SA Champs Endurance
<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#9900FF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0dcee500.jpg" border=0 width="494" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#9900FF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>SA Champs Endurance </I></div> <div> <A HREF="home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Equiriders"><U>Equiriders</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="whats_new.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Whats New"><U>What's New</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="reveiws.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reviews"><U>Reviews</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="exams.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exams Focus "><U>Exams Focus </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="welfare.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welfare"><U>Welfare</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="news1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Press Releases"><U>Press Releases</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="cvs.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Curriculum Vitaes"><U>Curriculum Vitae's</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="advertise.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Advertisers "><U><I><B><IMG SRC="4115a4e0.jpg" border=0 width="90" height="78" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFF80" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="advertise.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Advertisers "><U><I> YOUR AD HERE</I></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <I><B><U>Health and Riding</U></B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="veterinary.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Veterinary AZ"><U>Veterinary A-Z</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="schooling.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Schooling Solutions"><U>Schooling Solutions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="bucking.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bucking"><U>Bucking</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="stblman.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="From The Ground"><U>From The Ground</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tips n Tricks"><U>Tips 'n' Tricks</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="worming.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Worming"><U>Worming</U></A></div> <div> <I><B><U>Money Saving Ideas</U></B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="ideas.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Money Saving Ideas"><U>Money Saving Ideas</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="halter.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Make a Halter"><U>Make a Halter</U></A></div> <div> <I><B><U>Breed Information</U></B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="breeds.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breeds"><U>Breeds</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="tracing_horses.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tracing Horses"><U>Tracing Horses</U></A></div> <div> <I><B><U>Funtime</U></B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="gymkhana_games.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gymkhana Games"><U>Gymkhana Games</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="horsehumour.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Horsey Humour "><U>Horsey Humour </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="rogues_gallery.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rogues Gallery"><U>Rogues Gallery</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="stories.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Readers Stories"><U>Readers Stories</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="vote.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vote for this Site"><U>Vote for this Site</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="magic_eye.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Magic Eye"><U>Magic Eye</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="games.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Games Room "><U>Games Room </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="equestrian_art.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Equestrian Art!"><U>Equestrian Art!</U></A></div> <div> <I><B><U>Meeting Places</U></B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="equichat.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="equichat"><U>equichat</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="white_board.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="White Board!!"><U>White Board!!</U></A></div> <div> <I><B><U>Advertising</U></B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="classifieds.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Classifieds"><U>Classifieds</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="trading_post.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trading Post"><U>Trading Post</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="advertise.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Advertisers "><U>Advertisers </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="links.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U>Links</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="banners.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Banners"><U>Banners</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:info@equiriders.co.uk" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:info@equiriders.co.uk"><U><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c880ffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact Us</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Diary of the South African National Endurance Championships </I></div> <div> <I>by Kirsty Wiscombe</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>In early May this year a advert was put up on the BHS website and Euroenduro about a offer to ride a Arab Stallion belonging to Greg Miles at the 28th South African National Endurance Championships at Fauresmith from the 10th -12th July.</I></div> <div> <I>I replied to the advert but found it clashed with the Nancy ride that I was going to take Hannah to and that the ride had been taken by Candy Cameron. Three weeks later I recieved a offer from Rob Dobrowsky a friend of </I></div> <div> <I>Gregs to ride his Appoloosa stalion Maluti Southern Pride (Spotz). As Hannah was now not going to Nancy due to being kicked whilst in the Field, I jumped at the chance. The ride is a 201km 3 day ride divided into 74km days one and two and 52km day three with vet gates every 25 km.</I></div> <div> <I>I booked the time off work (not knowing they were going to make me redundant 2 days before I left for South Africa) and booked the flights etc out there. </I></div> <div> <I>The flight there was going to be the first challenge as apart from 3 days in Amsterdam I had never been abroad before and I was travelling alone. Before I left I found another job which I was to start the day after I got back. Hannah went to her usual holiday destination with Team vet Sarah Coombs and Wendy who owns one of the horses I compete was looking after Connie and Grommit (Sarahs Horse who I have in for schooling). </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Tuesday 3rd July.</I></div> <div> <I>My Husband dropped me at the bus station in Taunton and exactly 24 hours later after 1 coach journey and 2 flights Rob was to meet me at East London Airport SA. Once through check in etc (Where I kept setting off the alarms as my riding boots have a steel arch support) I had time to phone Wendy and Sarah to see if the horses were ok. </I></div> <div> <I>The horses at home had done an electric fence destroying act and Hannah had decided that she wanted to kill Sarahs pony in 3 bites and had taken 2 bales of haylage into her stable to open and play football with!!!!! </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Wednesday 4th July.</I></div> <div> <I>I was met by My hosts Rob and Kathy at the airport and their </I></div> <div> <I>farm was about 1 hour on from here. After what seemed a never ending gravel </I></div> <div> <I>track (I was soon to learn that the majority of roads in SA are gravel </I></div> <div> <I>tracks) we reached the farm. Once there I met Spotz who I was to ride and </I></div> <div> <I>Lightfoot who Rob was riding. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Thursday 5th July.</I></div> <div> <I>Took Spotz for a ride, packed the Bakkie (Pick up) ready for a 5am start the next morning and met some of the mares who are turned out into camps which are fields measured in hectares rather than acres. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Fri 6th July. </I></div> <div> <I>The venue was about 8 hrs drive away in the Freestate and the route there was a mixture of tarmac and gravel roads. On the way we went over a big dam and the views were stunning from this. Once we arrived we settled the horses, turned them out in wire corrals for a few hours and waited for Greg Candys host to turn up with the tent. 5pm came and still no tent a phone call to Greg confirmed that he wasn't arriving till tommorow. Argh where were we going to spend the night? Kathy, Rob and the kids spent the night in trailer and I spent the night in a tent awning. God it was cold you could see your breath and the horses water froze. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Saturday 7th July.</I></div> <div> <I>National team selection day. Robs horse was up for selection but wasn't sucessfull this time. we then went for a short ride over part of the course. Our tent arrived at last!!! Candy Met her horse, Gregs Stallion was lame so he arranged another ride for her on a very green 5yo arab gelding called Schneider Waseem. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Sunday 8th July. </I></div> <div> <I>Brunch in hall followed by a 20km ride over another part of the course taking a short cut on the way back (Unfortunately spotz remembers this on day one and as he is ridden in a bosal I had a hard job persuading him not to go through it). The welcoming function was in the evening The South African, Botswanan and Namibian teams were introduced and the 6 international </I></div> <div> <I>riders, 3 from Great Britian, 2 from Germany and 1 from the U.S.A were </I></div> <div> <I>introduced to everyone The British riders were Candy Cameron, Andrea baker and Kirsty Wiscombe and Maggie Pattinson was there as Andrea Bakers crew. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Monday 9th July. </I></div> <div> <I>The parade of horses was at 8am, the National teams and the International riders paraded behind their respective flags it was then followed by vetting and weigh in. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>10th/11th/12th July</I></div> <div> <I>The ride itself.</I></div> <div> <I>The tannoy started at 6am every morning. There was no pre ride trot up, and the starting order was announced everyday with riders going off in groups of about 15 at five minute intervals, starting at 7am. The vet gates were a bit disorganised the first day but they improved after that. The vets had no writers and only watched the first few strides away from them. The ride was held on tracks that were often sandy, down the side of gravel roads in parts were rocky and had a few uphill climbs. The scenery was quite barren and it was frosty at the start of each day. </I></div> <div> <I>Every time you passed a rider or a rider passed you on the ride they would </I></div> <div> <I>shout "Lekker Ry" which is africaans for enjoy your ride. The Africaans word </I></div> <div> <I>for thankyou also caused a few laughs as its "baaie dankie". </I></div> <div> <I>The main problem I found with the ride was the saddle. It was a McClellan which is no more than a leather covered tree it rubbed me raw in several places and it was agony to get back in the saddle on day 3. </I></div> <div> <I>From 265 entries there were 176 finishers. The ride was subdivided into </I></div> <div> <I>catagories and the finishers in the catagories were 28 heavyweight, 76 </I></div> <div> <I>standardweight, 18 lightweight, 39 juniors (14-18yr olds) and 13 </I></div> <div> <I>Children(10-14yr olds). </I></div> <div> <I>I finished in 10 hrs 39 minutes and 36 seconds, 41 in the standard weight, 91 </I></div> <div> <I>overall and took the trophy for the best appoloosa.</I></div> <div> <I>Candy finished in 11hrs 56 minutes and 37 seconds finished 57th in the standardweight. </I></div> <div> <I>Andreas horse was unfortunately withdrawn after day 2. </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Friday 13th July</I></div> <div> <I>Packed everything up and made the long journey back to Rob and </I></div> <div> <I>Kathys farm. </I></div> <div> <I>14th-17th July</I></div> <div> <I>Were spent at Robs place where I met the rest of their 20+ horses (mainly arabs and appoloosas) on Sunday we went to Gregs place and had a </I></div> <div> <I>barbecue and I met his numerous horses and 2 stallions. </I></div> <div> <I>Tuesday on the way to the airport we went for a drive in the safari park where the rhino came right up to the landrover. </I></div> <div> <I>The whole thing was a great experience and I shall certainly try to go back </I></div> <div> <I>again, hopefully to do one of the 100 mile FEI rides that start at 1am in the </I></div> <div> <I>moonlight.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>eds note! Thanks for the report Kirsty we look forward to hearing more of your Endurance rides keep us all posted how you get on.</I></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="stories.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Readers Stories"><U><I><!-- Start Gem Animated Image (GIF) --> <img src="HTMLobj-1791/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="35"> <!-- End Gem Animated Image (GIF) --> </I></U></A><I> </I><A HREF="endurance2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Endurance diary part 2"><U><I><!-- Start Gem Animated Image (GIF) --> <img src="HTMLobj-1831/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="35"> <!-- End Gem Animated Image (GIF) --> </I></U></A></div> <div> <I>© Copyright Equiriders 2001-2002</I></div> </td> </tr></table></body>