"There's always tomorrow"

I am still feeling lost without my computer, but "luckily" for me, I am working Monday-Saturday this week, so I haven't had that much time to fret...

My new computer has already arrived and my dad and brother are helping me install all the needed programs (it's incredible how much you need!) while I get to focus on my essay. Which was due last week, so my reaction is probably best described with: "Gaaaaaah!"

If I were in Niger now, I would just shrug my shoulders and listen to people say: "Don't worry, there is always tomorrow!"

But in the Western World, there is never a tomorrow, because the "tomorrows" are always booked in advance. No wonder I miss Niger!!!

Not to talk about my little horsie darlings... :-) Just hugging them is stress therapy...

I wonder if they would write my essay for me as well? Now that would be some marvelous little barb mares!


OK, got to go back to work - enough longing for one day. Just needed to have it said: I am missing my girls to bits right now.

Ishtar

Playing around with Arwen

Horses have such a calming effect on me... Brings out the child within!

I'm going to miss my girls!!

Ishtar

No foal!

This week, the two Nigerien vets Dr Madougou and Dr Hamzy conducted a rectal palpation on Arwen (their first ever on a mare!) and I finally got the answer to one of many questions concerning my little mare: Arwen is not in foal! Not much of a surprise really, but she did have us fooled there for a while, while her belly growing and all the signs of impending birth... She must have resorbed very early on (when it's easy to miss), but I'm just happy that there was nothing seriously wrong with her (like having a dead foal stuck somewhere). They did not find any cysts or anything else that seemed to be the matter, and the only thing I am waiting for now is for my mare to return to her normal cycle and not be so sensitive all the time. But that seems to be taking its time and right now, she seems to be in some sort of mourning! ...Which my jockey is taking more seriously than I! But then again, I have my own hormones to tend to regularly so maybe that's why I'm not so alarmed... :-D I'll let you know when Arwen falls in love again! It might be a few years though before I actually allow her to mate again. Not while she's still in training, that's for sure!

Ishtar

Overestimated

This weekend, the Ishtar Mares were at the race track, although it was only Arwen who was competing. Sahara was just there as moral support. The program was to have semi-big 1600m races, but on Saturday, no one wanted to race against Arwen and so the initial race was canceled. Instead, she raced a 1300m, where she came second just behind the leading horse. You should have seen the look on YB's face when he brought her in. I don't know any horse who will come second (isn't she always the constant second...?) and make her jockey be just as proud as if he won. But she makes them happy - probably because she always gives her best (and she's the only horse apart from Sahara who runs without a whip). The crowd loves her too. It doesn't matter how she performs, because in their eyes, she's the best. If she performs well, they say that she hardly even made en effort (=that she has so much more to give, you've seen nothing yet!) and if she fails in something, they make excuses for her (she wasn't feeling well, or she had worked to hard, or it wasn't her distance etc). She is so overestimated that her real competitors - the ones who are at the same level as her and whom she should be racing against - aren't allowed to compete against her. Instead she has to race against the really good horses who have far more experience than her, and of course, she can't live up to it.

Saturday was an interesting day. The 1600m race was canceled and she came second to one the Gold Man's horse in the 1300m race - and still the crowd treated her as if she had won.

A custom's officer came up to her and watched her with hunger in his eyes. The Snow Man introduced me as Arwen's owner, but he just looked past me, I wasn't even there. Instead he returned his gaze to my little bush mare and you could just see how he was already making future plans for her. I was told later that he wanted to buy her, and the other horse owners asked me for my price.
"She's not for sale," I said.
"Oh but you must have a price!" Everything in Niger can be bought for money, or so the rich believe.
I thought for a while, and then said, "No, I don't. Even if someone came and offered 2 million CFAs for her, I still wouldn't sell her."
At home later, my Dad thought I should set a price. "Just set a price that is ridiculously high and you'll get them thinking."
"Yes," I said, "I could do that, I could say five or ten millions and everyone would stop bringing up the issue, but the Gold Man might actually be crazy enough to show up at my gate with that kind of money just because he wants her so badly! And then I would have to be true to my word and sell her and that's just not happening!"
He still thought I should sell her and make money on her reputation (I don't know any horse that is as over-estimated as Arwen - it doesn't matter if she makes it or fails, they always see the "miracle" in what she does...) but I'm not setting a price on her head. She's a faithful horse and I couldn't find a better mount even if I looked around the whole world. And people need to learn in this country that some things just can't be bought with money. Go find your own Arwen! There are plenty of them in the bush!

Apart from that, the weekend was sad. I'm tired of the race track community right now, but I haven't really figured out why. When I went there last year, I was naive and full of inspiration. I met a lot of people that I enjoyed talking to and I made many friends (or should I say good acquaintances?). Today, the attitude is different. I have my friends, my small entourage, and I have cut away from the Gold Man as I cannot stand his owning attitude, even towards me. I may be female but I am used to being respected, even in this country, and I don't want other males to "take care of me". Nor to tell me what to do or not to do with my mares.
So the track is now divided in two camps, and the Gold Man is playing the champ just as if we were still in kindergarten. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic, because the rich (whether they really are rich or just act rich) control the poor so easily.

It's a man's club, as I have figured out. I'm the only female and lately, I had been wondering whether they didn't want to talk to me because I was a woman - but the Snow Man informed me that they're just sour because of Arwen. Oh well, that will pass as her true colours come forth and her gradiose reputation takes a slight fall. :-)
Concerning being a female however, I had an interesting conversation with my jockey. I asked him if his wife had ever seen him race, and he said: "Habba, no way!!"
I asked him why, and he said: "There are no women at the race track."
"But I am here," I said.
"Yes, Ishtar, but you are not a woman! You are a horse-owner!" Lol, so much for being put in a category... :-)

Either way, I did meet some nice people - nice sincere people (most probably not horse owners themselves!) - and at the end of the day, I did enjoy myself. But that was Saturday, and the worst was yet to come...

Ishtar

Free to act...?

Today, YB and I rode to the race track, but it was a marvelous Sunday afternoon as there were in fact no races!
"Ah, Zinder has problems!" YB said as we approached track that seemed deserted apart from a handful horses and their riders. And still, he chose to come back from Dogo (where all the people were today) and come here!

We had a rendez-vous though, because I had said we would be racing 2600m. It's a long distance, too long if you ask the men of the race track, but I love it because no one else does. It's a favorite of Arwen's but then again, any gudu that goes on for an eternity is a favorite of hers.
I knew YB and Sahara would be up for a challenge but I made no illusion of this.
"If we race the 1300m," I told YB on Friday, "you have a good chance of winning and I don't like to loose!" We laughed together - neither of us takes it very seriously, it's a lot of fun developing Sahara from "race horse donkey" to "Arwen wannabee". They (the race track community) are already calling her "Ishtar's little one" and soon they will have a hard time differentiating between my two mares, as Sahara has started to understood the love of gudu!

We did race, and of course Arwen won (despite the weight difference between her rider and Sahara's jockey...), but for the first lap, Sahara remained side by side with Arwen, working full speed without enticement. She did really well! Of course the second lap was too much for her, but I don't mind. I'd rather train her for the longer distances right from the start because I've never liked those 1000m races anyway.

In fact, Sahara did so well that I considered racing another lap after giving them some time to recuperate, but Ali would hear none of it. He did not even want us to go into the bush.
"Listen. All this work kills a horse."
"It might kill a Nigerien horse Ali, but look at Arwen. She's ready to go!"
He still did not want us to go, and being responsible as he is, he followed us with his horse, knowing that we could not ride away from him and yet we would not be able to make him gallop either. Still, he tried to explain to me that it would be best if I stuck to the traditional [boring] Nigerien race horse training.
Finally I said: "Ali, listen. I am 26 years old. I have two horses. I fell in love with horses but I did not fall in love with racing. I do not enjoy the slow-slow walk to the race track which goes on for an eternity, nor do I enjoy trotting. I love one thing and one thing only, and that is galloping in the bush!"
At this, YB said (almost soothingly): "It's ok, let us go."
And Ali smiled, shook his head and said "Sure, go!"
Off we went, and forty minutes later, I was smiling, Arwen was satisfied and YB was in shock because Sahara had kept full gudu for 1min40 seconds at the airfield stretch, which convinced him once and for all that our bush training does indeed work!
"Next time, let's drop the race track and head straight for the bush!" he said.
Ah... now I'm listening!

Ishtar

The Nigerien outback

This past week, I picked up an old passion of mine again, namely galloping in the bush! There is nothing as calming in the entire world as being about to let go of all thoughts and just race along a sandy line that keeps going for eternity. I love speed and so does my mares; the work in the outback is purely built on inspiration, which suits me just fine!

For some reason however, this season has mostly been centered around the race track and for the past few weeks, I have started to feel an urgency to get away from it all. Though the race track is full of development opportunities, it is a time-consuming business and there are too many conflicts involved. I guess when you start brining more problems home than you left behind, you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. I didn't fall in love with horseback riding at the races, nor did I fall in love with racing. I fell in love with gudu (speed) and galloping in the bush and that's what makes me happy.

In the bush, I can gallop for an hour, intensive time. I do not look at my watch a single time. I do not worry about anything in the world, nor do I bring any problems along. It's just me, nature, teamwork with my horse and God. It's a simple world - a time-out from everything else - some times a treat, some times a need. I come home satisfied and smiling. Now, after all this waiting for Arwen's foal to pop out, I finally found back to my old passion this week. For three times now, Yaronbaba and I have been out on long sessions galloping in the bush. I took the vets' advice and started riding Arwen again; and for the first time since before my accident, I let her have free reins. Needless to say, after a lot of hard work Arwen was in the end satisfied; Yaronbaba was in shock because the horses worked so hard out of pure enjoyment and Sahara was happy but exhausted, having given a 110% - willingly - doing her best to keep pace with Arwen. And as for myself, I was just like Arwen; thoroughly satisfied and with a smile lasting all evening and longer...

Surprisingly, even though it's my time-out, I'm a social person and prefer going out with company rather than alone... As tomorrow is training day at the races and YB has other horses to tend to (and I prefer to stay away from the social spotlight for a while), I came up with a solution that fits us all; both YB, me and the horses. He'll come by and pick up Arwen at normal training time, and two hours later I will meet him at the track when all the work there is done and the owners are on their way back again. We will then dash into the bush for about half an hour of intensive riding. He gets to please everyone, I get to leave all my thoughts behind and the horses get to enjoy their work! Now what could be better?

Ishtar

Arwen & Ra'ama

I recently discovered that I actually had in my possession a picture of Arwen's foal's father; a racing stallion by the name of Ra'ama. I agreed to him because he had the right color (brown) and a nice personality, but I didn't honestly know anything of his achievements, apart from his owner unconvincingly telling me that he was a very good race horse (but aren't they all?). Now it turns out that I have proof of his victory of the 1600m at the Tabaski feast last year, so I will say no more about this foal's linage. It's good. Now Arwen didn't exactly fall in love with him, but he is the sire of her foal, which will most certainly be - should it ever choose to come out of her belly- brown. Question is, will it have one white sock like its mother or three like its father...=

On January the 15th, Arwen will have been expecting for exactly a year. I hear the record is something like 380 days and hope I will not have to wait that much longer (the normal period of gestation is 340 days, which was three weeks ago), because I have just about as much patience on this issue as Arwen... Although she doesn't seem to care whether the foal comes out or not, as long as she gets to race...

Ishtar

Yaronbaba

The week, Arwen and Sahara have been enjoying the regular company of their new jockey, Yaronbaba. Since Arwen's belly is heavy, he has been taking her out for walks and Sahara has been taken out for rides in the bush (although their pace would hardly be my description of a good outing, but then again, horses are pities when they "have to" work, even when they ask for it themselves...).

As Sofia is leaving soon, we went out to greet him and brought Tabita with us. Tabita loves the horses and this puzzled Yaronbaba, who had probably never seen a girl so young be so fond of such great animals (in general, women in Niger do not ride).

Tabita: "Iiiiiihiiiii!"
Me: "Yes, Tabita, that is a horse! And yes, her name is Arwen!"

Me: "Now that, Tabita, is a DOG."
Tabita: "Ayayayay!"

Me: "Now as you're too small to ride a horse, maybe Baloo will let you ride on his back."
Tabita: "Mmmmm!"

Me: "See? There you go! But let's not get any dog hairs on your nice outfit..."

Ishtar

A slow start...

Today, we took the horses over to Josef and Renate's garden, hoping to capture some action on tape. However, the horses were downright lazy and had decided to start off the new year on a very light tone.

At first, Sahara could hardly be bothered in her bed of sand, but eventually agreed to follow behind Arwen in a donkeyish pace.

Sofia and I sat on the veranda catching our two very content horses walk around eating grass, but the only action we got was Sahara trotting a few paces and then going back to the grass. Big deal... But they were satisfied, and we got half an hour in the sun!

Ishtar

Training the Stubborn & the Lazy

Today, the Snowman and I had our very own scheme planned. He had recently bought a new horse and wanted to try it out, so I suggested that we race the three of them together: his newly bought who had the speed but lack the endurance, Snövit (the lazy but well-developed mare) and Sahara, my stubborn one...

Being one jockey short, the Snowman asked Chinada to ride Snövit. My ex-jockey cockily stated that he was certain that with this (lazy) mount, he would beat Sahara and her jockey (who has now replaced him and taken over his job). I said nothing, but thought to myself "You wish!"

However, more horses asked to join our party, which was not exactly the intention (we'd be racing on a whole different level!) and soon they were eight all together.

Chinada of course was quick to trade Snövit for the best mount!

After three jump starts, they finally set off, and Snowman and I were equally interested in our mares' progress, or should I say lack thereof...
Chinada won with a good margin on his black stallion...

... while Sahara and Snövit competed for the last position. In the end, Sahara won with a horse length, but it did not look very convincing, but then again, Sahara has been trained to run behind Arwen, so it was no surprise that she did not mind cantering over the finish line. I, however, knew that she could do better, and this provided me with a new challenge: how to get the lazy one (Snövit) and my stubborn darling (Sahara) to actually enjoy the game!

After all, it has always been much more challenging (and inspiring) to start as an underdog!

Anyway, Sahara was an eager mount and we worked on turns for a while, just for fun.

I even took Snövit on a second round, but now there's a horse that will run without passion!

A cheerful mood was set however, and Bala played out, making us all laugh. I was thrilled, because I had always taken him for being the serious one, and suddenly, neither Snowman, Sofia nor I could stop laughing...

Then, all horses had been ridden and Yaronbaba followed me into the bush where awaited a wonderful thirty minute full-gudu ride - my favorite!

Ishtar

Training Sahara

Since I have decided that Arwen is not to be ridden anymore, I started training Sahara instead. I know she has the "gudu" but not the endurance, so I took her out for a twenty minute ride in the bush - my favorite. As you can tell from the pictures, she was drenched in her own sweat by the time we were back, but I never had to urge her. She just loved it as much as I did and did her very, very best.

During the time we were out, Sofia had taken Arwen to Josef and Renate's garden, where she happily trotted around by herself, until she heard Sahara's galloping footprints approaching... She whinnied and rushed forward to expect her younger flock member, seemingly asking a number of questions which Sahara was too exhausted to answer... However, they were happy and content and spent another half an hour grazing Josef and Renate's delicious and untouched grass...

Now, Tabita also known as "Busmusen" was very interested to see what was going on and where the horses were going. So when you're small and short, you have to be innovating and climbing is a very good skill... In case you didn't know...

Ishtar