hoping that at 
some point their horses will be noticed as well. 

The people are wonderful here - friendly, gregarious, animated - it's a close 
knit group, children and teens that ride together, play together, parents that 
ride together - and work together to keep building the sport. They've done a 
bit of travelling - having riders in Aachen, as well as Dubai 2005. They sent 
young riders to Bahrain last year for the WEC for Young Riders. They've had 
riders at Presidents Cup - they are ambitious, and eager for more International 
participation. Since they can't send horses overseas to compete without 3+ 
months of quarantine, and great expense, they have to rely on horses from other 
countries to supply their riders with competition mounts. And they are all 
(Nambia and South Africa) hoping to build a network of ride exchanges - bring 
riders here to ride the local horses, and in return send their riders abroad. A 
wonderful idea - we talked quite a bit last night (over several bottles of fine 
South African red wine :) about how to build this network -
it's a great opportunity for people to ride International without the expense, 
restrictions, hassle, etc of doing FEI Championships. And such wonderful 
International flavor too - to get closer to each other's customs, build new 
friendships, etc. 

better send this while I can - more later

Steph




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