Steve and Dinah Rojek are (in my humble opinion) some of the finest Endurance trainers and competitors in the USA. Both have competed successfully at every and have trained and bred successful Endurance horses for almost 30 years. Steve has competed in close to 100 100-mile rides. That's a lot of experience! Steve and Dinah also have a Colombian connection. Marco Hernan is the Rojek's 'right hand man' - helping them with training and competition for the past 4 years, and Hernan is Colombian. (A visit with Hernan's family in Bogota). Steve and Dinah enthusiastically accepted the invitation to come to Colombia.
The Federation also invited me to come. With my experience as both rider and ride organizer at the FEI level I could offer suggestions and advice.With Endurance.Net, I could introduce the world to Colombia, and help promote their venture into International competition.
Dinah is one of the best people I can imagine to combine years of knowlege and experience into a single program, and present it to a group of riders, clearly and concisely. Dinah is currently chair of the AERC Education Committee, and has been developing the program - seminar - which she has entitled 'Endurance: Beyond the Basics'. She has colated information on all aspects of the sport - selection and preparation of the horse, training physiology, nutrition, electrolytes, shoeing and trimming, saddle fit, and competitive strategies. Her presentation was concise and informative.
The seminar lasted 2 1/2 days, Dinah was the primary speaker, and Steve and I piped in with comments when appropriate. Carolina did a remarkable job of interpreting the program into Spanish. The most difficult aspect of the seminar was how to deal with the hundreds of questions from the crowd, and still maintain forward progress. Christina and Mauricio did their best to moderate the program, but every point of information which was presented led to more questions, and more comments. It was quite intense, and quite a challenge! Most of the folks were very well informed - having read and studied the books and info on the Internet, and they were asking tough questions.
