[RC] Linda in Abu Dhabi - Day 6, part 2 - Jay Randle
The tracks are becoming busier now that all the international horses are here. There is a really interesting mix of horses ranging from almost pony like arabs up to one horse that almost looks clumper-like! One horse here has one of the more ordinary clipping jobs you could see and you wonder why someone would present a horse that looks like that to a ride of this level. I have to say that I really haven’t seen anything that I would like to take home and in terms of presentation and looking well the three Australian horses look the best on the track.
The traffic was very light today as everyone stays home with their families and do heaps of family things. There is a children’s park along the way to the stables and there were plenty of folk there. We also saw families running around in the sand dunes and playing on quad bikes in the dunes.
Once we were finished we headed back to the motel and then had some lunch before driving up to the endurance village. Once there we had a wander around and saw quite a few ex-Castlebar horses, including a couple I’d ridden previously – Magic Glenn Lomad and Lashel. We also saw Aloha Juror, who has been over here for quite some time. I think there was about 6 or 7 horses in total. One of the young horses that had come across, Lightening, was in the 80km ride so we were keen to go out on track and see him travelling.
While in the vet ring we ran into Vikki Reid and also saw Anton on a horse. We had a brief chat in the ring with Vikki before heading out on track. We found the riders out in the desert and everyone seemed to be travelling along really well, nobody seemed out of control! We checked out quite a few horses and saw a Cedar Ridge horse as well as one of the Ningadoo horses. Both looked really well and fit.
Driving alongside was a bit of fun as we tackled some heavy sand and we were starting to think we were going to get bogged (how embarrassing) but Meg was able to navigate our way through before realising she was still in 2WD! Good on the Patrol. We saw a flash Mercedes 4WD bogged on the little hump at the edge of the track and had fun laughing at them for their ineptitude.
We found Lightening on track and he was being ridden well, getting his leads changed regularly. He was being accompanied by a French mare who was a full sister to some famous French horse whose name just escapes me at the minute. While out on track we also come across another Aussie – Alan Post – who works over in Dubai.
