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[RC] Malaysia-WEC: Brunjes - Friday - and it's Halloween! - Steph TeeterAll of Kathy's blogs can be found at http://feeds.endurance.net/ kathyBrunjes/=== From: Kathy Brunjes <brunjesk@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: Friday - and it's Halloween! Hi everyone it's Friday October 31 and the only Halloween activity is in our stable... the rubber bugs are showing up everywhere for trick or treat....other than that, just another day in Malaysia John, Cheryl and I rode together this morning for 90 minutes - did some light cantering and a lot of trotting aorund our 10.4 km track. Whoohoo! then back to the stables to cool horses down and turn out for a few hours. Meg and Val rode together today, and Jan did some work with Leon. Jeff was busy shoeing the Canadian horses this morning, and Jim Masterson did some massage work on Sonny - so everyone was busy. The crews went out wtih Judith and Becky for a couple of hours this morning to practice techniques - who will handle saddles, who will work with water and who will lead the horse. They went to the beach for this practice session - I think Steph Teeter took some pictures, so be sure to check them out at www.endurance.net under the 2008 WEC link. Steph also took pictures of us out riding today - Lunch at the big tent, and then off for our mandatory period of stables being closed - so Deb and I went to the beach to hang out - the Italians were out there with inner tubes and floatation devices - I'm definitely bringing my swim suit to the stables tomorrow! The afternoon started with hand walking the horses for an hour, then the crews went off for another session of crewing instruction (again at the beach...hmmmmm). Cheryl and I decided that we would go and spy on their activities - just to be sure they were "working" and not just working on their tans! While we were on the bank overlooking their session, Steph Teeter came by and snapped more pictures - than two men stopped by - Steph introduced them as being photo journalists working on a coffee table type book for the King - they snapped some photos of Cheryl and me and took the names of our horses - Steph had introduced us as riders for the U.S. We left our spying gig at 4:30 to go back to the stables and walk our boys again - it was a long hot day today, and the horses really couldn't stay outside for very long in the unrelentless sun - the temps topped 94 today, with humidity ranging around mid-50s. We got back to the stables and talked John into walking with us - he had spent most of the afternoon at the South American stables shoeing Mercedes' horse. So off we went to hand walk the boys, watching the black clouds gathering off toward Elephant mountain....Sasaki came with us to walk Cameo, and we all discussed how far we would get before it was going to rain. The thunder and lightening started, so we turned around when we hit the little village, and got back to the stables just as it started to rain - some glad we did, because within minutes, the wind blew the rain sideways, the banners outside were blowing away, the lightening was crackling everywhere and the thunder was deafening - we were running around inside the stables trying to cover grain and hay to keep it from getting wet. Becky and Jim asked John and me if it was like last year's race day, and we laughed and said it was exactly like last year. Everyone was shaking their heads - and Jeff asked how we could ride for hours in that kind of weather! It wasn't a very long storm, and by the time we left the stables to head back to the hotel at 6pm, the skies were clearing up and rain had stopped. We headed off to KFC (Cheryl, Stewart, Deb and I) to meet Flavia and Alfredo. It is Flavia's birthday today, so we were celebrating at KFC (how sad is that?) and Flavia was going to go shopping for a laptop at the Giant (she pronounces it "Shiant") - we had all planned a surprise birthday party with cake, presents and party hats for 8:30 - so we had to tell Flavia is was a mandatory meeting that Becky had called at the last minute. Alfredo was in on it - so we got back to the hotel and we all waited for Flavia to arrive - Flavia was very much surprised - and we all ate chocolate cake and talked until after 9:00 pm. Fun day, busy day - Oh! almost forgot...while Cheryl, John and I were out on our ride this morning, we rounded the corner heading into the area with the chicken houses, and we noticed a new guard rail at the steep corner/ditch on that turn - I also thought to myself, "how odd, they left a piece of lumber laying in the road" - well just as that throught crossed my mind, the board moved, and I realized it was a VERY VERY LARGE LIZARD - the largest one I've seen so far - but to make matters worse, there was one on the opposite side of the road, too....and it was BIGGER....I screeched, Cheryl screeched, John said something like "Holy Cow" and we were still screeching when we hit the chicken houses. John said that they had to be between 5 - 6 feet long...and thought they were Monitor Lizards...which can have a poisonous bite. HOLY COW....and the horses didn't even bat an eye - even if we were screeching. Awesome - we've seen monkeys, lizards, goats, cows all while out on our training loop....dogs and cats don't count. It's off to bed for me....long day. Tomorrow we have more cantering work and crewing practice. We are almost complete in number - I'm just waiting on my husband to arrive. Wendy McCoubrie has arrived (from Canada) and their numbers are complete now. Kathy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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