Endurance Rider
Friday, September 11, 2009
Edaran Endurance Classic 2004
19th May 2004
What a ride! All of us enjoyed it. The post ride party at the main Pavilion was out of the world for the endurance fraternity. Live band, all kind of rusa meat etc etc I heard. I had to forgo the party as there were still four of us - Kpl Zulkifli Saari, Mohd Rino, Sargent Ramli and I was still struggling in pitch darkness in the track trying to complete the last 20 to 30 km of the 120km ride.
We all started at the break of dawn at precisely 0630 hours. 21 horses and riders in the Limited Distance 60km category and 7 horses and riders in the 120 km endurance CEI** category. As stipulated by FEI any ride below 80km is actually training rides and thus has an upper speed limit. Therefore I was not surprised that the 1st three winners were joint winners as they arrived too early. By right they should have been penalised for "inappropriate "pacing. Why people like Datin Lara with her well established Elsie D L'Aiguoal entered a 60 km "training ride" I cannot comprehend. In all 12 horses and riders completed within the given time frame and speed. We look forward to them progressing upwards to 80 km or real endurance at the next ride.
The course for both the 60km and the 120km was basically the same: 80% uphill and downhill with only 20% flat. Beyond 11am with sweltering heat and high humidity the 120 km ride become one of the toughest if not the toughest 120km ride anywhere in the world. This was a challenge for both riders and their mounts. At the end of the day Zul on his faithful Kittya whom he has been conditioning for the last 4 years (there is no short cut in endurance unless you are a Makhtoum) prevailed. I think Kittya will be able to walk in and out of the vet-gate in any international competition in Europe or Dubai in winter without much crewing. Success is sweet but lack of it if taken in the right spirit is sweeter. (I am beginning to sound like a damn sour grape.) There are lessons to be learned from apparent failures. Consider the following:
HRH Sultan Mizan threw in the towel in mid phase 3 {85km} due to giddiness. I was riding with HRH then and from his description sounded like a problem of neuroglycopenia meaning low glucose level in the brain and bloodstream. In his excitement HRH forego his proper meals during the vet checks. I had a similar experience 2 years back while competing in a 120km ride in Huelgoat, in the middle of nowhere in rural France trying to get prequalification to the World Equestrian Games. It was the beginning of spring and still very cold. I had bronchitis and could not stand the French cooking and surviving on 5 packets of Maggi Mee daily. Midway through the ride I went partially blind and could only make out the tail of Laily's horse in front of me. At one bend in the French forest I lost the tail and my ride ended there. Now there are high calorie concentrates specialised for events like these. Some riders take bananas by the buckets in between stops. Another nutrient to consider is electrolytes. We lose them a lot in our condition due to the length of the ride and the humidity of our climate. People almost never forget electrolytes for their horses during vet stop but almost never electrolyte themselves. Food for thought not found in the standard endurance text written by people who ride in the comfort of a temperate climate.
"Rino with AA Bold Sabre"
Burn stopped midway at also the 85km mark since Rhia refused to budge anymore. Rhia used to be champion at this distance 2 years back in Melinsung, Kota Kinabalu at ARL 120km Endurance ride. But 3 weeks of conditioning is hardly enough to prepare even a champion to do another 120 km especially over Ar Raudhah's terrain. 6 to 8 weeks in a horse that already has a solid base is probably optimal, even then assuming he has underwent a preliminary 80 km ride say 3 to 4 months earlier.
Tuan Hj Shuaib of Al Raudhah was actually the disappointment of the day. Here is a 160 km horse riding at home ground and getting eliminated at the vet gate after 40km. Heat & humidity kills. Heat, humidity, terrain and SPEED kills exponentially however good your horse is. This is the beauty in endurance. It is a level playing field. Wisdom, knowledge, perseverance and patience still are important elements in the game. Sounds familiar in the corporate world as well as at the personal level.
Sargent Ramli from HRH stable was also riding on a 160 km horse but ran out of time in the 4th phase which was justifiable because he was attending to HRH at the 85 km mark .
Young Mohd Rino riding AAA Bold Sabre is perhaps the next star to watch. As I recall, I was never impressed by AAA Bold Sabre in previous rides in Johor and even in Raudhah last year. But this year he was a revelation. I was riding together with Rino pretty much of the 3rd and 4th phase and I had cold chills in the stomach to know that his mount was running a heart rate of 90 trotting uphill when mine was 110 beat per minute (both of us were using on board heart rate monitors).
Like Schumacher reporting to base, this young man keep churning fantastic heart rate figures back to base: 90 uphill, 54 walking downhill blah blah blah. This went on in the night and my tummy kept churning! Miss Gedebe was obviously exhausted at the 110km mark and I knew I had to call it a day otherwise the last 10 km would change an exhausted horse into a dead horse. Rino was not allowed to continue because he missed the 4th vet check by 1 minute. AAA Bold Sabre could have been the 2nd horse to complete had this young man and his handlers at the base knew the meaning of all those figures he was churning out into his hands free. Bold Sabre is the horse to watch in future.
"Rino with AAA Bold Sabre"
As for Miss Gedebe 2 months of being only on grass plus oats in the grass paddock in Mardi has really taken its toll. No amount of goodies in Mix Hage and Stable Master's Endurance feed can change her nutrient status in just 4 days. I was too busy with her conditioning program for the last 8 weeks but neglecting the equally important nutrition program to her obvious detriment. On top of this my back up crews were all untrained and needed prompting all the time: Miss Gedebe covered the first 70 km without any electrolyte supplement. When muscle fatigue sets in, the process continues on the downhill spiral very fast and at the end you get a tired horse syndrome. If you push further, tying up, metabolic sequalae follows and probably death.
These are the long and short of some lessons we can draw from this Year’s Classic. When I told Peter Abisheganaden that only Kittya completed, his reflex action was to think that the ride is a fiasco. I beg to differ. It was a success. Now we have an annual affair that is so tough and challenging that many will want to compete and conquer in future. I hope NEC-Edaran Digital will continue to support endurance in a big way like what they are doing now and not to change the present format of the 120k ride except probably some variation here and there such as to make the trail non repeating. Keep the degree of difficulty the same. Who knew this would be the Malaysian equivalent of the world famous Tevis Cup in America. Perhaps in future get a few distinguished Mat Salleh riders from overseas, give them our best horses and then let young people like our Zul or Rino to send them packing home empty handed! Just a naughty thought.
Our next ride will be in Trengganu (??Awana Kijal, ??CEI3*, yet to be decided by HRH) and the good thought in our mind as we all bade farewell to Edaran Classic is that at least the selection process for WEC representation in Dubai in December is still wide open. In the year 2004 we should all come to the brave conclusion that finally Malaysia Boleh and by that we mean we should be competing at WEG or WEC on our very own horses.
On behalf of the small but close endurance community here I wish to convey our heartfelt gratitude to the staff of NEC, Edaran Digital, Ar-Raudhah Equine Centre, members of the organising committee and the indefatigable Vet commission and Major Yap and staff of EAM for their "endurance".
- Contributed by Dr. Nik Isahak
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Argentina 160km FEI Endurance Challange, Buenos Aires
Dari kiri : YM Raja Mahmood (pengurus), Pn.Norlaily (rider), Bakar Aman@burn (rider), Dato Abdullah (rider),Sarjan Ramli (rider),Sarjan Zul (rider), Sabarudin (rider), Rino (rider), Hamid (rider), Ahmad Azura (rider), Ruben (pembantu)
"Starting the second loop"