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[RC] Malaysia Background, please excuse any repetition - Lucie Hess

I’m off on another adventure, this time to South East Asia. I am going to 
Malaysia to assist the US Endurance Team in the 2008 World Endurance 
Championship. The WEC is a hundred mile horse RACE through the countryside and 
towns.

Why Malaysia? It seems one of the rich guys, a Sultan, like a king of the area 
I’m going to, found out about Endurance Riding, and he wanted to show off his 
country, so he and a few of his buddies qualified to compete and they have been 
working on having the Race put on there. They have built all of these new 
facilities and I think horses from 100 countries are participating. That means 
some countries shipped in by airplane as many as 6 horses per country. I think 
the Sultan is paying for some of the shipping costs. Horses were flown by 
airplane in individual box stalls that are loaded by high lifts into Cargo 
planes. They had to expand the runway and then decided to rebuild the airport 
while they were at it. Since 1998, I have been going to help the Team or one 
time I had a press pass and helped report on the race and take photos for 
EnduranceNet, an internet website that provides coverage of US and 
International Endurance Riding/Racing.When I heard
there was a possibility of the team going to Malaysia, I was going to make 
sure I didn’t miss this one. When I heard one of my friends, Jan Worthington 
from Illinois, had a good chance to go and represent the US .. That made it all 
that much better.I’ve known Jan and (her partner in crime) Grace Ramsey since 
I met them crewing for a friend who had made the central time zone team for the 
Pan Am Championship in the early 1990’s. That race was held just outside of 
Baniff, Canada.Jan has competed before in France a few years ago and Grace’s 
son, Joe Worthington competed in Germany 2 years ago.I’m not a paid support 
person, I pay my own way over and back and my lodging and incidentals.I do it 
because how else would I see the world and see it on such an intimate basis? It 
is so much more than just going to a country and seeing the tourist areas. I am 
able to meet the local people see how they live and travel the backroads of the 
country getting to
and from the scheduled assist locations scattered throughout the course 
/trail. I may travel alone, but once I get “in country” I meet up with old 
friends who I made when I went to Dubai in 1998 and make new friends while 
there. When I get to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, my next to the last stop, I will 
meet up with 2 guys who I know from previous rides and fly on the same plan 
with them to the location of the competition. This is getting probably too long 
for an email.. Next email… getting to the ride.. Here’s a hint.. My rearend 
got TIRED from sitting in a plane for almost 14 hrs. More later…

Columbia, Missouri
 NATRC Region 6
 AERC # 65 
 AERC Central Region
 OCER member




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