Hunger

Friday September 17 2010

It is almost a physical ache. A fathomless hole to fill. This urgent craving to ride.

This urge to wrap my fingers in the mane and to look between the ears of my horse down a trail. To feel my fluent horse cover the ground. To be in open wild spaces. To canter along the ridge. To race the thunderstorm. To follow the curve of the hills. To dance through the forest. To conquer the mountain.

When I am home, I gorge. I devour the trails. I gulp the miles. I inhale the sage and the stars. I guzzle the land.

Between the satiating sustenance, I starve.

Mon Amour!

Thursday September 16 2010

It's Maddy's 70th birthday party. Everyone is asked to step outside. Out of the darkness is led a dark horse, wearing a white blanket and a sash from a World Endurance Championship. Maddy starts crying. The man leading the horse starts crying. Everybody is crying.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Leonard Liesens needed an endurance horse to ride. He needed to get into shape to ride the Tevis in America, and his endurance mare at home in Belgium was pregnant. He started searching advertisements and local barns. Someone directed him to a horse at a stable. There was just one thing about this horse - he was known as 'The horse who killed his rider.' He'd returned to his stable one day without his rider, who was later found out on the trail, dead. Nobody knows for sure what happened.

Leo went to look at the horse.

"I thought he looked like a nice horse, so I told the widow I'd buy him." She asked Leo if he didn't want to ride the horse first, and Leo said okay. He got a saddle from the barn, tacked the horse up and mounted. The horse started bucking - and threw Leo to the ground. Leo got up and climbed back on. The horse bucked and threw him off again. Leo got up and mounted him again, "this time very carefully. I gently asked him to walk around, asked for a little trot, a little canter" - and the horse let him stay on his back. Leo bought him, for $2000 Euros.

And that's how Orfeo des Iviers, top endurance horse, 2000 Belgian Champion, came into Leonard Liesens' life and to the sport of endurance.

As a 9-year-old in 1998, after completing his qualifying races, Orfeo finished 11th in a 130 km ride in Belgium, and 8th in a 160 km ride in Belgium - and that qualified him to participate in the 1998 160 km World Championship in Dubai. Orfeo finished that ride in 13 hours 35 minutes - quite a tough race in the sand (and this was in the days before the tracks were groomed) for a horse from the muddy trails of Belgium.

It was just the beginning for a horse that was new to endurance, and for a rider who - besides finishing the Tevis Cup the previous year on one of Steph Teeter's horses, and a couple of other rides - was an endurance newbie himself. "I don't know how it is we ended up together. I was very lucky to get this horse. I made some mistakes with him, I learned along the way," Leo says... but Orfeo still had a remarkable career.

He competed in 3 other World Championships: Compiegne, France in 2000; Dubai, UAE in 2004; and Aachen, Germany in 2006 (the only one he didn't finish - "my fault" says Leo). He competed in 2 European Championships: Badajoz, Spain in 1999 (finishing 10th); and Compiegne, France in 2005 (crossed the finish line but was pulled at the finish for lameness - "my fault again," says Leo). They won Team Gold in the CEIO at La Baule, France in 2004, Team Gold in the European Championship in Compiegne, France in 2005, and a Team Bronze medal in the Dubai World Championship in 2004.

He won a 120 km race in Belgium, a 160 km race in The Netherlands, and a 140 km race in Compiegne. He won the 160 km Foridchapelle in Belgium in 2000 - and was the 2000 Belgian Champion.

In all of it, Orfeo wasn't an easy horse to ride; "he had a temper" if you pushed his buttons wrong. And he kicked just about everybody that ever crewed for him. "When he was focused on racing, he didn't like his legs touched unless he knew you were there. He was very competitive, but you could rate him. He had a very light, very smooth canter, and he could keep it up all day." One of their training spots was a beach where they in fact spent hours cantering, for 60 kilometers at a time, up and down the sand.

Another place Leo and Orfeo trained, besides the forest near their home, was in the forest not very far from Brussels. Orfeo would sometimes board at a riding stable on the edge of the forest, and Leo could slip out for a long lunch and condition his horse. It was there where Maddy met Orfeo.

Maddy owned a Newfoundland pony and a 28-year-old Thoroughbred, but she also had her eyes on Orfeo.

Two things happened: at 21 years of age, Orfeo finished a 120 km ride in Euston Park, after being pulled in his previous 3 rides in 2006, 2007 and 2009. There were apparently some grumblings in some endurance corners about Leo riding such an old horse in endurance, wondering when the poor old nag would be retired. "But what do you do with a horse like this?" Leo said. "If you stop riding him he will lose his mind! He can't just stand around in a paddock! You have to give him a job!"

The other thing that happened was that Leo took Maddy out for a ride in the forest. Leo rode another of his horses. Maddy rode Orfeo.

I know where they rode, and I know what happened. I did the same thing three years ago - on the same horse. There's a racetrack in the forest there, where you can train your racehorses over a groomed dirt oval if you like. It's the best place to canter a horse for miles - a horse with a canter like the smoothest silk, a horse that gives you confidence, that doesn't pull on you, a horse that can keep it up smoothly and easily, smiling along with you every stride.

Maddy was overwhelmed with her ride on Orfeo. "She told me, over and over, 'Thank you Leo! Oh thank you! Thank you!'" And after that, she started bugging Leo to sell Orfeo to her.

And one day, Leo made the decision that he knew was right.

To this day, 8 months later, Maddy still can't describe the night of her birthday party, when Leo surprised her with this beloved horse as a gift. The words still don't come out of her mouth - she can only mime the speechlessness and tears that flowed. "And she almost fell down!" Leo says.

And when Maddy leads her Orfeo out of the stable for us, she hugs him and talks to him, cries to us, "Mon amour! Mon amour!" When she turns Orfeo out in a paddock for us all to see, he bolts away, tail in the air, prancing, floating over the grass. He stops to look back at Maddy - who's speaking in French to him the entire time - to make sure it's okay to keep going, and he does. He turns and leaps away again, floating airs above the ground, kissing the earth on tiptoes light as a feather, snapping those fetlocks out in that magical floating trot that you see in the dressage arena. Orfeo is positively showing off for us, letting us all know that at the ripe old age of 21, he's still got what it takes.


She calls Ofreo back, and he comes up to her and stands, accepting the hugs and kisses (and, almost, tears again) with dignity, clearly enjoying behing adored by the woman who positively idolizes him. He's clearly settled well into his new job in life, of taking Maddy for easy rides in the forest, and being worshipped.


"It made me feel good to do this. I knew it was right," Leo says. "Maddy is happy, I am happy, Orfeo is happy."

On God's Horse

Monday September 13 2010

"You should have seen him! He trotted out like God's Horse!" Richard said, of Dougal's pre-ride vet in at Le Grand Luce. Dougal powered up and down the trotting lane, neck arched, looking all around, floating on air. Like he usually does. At one ride he actually got applause from the onlookers.

I'd gotten a somewhat mysterious text from Nicky just before I arrived at the venue, "Are you at the ride yet and is Dougal ok!"

Apparently, when Richard rode out on Mr Ox to start his 40 km ride, God's Horse, in a 3-strand tape pen back at the trailer (waiting to start his 20 km ride with me a couple of hours later), took off straight through the tape and ran through ridecamp, then strutted back to the trailer where he was caught. Apparently he was announcing to all present, "I am God's Horse and I am back!"

Dougal had not done an endurance ride since 2007, when his career was interrupted by a blackthorn which punctured his ankle above the fetlock, which became infected and took a very long time to heal. This would be his first endurance ride since then.

Dougal's 12 now. He had been in one of Shaikh Mohammed's Arabian racing stables, destined to be a racehorse... but he was possibly tried on the track at 3 and found to not be fast enough (he's built unlike a sleek Arabian racehorse - he's more bulky), and he was turned out in a field for 3 years. Team Nellie - Nicky Freud and Richard Allen - bought him as a 6-year-old, and re-broke him.

Dougal turned out to be fast enough on the endurance tracks - since he started endurance at 7, he'd won 3 rides, finished second 3 times, was third once, and fourth once. He'd gotten a bit of a reputation because of his good record; and Dougal simply knew he was King of All Horses. It's not a conceit he exudes, but a supreme confidence.

So I felt a somewhat large responsibility to ride this majestic horse correctly in our 20 km ride today.(Dougal didn't have to go only 20 kilometers at set speed, but I did, since I'd never done an official endurance ride in France, and I am not a USEF member nor FEI rider.) And luckily, we'd be riding our first (and only) 20 km loop with Richard and Mr Ox on their second 20 km loop (of 40 km total).

All riders and horses in France have go through this endurance qualification procedure (and many European countries have the same, or similar steps): a 20 km ride, a 40 km ride, a 60 km ride, and a 90 km ride, all at set speed, between 12 and 15 km/h (7.5 - 9.3). After successful completions of these, you must do a 'free speed' 90 km ride before you can compete in a 90 km CEI* race - and on up to the 160 km CEI***.

In the set speed rides, you have a 'start time' - meaning you can start at (for example) 10 AM... or an hour or two later. Finish placements are determined by your horse's final heartrate and your finish time (within the alloted 12-15 km/h - you will be eliminated for finishing too fast, even if your horse might have an ending heartrate of 28 bpm).

I can gauge a pace fairly well in my head, from 6 mph to 12 mph, but it would be good to have Richard to ride with, since he knew Dougal well and how fit he was. It really took all pressure off me and allowed me to, simply, have a fantastic ride on the King of All Horses!


We headed for the "Depart," where Dougal followed Mr Ox out onto the trail - and then he quickly took over the lead, and headed happily down the trail, ears pricked forward, bounding along in the lightest, softest, most comfortable canter a horse could ever do. It was impossible to get lost, as temporary signposts marked the 20-km blue loop every kilometer, though Dougal seemed to know just where he was going anyway.

We followed good bridle trails past farms and through forests, paved roads through villages and onto old country lanes. Volunteers directed us across roads or through villages, and at one spot they took our numbers (which Richard had to call out for me, because I can only count to ten in French!)

I could feel Dougal beneath me, truly loving the ride as much as I was - and Richard thoroughly enjoyed watching him - his ears, his eyes, his expression; his front feet shooting out in front of him like pistons, attacking the trail, but moving lightly, and not tugging on the reins.


That all changed when some stallion had the audacity to catch up with us and pass us. Some nerve! Dougal was insulted. I had my hands full for a while, convincing Dougal we weren't going to race after him and pass him back up. After a while and a couple of corners through a village we could no longer see the stallion, but Dougal knew he was still up there and he remained incensed for a while.

We came to a couple of crewing stops where - as is the norm here in Europe, our crew (Nicky, Selina, Graham and Elsa) met us on the road, where they handed us bottles of water to dump on our horses to cool them down. The day wasn't hot, but Mr Ox was not the fittest he could be, and Dougal was slightly on the pudgy (but still ever so majestic) side, so the water was refreshing for them. However, Dougal thought one bottle of water was quite enough, and the subsequent bottles were wasting time where he could have been assaulting the trail.

Ten utterly delightful kilometers flew by, and another nine - and suddenly the "Arrivee 1 km" sign indicated we had one kilometer till the end of this lovely ride on this terrifically fun horse.


And then with just a half a kilometer left, suddenly behind us on this single track lane, someone was yelling. I speak not a dozen words of French but there was no mistaking what she meant, "'Scuse me, coming through!" She was racing for the finish of the 90 km ride. Uh oh! I managed to get Dougal off the trail, and she galloped past, without Dougal getting too aggravated.

Until 5 seconds later, when another voice came yelling from behind with the same sense of urgency.

Oh no! Dougal was not about to let a second horse race past him without a fight. I tried every which way I could to move him over, but I could not get Dougal out of the trail. I yanked on his right rein, I gouged his left side with my heel, but as I managed to wrestle his head to the right off the trail, he threw his butt into the trail to block that oncoming horse.

There was yelling (from the galloping rider). There was a commotion (did he fall off?). There was cursing (I think that was from me) and apologizing (definitely me). There was snarling (from Dougal). I don't know what happened, other than I stayed in the saddle. I don't remember getting Dougal off the trail, I don't remember if we spun around, but at some point I looked up, and the boy had gotten by, picking up a gallop again and chasing after the girl.

We heard a few moments later over the loudspeakers that he had finished second (and first place got a Gaston Mercier saddle!). I hoped he wasn't going to hunt me down and pummel me, but in fact, we saw him later, and he apologized! Dougal, on the other hand, was clearly unrepentant. This same young man had beaten Richard and Dougal in a race a couple of years ago, so clearly Dougal had carried a grudge and was exacting his revenge.


We trotted on into camp, and Dougal and I (and, of course, The Raven) strolled across the finish line, completing my first French endurance ride! Of course I was ready to go out on another couple of loops, but that was it for today. And it was a good physical and mental refresher for Dougal on his return to endurance. (Nicky said later, "I don't think he lost a pound!")

As soon as we got back to the trailer to unsaddle, Dougal's pulse was already down to 43. We all escorted Dougal and Mr Ox to the vet ring for their final vet check 30 minutes after crossing the finish line. Dougal stood there almost bored as the vet checked him over and took his pulse, but then as Richard trotted him out for the vet, the King of All Horses, "The Champ," as Richard and Nicky like to refer to him, came alive. He lifted his head high and spread his hind legs wide for a big power trot, showing off, shaking the earth like God's Horse, attacking the trot out like he'd attacked the trail today.


At the awards ceremony, the ride management was kind enough to not just acknowledge my presence as a foreign rider, coming to ride in their 20 km ride (and mention my Tevis Cup finish : ), but, besides the goodie bag we all got (Tshirt, baseball cap, plaque, fold-up hoofpick, tub of little rubber bands, bag of horse treats), they presented me with a special bottle of white wine made in this very region! (Also after the final vetting, each horse got its own goodie bag of apples!)


It was a fun experience, on a delightful horse who was a blast to ride. Thanks to everybody who put on Le Grand Luce, thanks Carol Arthur for getting me a French riding license, thanks Nicky and Richard - and many to thanks to God's Horse, for the great ride!

Ready To Ride

Sunday September 12 2010

At Le Grand Luce today, I'm riding a 20 km ride on Dougal; Richard is riding a 40 km ride on Mr Ox, a new horse Richard and Nicky bought for their client Selina.

Selina and her husband Graham and charming daughter Elsa drove down from England yesterday to watch and help crew.

The way these qualifying rides work is: you sign up for a distance, you show up on the day, vet in, and take off down the trail whenever you want. You have a minimum and maximum speed in which to do your ride, which I believe is 12-14 km/h (7.5-8.5 mph). There's no mass start for any ride but a 'starred' ride - i.e. the 90km CEI* ride will have an 8 AM starting time.

Nicky and Richard were going to turn me loose on Dougal to do my own thing, but I was happy to hear that Richard will try to time it to have completed his first loop of the 40 km and vetted through, and meanwhile Nicky will have vetted Dougal in so I can ride my only loop with Richard on his second loop. Dougal's an easy and fun horse to ride, but he's not my horse, and I don't want to cause him to put a foot wrong!

And most interesting (and odd) for me is that I will be crewed out on course! Nicky and Selina and Graham will meet us out on crew points to dump water on Dougal to cool him down. Heck, normally I'm lucky if I have crew helping me in vet checks, but that's what they do here.

Nicky and Richard and Selina have pulled out with the horses; Graham and Elsa and I will soon follow. The ride is an hour and a half down the road. We'll be following soon.

On the Other Hand...

Saturday September 11 2010

Yes, there is a lot of French beaurocracy involved in getting a French endurance license to ride just 20 kilometers.

On the other hand, if I happen to get hurt riding in Sunday's 20 km ride, or if I happen to get hurt in any endurance-related activity, during a ride while training anywhere in France (and possibly elsewhere - I haven't confirmed that, though that seems somewhat unlikely) from now until next September or December (for at least a year), I am covered by insurance.

And while it may seem ridiculous that I can only start out at 20 km here, despite being overqualified in the US, the system also serves to protect the horses. An inexperienced rider can't just go out and ride a qualified horse 160 km, nor can a horse go out and just start on a 160 km ride without working his way up. I can hear some saying That's Takin My Freedom Away, but, it does prevent some unhappy scenarios for horses who would not be capable of completing a ride without problems. We all have seen that happen at some point.

My 20 km ride starts at noon tomorrow, and it's about 1 1/4 hour's drive from here.

Here's Richard putting on Dougal's glue-on boots behind.

A French Endurance Ride!

Friday September 10 2010

"Let me see - is it easier to ride Tevis or ....... get a licence in France to be able to ride 20km at Le Grand Luce? Which do you think?" asked Carol Arthur, who runs a French riding club, and who's been helping to get me a French endurance riding license.

The answer is: it was much easier riding Tevis!

If one is not an FEI rider, which I am not, one does not just waltz into France and expect to do an 80 km (50 mile) ride like one is accustomed to doing. One does not do a 40 km (25 mile) ride. One does a 20 km. Doesn't help if you try to flash your 4000 AERC miles or your Tevis buckle. One starts off with a 20 km ride. (Twelve miles!)

And that only after some fancy footwork by a number of people. Before I could even apply to get a French endurance riding license, a doctor had to affirm that I am capable. Fortunately, I had the foresight to bring along such a letter from my doctor saying I was alive and kicking. I had her write that I am "capable of participating in extreme sports which would include hang-gliding, mountain climbing and endurance riding to a distance of 100 miles." (You know, just in case I have a hankering to join a climb up Mont Blanc, France's highest peak at 15,771 ft or jump off said mountain in a hang-glider.)

Unfortately, I didn't ask for the precise wording in the letter, so it had to be redone by a French doctor, who I had to go see. Next, Nicky Freud had to arrange for me to get a club license, which was done with Carol via emails, and - I am now qualified to ride 12 miles in France on Dougal, one of Nicky's horses! (Who, by the way, has already competed in 120 and 140 km rides.)

Don't even ask me to explain all the French endurance riding divisions (for example, at the 160-km Florac ride this weekend there are a CEI3*, a CEN3* Amateur and a CEN3* Pro, all at 160km) - for I will be riding 20 kilometers - 12 miles - on Sunday at Le Grand Luce. Stay tuned!

Je Suis Perdu

Tuesday September 8 2010

I am lost.

I know about 10 words in French, three of which might come in handy at some point: I am lost. (Coincidentally, I learned 'perdu' is French for 'lost' - at Seren Arabians in England last week, since they named a colt Seren Perdaius.)

Nicky hauls me and Dougal a couple of miles from home and drops us off. She points the general direction home - through a forest, over a forested ridge, down in the other little valley, and toward the village of Gesvres. Other than Gesvres, the closest I can describe my location, if I must, is 'northwest France.'

And Nicky leaves us, saying, "Dougal knows the way home."


We start out riding along a two track beside a pasture of cows, who turn to follow us, and Dougal trots to leave them behind. We come to a split in the road. Both have old signs that say La Propriété Privée and both lead into the forest - but there is nowhere else to go.

Dougal chooses the right fork. it is little used, a narrow single lane covered with leaves - and it is a Bridlepath. Some of the trees have two horizontal pink stripes, and the number 5.

I thought I could rely on the compass in my head, because it works fairly well when I pay attention to my surroundings - but this is the forest, where you can't see far through the trees, and our track has been gradually curving - but I can't tell how much. There are now dark clouds above so there is no sunlight with which to determine the direction, and I soon lose all sense of orientation.

But Dougal moves forward without hesitation. He turns at some forks in the trail, goes straight past others. Sometimes we are following pink striped tree trunks; sometimes we are not on bridlepaths at all.

At one junction - when I am sure we are heading straight towards home, Dougal turns away on a path to the right. I feel as if we are going opposite of where we should be going but Dougal is sure of where he is going. I don't try to put my two cents worth in. He picks up a canter, and we float along swiftly through the forest, his bare feet falling softly on the grassy track. Perhaps we are getting further away from home, and he just likes to canter this stretch. Perhaps we are heading straight toward our village. I have no idea.

The forest is mostly silent - birds are rare and there's no sign of anything or anyone else. We zig then zag, follow a curving track, make a few more turns. Dougal saunters along, snacking on chestnut leaves as we go along.

And then we emerge onto another small road - and I recognize where we are - at a paddock where Dougal has spent time babysitting a couple of young colts. I know the way home now.

Je ne suis pas perdu - I am not lost!