The eternal second...

Arwen raced again today, the first time since her past disaster. I gave YB free reins to race in whatever distance he wanted - after all, he's the one doing the work and as a jockey, he only wants to race where he thinks he can win - and he chose the 1000m - my least favorite. But I thought why not. Although it wasn't her distance, she came in a good second place (Arwen the eternal second!) and that was fun. It's the last I see her race before I go, because according to her new Swedish training schedule, she's only to race every three weeks!

Arwen & Yaronbaba gets a visit from Arwen's exjockey Chinada

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

Advice from the Nigerien race track

I finally took a picture of the Nigerien way on how to keep your race horse in perfect shape!

Instructions: Stick a needle into its throat and let the blood flow into the sand. When the pool is big enough, exit the needle. Your horse is now "purified" and should not be worked hard for a few days. Repeat this procedure every second month, or the racehorse (because of the all the "rich" food it is getting) will produce too much blood, which will accumulate in the legs and lead to bloated feet. If you do not do this regularly - your horse will die. As we have all seen has happened with Arwen....
They: "No but Arwen is a very special mare, Ishtar. She is a pure arab!"
Me: Oh, my little Berber bush mare is now a pure arab? Interesting!
They: "Only Arwen can go without treatment, but if it was one of our horses... It just wouldn't be possible."
Me: "Do you know what function the blood has?"
They: "No."
Me: "It's like a road that brings the food you eat to the muscles so that they can work properly. If you have a tyre explosion on your way to Niamey and as a 'remedy', you remove part of the road, do you think your car will drive better or worse?"
They: ...

Although the race track sand is regularly littered by stallion blood, some people have stopped with this practice. When you speak in parables, people stop to listen, but in the end it's all down to what they see. I read a Hausa proverb today when I was studying:
Gani ya fi jî - Seeing is Better than Hearing. It's just like the trees at the field station. Before they actually saw that they could grow, they did not believe that man could sow trees - only God did that. And before they saw Arwen "surviving" at the track, they did not believe that a horse could be trained without being released of its own blood. Nor did they believe that mares could race, but that does not seem to be a common belief anymore.

I spoke to another horse owner and asked him why he didn't train his horses together with Arwen.
"Because yours would win!" he said. "I don't want to lose my money!"
"So let's do it just for the fun of it," I said.
"Why would you want to do that? You already know that Arwen will win!"
"I don't know that. She's a horse just like all the others, she has good days and bad days. Have you seen her win lately?"
"No, but lap times don't lie. She's the best horse, that's it."
So... Rumor has it that my mare is the best race horse in town but no one wants to find out, so I'll just have to keep letting her train by herself and hope that Sahara will catch up one day. Then they can spend the rest of their lives racing together, which is another "impossibility" in this country. Two horses from the same grounds racing together?
"Are you crazy? They would kill each other!"
But then seeing Arwen and Sahara lick each other after training, they just shrug their shoulders and say, "Oh, but they are mares."
Of course. Was it Arab mares brought down by some nice sultan etc...? And by the way, what magical potion am I actually feeding them? I have been asked that twice this year, and the year is still young...

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

This one is for you, Sofia

Remember the jeans that you wore out and left behind? Well, I gave them to Ringo, who fixed them up, and they are proudly being worn the one by who rides my horses... :-) Just thought you would like to know! Ps, now we finally know what size jockeys in Niger have! At least approximately... Arwen says hi: still no sign of "Dunderklumpen"... Not even a kick this last week!

Ishtar

Arwen gets to visit the race track

Today, I brought Arwen with me to the race track. I rode out with both horses yesterday, and since that was a hit, I thought why not today. I wasn't planning on going to the track, but eventually ended up going there anyway... Everybody was pleased to see Arwen again (her ex jockey would not stop hugging her) and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself so at first it seemed like a very good two-in-one idea.

I was so impressed with her composure (even as the stallions raced right next to her), that I thought I would be able to do this over and over (seeing this foal does not seem to be coming out soon!). However, Arwen was only patient until it was time to go home, and once she realized that she had been brought to the race track and was not going to be allowed to run, she threw a fit. She launched a good kick at Sahara and although I intervened between the two mares, Arwen remaining furious all the way home... Sahara was no better, because as soon as she realized that I was protecting her, she too started to act up and I had to ride home with two very cross creatures and having to keep a watchful eye on all of their internal insults. As soon as we got back to our street however, the fight was over as quickly as it had started (don't ask me why!) and Arwen trotted sweetly by Sahara's side - just making sure that the latter showed proper respect and kept half a head behind. I for one cannot understand how a problem so huge (at least it seemed so!) can settle so quickly, just by crossing from one street to another... But then again, I'm not a horse!

Let's just hope this foal pops out some day so that Arwen can resume the greatest love of her life, because I doubt I will be bringing her on any excursions to the race track again until she is ready to have her own rider. But then again, you never know, because I'm such a softy when it comes to my precious little mare and when she let's me know that she does not appreciate to be stuffed away in her little garden, I'm not the one who will exclude her from the outside world...

Ishtar

The 300m racing continued

Today, the fight between the laziest and the most stubborn mare at the race track continued.

Although there was ordinary races as well, our new happening (the 300m distance) attracted quite a little crowd and the mood was festive.

Unfortunately, Sahara had a bad day: being beaten 0-4 by the laziest horse! Now where's the spirit, huh? Can't wait until Arwen gets back and shows the little one how things are done in this place... :-) For like I've told Sofia, you're no better than your horse at the track!

Sofia poses next to Snövit and her owner - in order to pass for a true Nigerien, she should look serious and stare into the camera...

Now, our poor jockey was so cold that we actually borrowed him a sweatshirt. Or we would not have stood a chance!

Only problem was, Sahara was also freezing and maybe that's why she performed so badly today...

Now could it have been Snövit's fat that rendered her such a victory? Hmm, I'll leave it to the readers to debate the issue further... I'll be very interested on Anette's theory in this case!

Ishtar

Introducing 300m races

Today we introduced a new sport at the race track: short-distance races, 300m! The thing was that when Yaronbaba and I went riding in the bush yesterday, he actually managed to get some speed into Snövit, so she obviously wasn't as bad as she made out to be on the track. Sahara on the other had already shown me her gudu (she just won't do it at the track either), so I had come up with a way of making it fun for the mares. So a new distance was introduced today, and boy did we have fun!

You wouldn't believe all the wind there was that day! It certainly took your breath away... But it was quickly "down to business", with professional jockeys on amateur horses: Yaronbaba & Sahara versus Bala & Snövit...

Sofia had a hard time deciding on a favorite between our two contestants... "Who's going to win, you said? I don't know! Either it will be Sahara... or Snövit... or both!"

Because it was such a short distance, we would be able to carry out more races, but because the point was to make the mares like it - not dread it, I decided we would stick to two rounds today and see how it went. You'd be surprised, but they set off like real racing horses and fought equally to the finish line - Sahara winning with a head or so...

The jockeys were happy when they returned and the mood was a combination of anticipation and cheerfulness!

As for the second round, Snövit beat Sahara with good margin. This was where Snövit's racing spirit overtook Sahara's in her quest for fame and glory, while Sahara on the other hand was content doing her own thing. Very unlike Arwen, I must say!

Now, the camera failed in quality but today (maybe it was just too windy...) but even a seemingly ruined (black) photo has potential once you let Photoshop do its trick...

Ishtar

National Day celebrations continues at the race track

In the afternoon, we headed out to the race track where there would be a big show with lots of horses and camels. Camel and donkey races were also on the schedule, although in the end, there was no time left to organize them. A pity, because I have yet to see my first camel race in Zinder! Somehow I always tend to miss it; but on the other hand, this particular afternoon was filled with so much program that by the end of the day you just could not desire more...

The opening ceremony was grand and adventurous for many, as most people in Niger have never seen soldiers drop from the sky before...

Two more tribunes had been built to accommodate the president's entourage and security was high.The crowd was huge, and at first it looked as if we would not be able to see anything else but the camel riders on top of their huge animals... Eventually, Sofia and I made a move and decided to walk into the crowd and see if we could see some of the action...

Just like this morning, we were lucky! A soldier saw my camera and invited us out of the crowd. "You can stay here," he said, pointing at a spot several meters in front of the crowd. Of course, Sofia followed close by and we got a great view. From then on, the sport was to A) stay ahead of the crowd (that wanted to follow us), B) look very important when new soliders appeared so that they would not order us back into the crowd and C) gain more ground so that we would be able to take even better pictures! Oh it was a fun afternoon!

The camels were the first ones out, soon followed by horses... It was hard to film because of all the dust and the sunlight, but it was a fun challenge and we no longer had a crowd in front of us!

A griyo appeared from nowhere and starting screaming into his speaker about the nasara (white person) and whether or not she would be giving him money or not. I was thrilled that every one (including the president) could hear about it - not! and so I shook his hand amically and congratulated him, which set him off. Normally, the griyos come up to you and start to sing songs about how generous you are. It's all meant so that you'll give them money. If you don't, they quickly start singing about how ungenerous you are, so it's a loose-loose situation. I was lucky, because an old friend of mine was part of the show, and as spotted each other, the griyo lost his interest. After parting from Zouera (my friend), Sofia and I went back to "work"!

And then, just like that, everything was over and the riders rode away from the sunset...

And Sofia and I met some friends from the track!

Oh, I forgot to tell you, but we were in "uniform", and so we had a few people come up and ask us if they could please take a picture of us (both with and without). Europeans with an African touch ("uniform" means wearing clothes of the same tissue - a sign of belonging to the same family or being very tight friends), not an all too common sight in this part of the world...

Ishtar