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USEF
ANNOUNCES H.H. PRESIDENT'S CUP RIDERS: |
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Representing the U.S. at the 2008
President's Cup ride in Abu Dhabi (United Arab
Emirates) on
February 16 will be Kathy Brunjes & Theatric, John
Crandell III & HH Saba Shams and Steve Rojek &
Seyvilla Triproof (alternate: Ann Hall & Bogus
Thunder). Good luck to all! |
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PRESS
RELEASE FROM USEF - SULTAN'S CUP ( NOV 10 - MALAYSIA
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American Endurance Riders Place
in Top Ten at World
Endurance Championship Test Event
Release: November 21 2007
By Joanie Morris
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U.S. endurance competitors were up to the task at
the World Endurance Championship Test Event in
Teregganu, Malaysia, November 10-11, 2007. Despite
torrential rain and muddy conditions, two American
combinations finished in the top ten.
Kathy Brunjes from Maine riding her own Theatric
finished fifth, just inches in front of her fellow
countryman John Crandell III. Crandell, from
Virginia, was sixth riding Heraldic. Interestingly,
these
geldings are ¾ siblings. They are both by Statistic
and their dams are half sisters. Theatric and
Heraldic proved stamina and grit runs in the family.
In order to make use of the cooler temperatures, the
race began late Saturday evening and was run
primarily in the dark, with the first horse
finishing at 8:01 a.m. Sunday morning.
The other two U.S. riders were Meg Sleeper of
Frenchtown, NJ, riding H H Saba Shams and
California's Heather Reynolds and C P Magestic.
Sleeper was running in the top ten through Vet Gate
Four at approximately 70 miles, but Saba Shams was
not eating or drinking well, and the decision was
made to withdraw the gelding. Reynolds and C P
Magestic kept a somewhat slower pace throughout the
day, and finished in 26th place.
The race was won by United Arab Emirates rider Nasr
Marzouqi riding the 15-year-old mare Hafiza Du Mas.
The World Endurance Championship will be held at the
same venue in November of 2008.
 DOWNLOAD
SULTANS CUP RESULTS |
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PHOTOS FROM MALAYSIA |
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KATHY BRUNJES UPDATES FROM
MALAYSIA |
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UPDATE
#1 |
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Hi everyone
It is 6:30 am here in Malaysia on Sunday - which is
6:30 pm where you are in Maine, on Saturday. Very
hot and humid here, but what we expected for the
tropics. The 4 U.S. horses (all Arabians)
traveled well and have settled into their quarantine
stables here at the ride venue in Terengganu,
Malaysia -these are brand new, 56 stall stables,
with 4 turnout paddocks, 4 beautiful wash rooms and
all the shavings and hay from Washington State they
could possibly eat. Poulin Grain sponsored all my
feed, so I have all Theatric's regular feed
here...and all his supplements. I am very fortunate
that I didn't have to feed "strange" grain....the
feed we had available to us came from Australia -
and it is a higher protein level than we would
normally feed at home. I can't thank Poulin enough
in allowing me to bring my own.
Oh! there are 8 of these new stables, all have 56
stalls each....one for each continent plus a
treatment
stable/hospital plus an isolation stable.
We have ridden 4 times on our designated training
track - an 18.7 mile (total) track that winds
between the beach and some pepper fields. we have to
cross the road twice, which took some getting used
to, since everyone drives on the "wrong" side of the
road over here - I was always looking the
wrong way and forget to check oncoming traffic the
way I should be...finally got that figured out. The
horses are experiencing the difference in
heat/humidity indexes here...we take temps twice a
day (am & pm) and after each ride...their temps will
elevate dramatically when riding - our Chef d'Equipe
will be bringing us on-board temp monitors to use
while riding, so we can better judge their internal
body temp. That will make a big difference. I will
say the 3 east coast horses are faring the best -
the west coast horse is having a great deal of
trouble adjusting to the humidity.
We took the day off yesterday (which is my Saturday,
your Friday) to go snorkeling off the coast of the
Kapas Island....very beautiful white sand beaches
and tropical fish galore....had to take a ferry ride
out the island, and we all went (riders and grooms
who are here - which is limited right now to just 15
of us - there will be new riders and grooms arriving
daily now that we are in our 2nd week here) - we
have France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina,
Japan and the U.S. here so far, but only 5 total
riders (!) - just riders from Argentina (2) and 3 of
the U.S. riders are here -our 4th rider doesn't
arrive until Nov 7 - but her horse is here
Well, off to breakfast and the stables.
Selamat Pagi (good morning)!
Kathy
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UPDATE
#2 |
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Wowser! just finished
watching (live broadcast on ESPN) the Red Sox win
the World's Series!~!! What a game...what a series -
I was up at 3:30 this morning watching game 3 on TV,
and then got back from the stables around 10:30 this
morning and just checked the tv and viola! they were
on live. It seems so odd to think that it was close
to midnight on Sunday night for you guys, and I'm
watching the game live the next day around noon...
Anyway, how about them Red Sox (Todd, Tom, Debbie
will know about that)
I decided to ride this morning, since Theatric has
been bored out of his mind in the stall and turnout
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and he's been a bit pushy and rude to handle - I
decided to take him out on a schooling ride, get
some
bending exercises in and make him think about what
he's doing rather than just gawking at monkeys,
lizards, cows roaming in the oddest places, and
turtle nests (part of our exercise track goes by a
protected area of turtle nests on the beach). We did
the 9 km tract and I kept him at a low 89-112 bpm on
the heart monitor, mostly collected trotting. By the
time we headed for home, he was back to minding his
business and bending nicely - that's what
shoulder-ins and side passing will do for you
We got our labs back this morning - all 4 U.S.
horses are right down the middle for normal on all
chemistries -Cal's low calcium and high AST and CKs
are back to normal, and Heraldic's low potassium is
back to normal. Sunny, Heraldic and Theatrics high
hemoglobins were where they should be - so Dr. Bala
is very pleased with our horses and how they are
handling everything. They are still all eating and
drinking (what else do they have to do I guess) and
I think
someone may have switched my horse on the plane,
because he's even eating his electrolytes and his
potassium supplements in his grain for heaven's
sake....
We have our first night training tonight....we all
aren't sure we even want to do this, but since it's
available it will be something different....We were
told at lunch that only the US stable and the South
American stable will be participating in the night
training. The Europeans aren't interested, Malaysia
just got here, and the UAE/Middle East aren't here
yet.
We discovered a petrol station just 2 km from our
resort (in the other direction from where we have
been driving) and it has everything, even an ATM
that takes debit and credit cards....so that was a
huge find for us. Better yet, it has real
yogurt....solid yogurt (here in Malaysia, what they
call yogurt is this really disgusting sour drink
thing that even smells bad) - so we bought 8
containers to put in our refrigerators (if I forgot
to mention it, we have mini-refrig. in our rooms) -
Had lunch with Zulu, Stephanie Teeter and Mercedes
today, and Steph downloaded all the photos I've
taken onto her laptop, and said she will put up a
photo album on
www.endurance.net for anyone wanting to go there
and take a look....visit her website occasionally
for updates on her observations and our
activities...it's always fun to have different
points of view on the same day and activities...she
has Heather's travel dialog/diary up there as well.
We have a few hours before we can go back to the
stables, and it has started to rain, so I guess I'll
go read a book for a while....this will mean our
training ride will be in the rain - something that
we are sure to experience on actual race day.
Kathy
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UPDATE
#3 |
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Ok, so it sounds like a good
by-line, but there is no Halloween in Malaysia -
Happy one to you all, anyway.
Another beautiful day in Malaysia - temps around 85
degrees, higher humidity today (79%) - we will have
rain again tonight by the looks of the skies
tonight. It is now 7:15 pm on Wed. night, and
it's been a very busy day.
We went to stables around 8am, John and Roger fed
John's horses, then headed to the airport to pick up
Troy. I decided to try to finish clipping Theatric,
but my spare blades turned out to be duller than the
other set, so didn't accomplish much there. The
veterinarians arrived to check temperature charts,
and
I asked one of them if they had clippers in the vet
clinic - and they did, so I asked if I could borrow
them - and was told all I have to do is walk down to
the clinic and pick them up whenever I want them -
except they are the big Oster full-body clippers,
and Theatric freaks at the noise of those things, so
I am back to square one. - Temps all ok on all
horses - everything is normal. They will draw more
blood on Saturday if we want - again, chemistries we
will be charged for, but hemoglobin (RBC, WBC, etc)
are on the house.
Heather decided to run back to the resort, and I
went out for a two hour ride - leisurely ride,
mostly
walking, some trotting, lots of circle work - just a
nice time out with my horse. Got back to the stables
hot and sweaty and just hosed off Theatric ( and
cooled him down with ice water to see how well he
tolerates that method of cooling) when Zulu arrives
to say the local television station is on its way to
do a live shoot - was I the only one there? Mr.
Hasumi had just gotten back from his ride on Cameo,
so the two of us cleaned our horses up and we were
asked to stand the horses in the middle of the
stable walkway and just hold them, while a reported
talked about the horses and stables and the upcoming
Sultan's Cup, then they all patted the horses, and
the reported asked if she could parade one of the
horses around the walkway while the camera
rolled...she took Cameo - I think Theatric's size
scared her a bit - Cameo is much smaller - of
course, the whole time the interview/camera shoot
was taking place, Theatric as yawning and looking as
bored as a horse can look....
After they all left, I turned Tee out in the paddock
with Cal, and it was noon - when the barns close for
two hours. I sat waiting for a shuttle, which never
came, so one of the stable guards/security offered
to
drive me back to the hotel - got back, ate lunch,
then dozed by the pool for an hour - Troy had
arrived, and it was good to see another American. I
left for the stables and spent the afternoon taking
Theatric out for a power walk ( a good hour) and
some grazing (if you can call the grass here grazing
material....Tee picks and chooses one blade at a
time - I think it must be bitter tasting). When I
got back from that, John, Troy, Heather and Jeremy
had gotten to the stables, ready to walk their
horses, so I took Tee out for another stroll with
them. We we finished up that walk, Tim and Matty
(the rest of Heather's crew) had arrived, and now we
are all back to the hotel ready for dinner.
What was different about today? saw my first
SNAKE....a bright green poisonous viper - about 6
feet
long - thankfully, dead - this type of snake, so
Jeremy and John tell me, are tree snakes and very
poisonous...well, Happy Halloween to you, too! just
what I want to know - a green tree snake, that is
the same color as all the leaves here....
Tomorrow Tom leaves the U.S. to join me - I am
looking forward to his arrival.
Kathy
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Kathy
and Theatric Win 100-mile FEI/CEI*** Endurance
event.
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