yeah! jum kiter dgr cerita basi ni(xper bleh reheat)pada hari keramat bertarikh 23 Januari yang lalu....
mr.hubby entered a training ride organised by Royal Terengganu Endurance Sport(RTES)
riding a 12 year old mare called Sylva, an ex-polo horse, released for endurance by the generous owner Dato' Raza Feroz coz he already had a loads of performance horses in stable(14 altogether) which are freshly handpicked from Argentina. so called multidisciplinary horse.
Sylva had been playing Polo ever since she was born. She was trained to be a polo athlete. everything around her are Polo based, the equipments used & the way to do it, the way they ride(of course, they don't hit the ball while trotting), the feeding scheme, the exercise, the shoeing, every single thing were done in accordance to Polo requirements. so, there is a huge gap there....she used to wore double bridle which are totally prohibited in endurance ride, she only works with single hand conducting the rein(becoz player need to hold a stick with the other hand)
but amazingly,(Subhanallah!) she was not that hard to be converted to a regular riding horse.
=>she didn't throw herself in confused situation when we ride using both hands and single rein, =>she didn't loose control even we does not attach any standing martingale (which is compulsory for polo),
=>she also balanced on all her four beautiful legs(which happens to be impossible for active polo athlete with her age, most of them already suffer tendon problems)!
=>she can nicely and tenderly trot and canter on both leads, right, left, left right
=>she can do flying changes(thats why her legs survived to this level, she never went around the field with the wrong lead!) coz somehow polo player tend to be too occupied with chasing the ball around and didn't care much on the horse's leg.
=>she know her rider's body language very well, she understand each aid given! so the transitions are as smooth as changing gear of a motorbike. fewh! usually polo player used artificial aid = whip while riding, or lean forward and make chirping or whistling sound so the horse move. what is unique about polo horses are they can canter straight from walk, skipping middle part = trot. but not for Sylva. she knows exactly when to canter, when to walk, when to slow trot, and when to make flying trot, based on instruction given by the rider.
pendek kata, kuda ni bagus & ada semua ciri2 yang diperlukan!!!!
oke, oke sambung balik.... after full inspection & satisfied with his findings, then my hubby brought her up for the first endurance competition in her 12 years! man, dis is her first 40km.
she was released on 18th Jan(Mon)....my hubby got the chance to ride her only on 19th Jan(Tues). then for the next two days, she were left in stable, resting and mentally preparing to face 4 hour travel on the coach. (i was still in campus)
21st Jan(Thur) @ 4pm, she was uploaded into the coach without a single problem(Sesungguhnya ALLAH s.w.t permudahkan perjalanan kami, Alhamdulillah). a friend of us, willing to lodge her. the coach is for two but he only brought one, so we put Sylva into the empty space.
@ 7.45 I flew from LCCT in AirAsia's an reached home at 8.
22 Jan(Fri) at dawn, we both make our move to Lembah Bidong, Setiu, Terengganu. we both eager to meet her and asking how was her condition when she first step on strange place she had never been, how the environment excite her and how was her sleep in the new stable?
tomorrow morning is the preliminary vet check. we were preparing the best and eager to present to the vet commission on duty. she was entirely calm.
23rd Jan, @ 10a.m we groom her and brought her up for vet check.
there was something funny = she was having small problem to be trotted up. maybe because she does not really used to this one. she refused and stayed unmoved when my hubby pulled her up for trot. she was like " huh? what is dis? what should i do now? why is he pulling me around? are you trying to make me run? what's going on?" i guess dis are the dialogue appears in her mind at that time, with full of curiosity we can tell through her embolden eyes.
5pm...finally dis is the time for flag off. the climax that every rider is waitin' for. i was praying so that she didn't bolted throughout the flag off like beginner horses use to. and she didn't. thank god. she was so darn calm that you can sleep on her while other horses start galloping as the flag waved!(as what i saw, im just judging her behavior from distance, not knowing if my hubby struggled to keep her calm. hu hu)
then he arrived for fist loop in 1:45 mins....just the time he told me he would go on.
She doesn't need much time to cool down coz she is cool. we only need to unsaddle her and offer water, in meantime where her Heart Rate counts 56bpm. we let her have some more water and we slowly led her to the vet gate. total time taken was 4 mins. her Hr read 44/44 in the vet gate.
after 40 mins of holding time, now she is ready for her second 20km. we saddled her nice and even and then i released them to the departure gate.
1:30mins later, they arrived and both of them are wet that i thought it was raining somewhere in the trail. no, its actually the youngsters from State of Terengganu Endurance Club(STEC) showering them on the last water point, as an celebration of my hubby's coming back into the sports.(we never left actually.)
her first HR read 60 bpm, and we put on some water slow and steadily so that we didn't frightened her with the splashing of water on her body. after 5 mins, her HR reads 50 bpm and we make our move to vet gate with no rush.
the HR read by the doctor is 54 bpm and after trot up it fell to 48 bpm. she was doing well with the gut sound, dehydration, mucus membrane and gait. straight A's and Arrow Up. and the most exciting moment for a rider is when the doctor is about to announce the result. usual phrase are "Congratulations Mr, your horse passed and complete." or some also just state to the steward "Horse number 300 Passed"....but no matter how it sounds, these phrases were likely to become the most precious and the most disappointing in every and each endurance ride ; especially on the last loop of the race. and they were placed 10 out of 23.
and that was how the competition goes......
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