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The State Government of Melaka will, once again, be organizing the very exciting CEI 2* 40km, 80km &120km Melaka Grand Invitational Endurance Ride 2010 on 9th to 11th April. The flag-off and finish for this internationally acclaimed ride will be held at Stadium Hang Jebat, in the historic city of Melaka.
Equestrian.com.my has all the information, entry registration forms and official declaration forms for this huge endurance event. |
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| Bernama.com
April 07, 2010
MELAKA, April 7 (Bernama) -- More than 100 local and international endurance horse riders have confirmed their participation for the Melaka Grand Invitational Endurance Ride (MGIER) 2010 which starts on Friday.
Melaka Stadium Board executive director Mohd Saufi Jaafar said the list comprises 88 local riders from 24 equestrian clubs in the country and 12 riders from the United States, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.
"The number of riders may increase by Friday," he told Bernama here on Wednesday.
Mohd Saufi said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, an avid endurance horse rider, would be in Melaka for the MGIER but not as a participant because he had recently undergone an operation.
The MGIER, awarded a two star rating by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), would enable participants to earn qualifying points for the FEI World Endurance Championship, he said.
He added that MGIER, organised for the third time since 2008, would feature three categories, 120km, 80km and 40km.
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Sandra in Malaysia |
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(at left, riding through the forest in New England) will be traveling to Malaysia for Endurance.Net to cover this grand State sponsored event. Stay tuned! |
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I'm getting ready to go cover an endurance ride in Malaysia and ride in the CEI* (if I can receive a permission letter from the French Equestrian Federation in time). Stay tune, I will try to post updates every day of my trip and upload pictures. I'm super excited to go and it will be my 1st FEI ride, very exotic to start by one in Malaysia :-)
There will be 3 different distances: My guess is the rides happen at night cause of the heat and humidity. It's around 91*F during the day with a 89% humidity. I hope I'll survive the heat (and the mosquitoes!!!), I guess if Foxcatcher is warm, I'll be ready :-) Sandra |
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I woke up around 7AM, packed some and went down with Sarah for a cup of tea, we then both hit the gym (I had tried to run outside and managed to run only 1.5 miles, so I decided to give a shot at the treadmill, thinking the AC might help).<
I woke up still a little groggy but I'm lucky compare to the event and FEI crew members and some riders. The last horse came in around 8AM (and passed the vet final check).I hitch a ride with Sarah (FEI president ground jury) who had slept a mere hour and a half and Brian Sheahan (FEI Head vet) who had not slept one bit (that when you like sunglasses).Brian got some sleep during the half hour drive while sarah and I were discussing the results of the rides (the good condition of the leading horses, reasons for pulls: principally lameness and very tired horses).<
www.bernama.com - April 11, 2010 MELAKA Terengganu Riders Dominate 80km MGIER By: 
What a day filled with mixed emotions! After another delicious breakfast, we went on a tourist tour of Melaka (or Malacca), it's a splendid city with influences from Portuguese, Dutch, British "invaders" through out the past centuries. There are also a lot of Chinese and Indian living here.<
Hello everyone! -So i'm going to try to sum up my day, I woke up at 7AM (7PM east coast time) feeling rested so i decided to go try my very own endurance to the heat and humidity: I went running by the beach down to the hotel, while I was at it, I run barefoot, well, I'm NOT ready for this kind of humidity, I run about 1.5 miles and it was HARD, I can only image what the horses will go through tomorrow... It's a good thing the rides happen at night here.<
Melaka - 1st day So Sarah Adams (Sarah is the FEI grand jury) and I arrived at the Everly Resort into a chaos of military uniforms and soldiers, there were hundreds of them, in the hotel, in the elevators, lobby, on the beach, everywhere...<
My trip went just fine, I just arrived and use the free WIFI of the airport.I found the person in charge of driving me and another person, we are waiting on, so i'm using these minutes, she should be here anytime, <Friday April 9 2010
Hello everyone!
So i'm going to try to sum up my day, I woke up at 7AM (7PM east coast time) feeling rested so i decided to go try my very own endurance to the heat and humidity: I went running by the beach down to the hotel, while I was at it, I run barefoot, well, I'm NOT ready for this kind of humidity, I run about 1.5 miles and it was HARD, I can only image what the horses will go through tomorrow... It's a good thing the rides happen at night here.
After this I had breakfast with Sarah, Peter from Singapore (3 hours drive from Melaka), he keeps his horses here and compete in Malaysia a lot, he is very knowledgeable and was very helpful today. And also his wife (forgot her name), and 2 young girls from Australia, coming to ride in the 40K. We had a gargantuous breakfast and then we headed to the stables.
They are established for the ride only, around a huge stadium. OH MY GOD! So many NICE horses here! I would love to take a couple back home, a lot of them with very very good conformation. I met Shaklan, the horse I will ride in the 40K (25 miles), he is a big boy, probably 15.3, gorgeous head, he was bought by the king and then handed to Hamdan (the maestro ride organizer ).
I wondered around pretty much all day, taking pictures, talking to people, it was a very nice day. Tomorrow there are a lot of riders, I could get to know how many in each distance. There are riders from all over: Singapore, Chili, Australia, New Zealand, and of course Malaysia.
We headed back to the hotel just on time (ok, ok, a little late) for a fabulous diner with live music and dance near the beach, I tried all kind of foods, I have always been curious and will try anything new in sight, hmm everything was delicious (and spicy).
I was heading to the bar to take my local ambien (beer) so I could fall asleep right away, when I found a Chilean breeder doing the same thing as me, we had a nice chat, he breed arabians and anglos and is very active in the endurance world in south America.
It was a long day, and know i'm ready to collapse (the local ambien did its job), tomorrow is another long day, we are being tourist during the day, visiting the beautiful city of Melaka (UNESCO Wolrd Heritage Centre) and the day will be ending by an endurance ride, yeah!!!
Wish me luck! A lot of beautiful but HOT horses here!
Sandra
Thursday April 8 2010
Melaka - 1st day
So Sarah Adams (Sarah is the FEI grand jury) and I arrived at the Everly Resort into a chaos of military uniforms and soldiers, there were hundreds of them, in the hotel, in the elevators, lobby, on the beach, everywhere... We soon realized they are having a combined training of the Malaysian and Indonesian army, exercising on terrorism attack situations, There are signs announcing there might be gunshots, bombs,... and there were, Sarah and I were having coffee/tea when we heard a bomb!!! Well, luckily today was the last day, there is a giant party tonight, music in the courtyard and dressed tables. I guess it's related.
Hamdan was very busy today and we did get to meet him, so Sarah and I decided to go into Melaka on our own, what a lovely city, the mix of Portuguese and Asian architecture is very interesting and works quite well, it's a very colorful city with a smiling person at every corner.
Sarah has just flew from Melbourne and me, well you know, I have travelled for almost 24 hours, so both decided to treat ourselves to a massage, boy did that feel good, I felt asleep for a little while and thought i would never get up (usually massages put me in a sleepy mood), it was the contrary, I felt rejuvenated, the masseuse was fantastic, finding the knots and getting rid of them slowly, hmmm marvelous.
We ate a chicken rice ball at a place full of malaysians :-) Yummy!
So I'm still up, music coming from the courtyard, I still have to meet Hamdan, I'm going to go the lobby and see if he's around.
I'm very pleased to have meet Sarah Adams, she is a lovely lady, she was born in England and moved years ago to Australia, she has now her Australian citizenship, funny to run into someone with a similar story on the other side of the world.
I will try to gather more info on Sarah, her riding background and her FEI history. I understood she is closely involved in the Tom Quilty ride :-)
I probably won't post anything more today. Tomorrow, all the pre-ride organization is going on, registration, ride briefing, vetting in, etc...
I most likely will ride in the 40km since the FFE (French Equestrian Federation) has not been very helpful :-( I really need to think about getting the American citizenship!
Sandra
April 7 2010
Hello everyone!
So the excitement is at its highest degree! I'm all packed, ready to go, well, first I have to drag my suitcase to work, yes, I'm working today and will leave straight from work at around 5PM since my flight is at 8:30PM at Newark, NJ. I will have a lay over of a little over 2 hours in New Delhi, India, just this is making me happy, I will have been in India!!! I will have to come back to really visit and spend some real time there and see more than boarding gates and airport food courts (never been a fan).
I just called the FFE (French Equestrian Federation) so I can have an authorisation letter to ride in the 50 miles rides, this is an FEI ride and I need a letter letting me ride into a foreign country, French people are lovely (I mean I know what I'm talking about, right?!) but they are always on vacation (hmm sometimes makes me wonder why I moved to the US), so the FFE offices were closed for Easter since last Friday and just reopen today!
I got lucky and talked with a very nice lady whom seems fairly sure I will have my authorisation by tomorrow, yeah! I'm going to be able to ride a 50 miles ride in Malaysia, the horse i'm supposed to ride is named Shaklan, I looked him up on the FEI website a 12 years old grey (yeah! I am grey horse crazy) Arabian foaled in Australia, sounds really nice to my ears.
Ok, off to work and drag my suitcase through the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan! Wish me luck that might be the toughest part of my trip :-)
More later tonight from the airport...
Sandra