 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Trot my dear, don't run
By Nashwa Abdel-TawabIf athlete after athlete collapsed in a given sport, chances are the world would ban it.
With 50 kilometres to go, the V-sign is flashed.
photo: Emad Abdel-Hadi
If horse after horse dropped dead while taking tourists around Central Park in horse and carriage, it is more likely than not that the tour would be banned by law.
But as horse after horse topples from exhaustion during long desert rides, nobody, it appears, is doing anything at all.
At an event near the foot of the pyramids, the gruelling impact of such rides rang loud and clear.
The day began pleasantly enough. It was 6.00am and the Saqqara Country Club was bustling. Arabian horses prancing proudly, mixed breeds grazing on clover, children munching on sandwiches and crisps, and veterinarians rushing around.
It would have seemed like an odd mix for a casual bypasser, but the laughter and chattering would have confirmed it was a weekend picnic of ethnic mix.
Until a few hours later, that is.
The hustle and bustle gets louder and faster. Owners pet their horses, breeders point and whisper, and in the background vets and jockeys hover around. All focusing, of course, on the horse.
Tensions are high as the 50-kilometre race begins. It is meant to be a test of many things; a horse's stamina and condition, a jockey's intelligence and horsemanship, and the overall team effort under veterinary supervision.
And it is meant to determine, of course, whether the horses and riders will compete in the 1st International Al-Ahram Al-Arabi 100-kilometre Endurance Ride scheduled for May.
On this steaming day in April -- one which began as pleasant and fun -- many horses, jockeys and teams failed miserably. Their starting point was the country club, where they were to return at the end. In between, was a 50-kilometre course to Mastabet Pharaon (near Dahshour) and back, over sand dunes and pebble-ridden turf.
Of 100 horses, only 69 qualified for the grand May event. It wasn't that they didn't finish fast enough, but that they were physically declared unfit. The horses are monitored by veterinarians at two pre-determined checkpoints, after the first 20 kilometres and with 30 kilometres to go. If they are judged to be "unsound" or metabolically unfit, they are disqualified.
Last week's event consisted of a 20-kilometre stretch which was required to be completed in a minimum time of one hour and a half and maximum of two hours. There was then an allowed rest period, after which the final 30 kilometres were to be completed in a minimum of two hours and a half and a maximum three hours. Horses whose times failed to fall between those specified were immediately disqualified.
"It's not the speed that we count on," explained Essam Attiah, race director and member of the International Equestrian Federation (IEF). "It's the fitness of the horse, the stamina and his health that count. A horse should cover this distance in the fixed time, and has only half an hour to rest after the race before a veterinary inspection is done to see if he's healthy or exhausted. Disqualification is for the sake of the horse -- for his safety and well being."
Their well being, on this particular day, was unfortunately fated for bad things.
Hoses were dragged out, emergency medical teams called upon, and water bottles carried left and right. The heat was too much for these Arabian beauties; most made it to the finish, but then broke down with exhaustion.
Ten horses required special attention, eight suffered from severe dehydration -- requiring intra-veinal solutions, and two were declared emergency cases -- one with abdominal colic, and the other with laminitis. Eleven other horses were disqualified for being exhausted beyond normal states. They are states of fatigue which the horses were pushed to reach. And most certainly ones which they should never have neared.
"If the riders are professional in the rides and feel as one with the horse -- like loving parents feel their kids," explained Dr Bobby Surendra, one of the race's main veterinarians from the UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation, "they know when he gets tired, when he wants to eat, when he needs to trot, or canter or walk or run, when to give him a shower or wash his face. But there are some cases when the rider is grossly focused on the single-minded pursuit to win, therefore overlooking the high level of physical stress to the horse."
Anything other than this finely-tuned sense to the horse's needs, Surendra perceives as inhumane.
Egyptian vet, Dr Desouqi Shetta, thinks otherwise. "Endurance rides are important for the horse to develop his stamina and endurance," he says. "They should be enhanced in Egypt for the sake of improving our spoilt horses. It's their owners who had caused the horses to suffer from abdominal colic. They gave the horses a heavy meal before the race. I don't call that inhumane, I call it ignorance."
Ignorance or not, it is at the expense of the horse -- something which would have animal lovers around the world up in arms.
Shetta's solution?
"Before the coming race," Shetta says, "we are going to publish certain medical instructions for the riders to follow before and after the race to guarantee a better handling of endurance horses. Our horses [the Arabian thoroughbreds] are being taken care of to the extent of being spoilt. They are not trained well as Arabians should be. Hybrid horses are used and trained hard in riding in the desert in front of the pyramids all year long. This makes them endure such races well."
The Arabians, it became well apparent, could not.
Historically, the event was meant solely for Arabian horses -- to test their superior endurance and stamina. Today's generation, in Egypt in particular, is only a shadow of their great four-legged grandfathers. To reintroduce them to the heavy-duty world, there is more than a fair share of work to be done.
"Our horses need training," says Attiah. "Their bones are not fully developed yet and they should be trained in the desert where they will race. This will take three years at most."
But even when they are trained and ready, Attiah stresses the simple fact that only the fittest survive and move on.
With requirements that horses be between five and 18 years old, and riders between 18 and 65, there is still hope for this generation of horses and jockeys.
Both still have their chance to compete in one of the 500 endurance races around the world -- which are safe to the horse but on condition that the rider knows when to push and when enough is enough. They still have the opportunity to indulge their adventurous spirits and dedication to the sport. And, of course, they still have the chance to further explore the unique relationship between horse and rider.
The question, though, is whether this is an activity which one can call a sport, or whether it is a cruel pastime which should be banned by law.
