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2007 Event
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2007 Young Riders President's Cup
2006 Young Riders President's Cup
Race Day
Images by John Teeter
nice day today...no wind, sunny and around 75 degrees. I apologize for any typos - I am on a very old pc and all the keys STICK
horses doing well - all temps are normal - Theatric is down to 98.8, Sonny is 97.5 and Savvy is 99.4 - eating, drinking, peeing and pooping - what more can you ask? we turned them out around 8am and cleaned stalls - Savvy proceeded to knock down the barrier between Tee and the other pen, and left Sonny alone while visiting with Tee....after we cleaned stalls we tacked up and rode for an hour. Walk and slow jog only - we had an escort - pickup truck with one of the Stewards to show us the way. We were on the blue flagged trail - and camels are everywhere - the camel racing track is just around the corner from the International Endurance Village.
Sonny and Savvy still barefoot. John will work on Savvy this afternoon
Mark Dial and Grace Ramsay insisted we should go see the Ladies 100km race - so after we rode, we put the horses in and headed over to their race. What a blast! Becky and I got to ride the last loop in Madeya's vehicle with Grace and Pam Burton - John went out with another driver - we chased the front runners (all 6 of them) and it was amazing - I got some good photos that Steph said she would post after I get the camera disk to her. "Our" rider (#33) came in second, but the first horse was eliminated at the finish (rider lost her weight pad and didn't make weight - we saw it fly out the back of her saddle as they galloped along) - so that left our rider winning - until her CRI was 64/66 and she was elimnated for nonrecovery. Bummer. These horses were moving - they were averaging, on that last loop, around 26km/hr.
We saw Martha Mischaf (riding), Jim Bryant was vetting - Ian Williams was there. Steph and John Teeter - felt like home. Saw a lot of the officials that were in Malaysia
My vehicle has a "flat" battery (as they call it here) so we took Steve's vehicle today - his has something definitely wrong with the right front - it shimmies over 40 and then really shakes after 60 - John's vehicle so far has been ok.
Scorpions. Yes, lots of them - we have to be careful not to put our hands in the hay or reach under things without first shaking or stomping. Fun. Two kinds of scorpions - black and yellow. more fun. No snakes, though
I'm just going to forget tryng punctuation here - it's just too hard with this keyboard
What was funny today? well, Becky's 2am phone call telling her that her taxi was ready. That wasn't funny for Becky, but it made the rest of us laugh at breakfast....reminded me of a certain room change at 11pm ....anyway - she told the front desk they had made a mistake - and hung up. But she got called again about 10 minutes later - really, they just want to please here.
We will go to the Junior race tomorrow and see Mark - we have been invited to Pam Burton's place for dinner tomorrow night - and Sunday Mark wants us to go to the flat races with him...which will be fun. I'm riding tomorrow morning, while John puts his shoes on....I'll do more trotting tomorrow - the scenery is quite amazng - well, heck - I'm just amazed at everything here....it's so stark but so beautiful. At 4pm when the call comes for prayers, it just undulates across the air.
Time to go to the barns again...it is 2:15 here....lunch is buffet style and lots of vegetables and salads...lots of desserts, too! I like lunch here better than the dinner - which we ate at 10:30 pm last evening.
Talk to you all later -
Kathy