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Six more horses came in this evening. Three from Dubai's stables and  
three from Argentina. John and I got clearance to go to the airport  
and cover the arrival. Very cool!!  A military C-130 Hercules - big  
gray ugly cargo plane (but Azrin said she's starting to think of them  
as beautiful:) . Since the Terengganu runway isn't long enough for  
commercial cargo planes, Malaysia is flying the horses from Kuala  
Lumpur to Terengganu courtesy of the Malaysian Royal Airforce.

Yesterday we filled out forms for airport clearance, handed them off  
to Major Majid who promised to take care of it - he'd do his best to  
get us the clearance. Sure enough, plans went through. Wan picked us  
up at 4pm today, it had just started raining (we watched the big  
thunderheads forming inland while lunching and working by the pool -  
a big t-storm to the west, another to the east - it was bound to  
start raining again from some direction!). We drove through the rain  
to the airport, ready for the 5pm arrival. Which of course was late -  
the plane was just being loaded in KL. Dato Kamarudin (Awak) was  
there to meet the horses - the three from Argentina were just  
purchased by him and the Terengganu Endurance Team. It's very  
interesting here in that there are many clubs - or teams - being  
formed. There are riders who are not 'affiliated' - they just do  
their own thing - but there are also lots of clubs. All wearing their  
club, or stable, or team, colors - a lot of support and friendship.  
It's pretty cool.  Awak said he was helping the Terengganu group get  
started. He took them to Argentina in August where they rode Miguel's  
and Hugo's horses - had great rides, and bought the horses to bring  
them back to Malaysia.

I still get thrills from the connections of people, friends, in the  
sport - around the world. Awak was one of the group of Endurance  
pioneers (Dr. Nik too!) that jumped on the Dubai WEC bandwagon 1n  
1998. A group of riders that took whatever horses they had at the  
time (thorougbreds, polo ponies, whatever) - trained them, qualified  
for the WEC by riding a 120km course consisting of hundreds of loops  
around a polo field, flew to Dubai and entered the first Malaysian  
team in a World Endurance Championship!  I was there in '98 as  
'groom' for Leonard Leisens, who is here sitting next to me drinking  
his glass of wine, and will ride in the Sultan's Cup. And my  
Argentine friends - with many more adventures together, here too.  
Love it!

We talked while waiting for the plane to arrive - John and I, Awak,  
Salim (assistant show secretary, Jay - another of Azrin's recruits  
from the '96 World Cup she managed in KL.) Talk of horses and  
endurance and polo and politics and oil... Malaysia is a major oil  
exporter (they export an extremely high quality oil, and then have to  
import the 'regular' stuff) , and they are starting to reap the  
benefits of higher oil prices. And Terengganu is the source of  
Malaysia's oil and natural gas, and also starting to see the benefits  
as it maintains a percentage of profit of oil sold. Much of the oil  
is nationally owned - there are a few corporations here also (Exon,  
BP, etc) but the state and national government still get a cut from  
their production.  One of the things I really like about Malaysia is  
that even with economic growth and expansion and building boom - they  
don't loose their sense of beauty. When they build something here, it  
is also artistically beautiful, graceful, colorful. Maybe since their  
land is so beautiful, the appreciation is deeply engrained. Their  
clothing, their architecture, gardens, sculptures textiles - beautiful.

So finally motion at the doors, the plane is coming soon. We donned  
our security passes and went out onto the runway. There we met Andy  
Pavlovsky who flew with the horses from Buenos Aires - it was great  
to see him! With his alpargatas (Argentine shoes), leather belt, just  
a touch of gaucho :)  We could here a deep rumble and there it was -  
the big gray 'Charlie' C-130 Hercules - a vintage war cargo plane  
that earned the special career status of having transported  
something, somewhere, in every part of the world - the old Charlie  
plane had circled the globe.

The plane came in low, landed and made a quick stop (short runway) ,  
circled back around and came to the waiting crew with it's precious  
cargo. Two weeks earlier the US horses arrived on the same plane, but  
the weather conditions were so bad that the commercial flight which  
carried the riders and was supposed to arrive just before the horses  
made two attempts to land but couldn't get a bearing on the runway  
with the 600meter cloud ceiling and headed back to KL to try again  
later. The cargo plane came in, made 4 circles around the runway, and  
pointed the nose down the runway -  keeping full power just in case  
they had to pull up quickly - made visual contact with the runway  
just before touching the tarmac. I imagine this old war era plane has  
made tighter landings than that over the years!

The cargo boxes were unloaded - carefully - with a system of jacks  
and rollers- very slick. The OC had to construct their own transport  
boxes (pallets) because the commercial carriers (KLM) couldn't loan  
their boxes for use on the military planes. The Argentine horses came  
off first, lots of bodies helping here and there,  then unloaded the  
big eyed horses out of the boxes and into the trailer. (the truck and  
trailer of the Royal Terengganu Endurance Stable - which has  
permission to flash blue lights (police and royalty only) on the  
highway, plus it can transport 6 horses. The three horses from Dubai  
came off next (gorgeous fit groomed beasts) - into the trailer, and  
off they go.

We stayed around a little longer, galking and talking, and had a  
chance to meet the crew - the captain (pilot) and co-pilot - a young  
woman! dressed in military garb with a bright blue head scarf, and  
the crew. Nice folks. The woman was scheduled to take her tests next  
week to qualify her as full captain - pilot. I heard people talking  
about what a good pilot she was - a special touch with the controls,  
smooth landings. Very cool!

We followed the horses back to the stable. Salim had to hurry back  
and arrive before the horses to oversee the passport verification for  
entry into the quarantine barns. John and I got entry into the  
Argentine barn for a little tour - some photos. First class. Screen  
walls, big airy rooms, open stalls - fans with mister.

oops - time to close the lounge  - gotta go, more tomorrow!

Steph

(p.s. this email didn't go out last night, sending it this morning  
(malaysia time) - will have photos up soon at http:// 
www.endurance.net/international/malaysia/ 2007sultanscup/



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