Settling In - Camels Milk and All

It's Sunday here, Februay 15, 4 days till the ride. A few more riders/grooms are trickling in, but it still seems pretty quiet and low-key. We're staying at the Al Dhial Gulf Hotel in Abu Dhabi (very very nice!) and it's a 40 minute drive out to the barn. They gave us all rigs as soon as we arrive, our is an Isuzu Trooper - since I'll be driving the course alongside Leonard while he rides I did some testing of it out in the desert - so far so good! The daily routine is: up early, breakfast, then out to the barns which open at 8am. Feed, clean, walk or ride, organize, do vet stuff, then back to the hotel for lunch. They have food and drinks catered out at the barns, but the hotel food is SO GOOD that it's worth the drive back to sample the buffet. Take care of stuff at the hotel, email, etc, and then back to the barn around 4pm. More walking/cleaning/feeding until the barn closes at 6pm then ... back to the hotel. Clean up, email, etc, and finally dining around 8pm. Dinner, usually with a bottle(s) of wine, socializing, and off to b ed by 11pm.

We dined a couple nights with Cathy Brown from Great Britain and her trainer/groom Jackie - talking about the sport, the horses, good movies and the war. There are several French riders/grooms at our barn who are also very friendly, but their English is not much better than my French, so conversation is somewhat limited...

Last night the dinner was served on the patio by the beach, with live music (Russian musicians), specialty chefs, lights and valentine decorations. Very nice - though this year there seems to be less attention to organizational details, and we weren't informed of the gala in advance. So not very well attended. Still, it was very nice. And Leonard and I were able to show a lot of folks the pictures (digital) that we've been taking - Leonard brought his PC to dinner and did a nice slide show.

Yesterday we had a real treat. Gary Luck had met an Arab horse trainer ,Ali Al Ameri, in the hotel bar the first night (Gary makes friends very easily!) who invited the group (Gary, Heather Reynolds, Christine-Valerie's groom, and Leonard and I) out to his stable for a tour. We followed him out into the desert - way out - and still farther out.... - finally arriving at his very nice training facility - Bu Deep Stable, owned (I think) by Sheikh Sultan. (our participation at Al Wathba and the Pres. Cup are at the invitation of Sheikh Mansoor - I'll round up full names later) Lots of horses at the facility, wonderful barn with fans and automatic misters and high ceilings. All sorts of breeds and disciplines. Plus a lot of 'renegade' horses that Ali had collected from various locations and retrained. He's actually quite talented and gave us some fun demos. He was the trainer for the new IMAX movie - Young Black Stallion - (also played the black-robed bad guy) and showed us a lot of the stunts that they did with the horses. Very very co ol!

Ali later took us out (even farther) into the desert for some touring. On a whim he turned off into the dunes and brought us to a Bedouin camp to see the camp and the camels (lots of babies) - we were even treated to fresh camel's milk - warm and foamy in a red bowl, straight from the camel. Sweet, and light - very nice tasting milk. This was a real treat, possibly the highlight of the week so far.

Gary said that tomorrow we are invited by Ali to go and ride some camels. Sounds great! If the wind quits blowing... today the wind is blowing strong and steady, covering the roads with sheets of sand, stinging the eyes. I went out to the barn alone this morning (Leonard slept in, he's picking up his wife Nathalie and son Cesar late tonight) - turned Arazi out in the paddock while I cleaned the stall, but decided not to go out on the course with him - wind/sand that blinds and penetrates.

There is a camel race track near the Endurance Village so in each direction we pass hundreds of camels being excersized, returning to their stable/camps from the track, ridden by men and boys - all waving enthusiastically as soon as the they recognized a foreigner. Today the men had their scarves wrapped tightly around their faces, only the eyes exposed. Their robes and blankets flapping in the wind, and the camels seemed a little more frisky. I even watched a camel (being ponied) bucking - a very silly sight. They are the most bizarre looking creatures.

I went to one of the camel souks looking for some local hay (a change from the timothy and pasture grass) which Arazi seems to prefer but wasn't able to find any, and only succeeded in gathering a cluster of men all trying to give directions (mostly unintelligible to me!) to a farm where I might be able to purchase some. I finally gave up, bought a camel blanket and thanked them profusely!

There is a frenzy of construction going on at the Endurance Village - each day something new is being built or constructed, plus there is a steady stream of trucks loaded with sand - they are building up the flat area above the dunes where the barns and village are located, creating more flat ground for more new construction. I counted 15 huge yellow dump trucks, all in a line, heading back out into the dunes. Plus there were a dozen huge bulldozers moving up and down the slope below the village. Absolutely amazing to see. "you have 10 days to build me a mountain". anything is possible here I think.

more later -

Steph