Shahzada 2006

Australia's 5-day, 400 km endurance "marathon" ride

DUNC'S SHAHZADA STORY:

Shahzada is a marathon event and that means this is a marathon story; so before reading go make a cuppa, or, if you are one to get into the spirit of things, grab a bottle of Gatorade.

I first visited Shahzada back in 2000 where I strapped for my friend Tova. The event blew me away – this is exactly what I had envisaged endurance riding to be when I first started in the sport. The problem for me was that my horse, Tom (Revelwood Shaja) didn’t strike me as a suitable Shahzada mount – he is feisty is a nervy way, a poor eater and drinker, and spooky on track. On the other hand (hoof?) he is exceptionally tough, mentally and physically, and has stamina to boot. Anyway, the years dawned and dusked and I still didn’t have my Shahzada horse – so this year I decided what the heck I’ll take Tom anyway.

Why, oh why did I delay all these years. This is simply the most AWESOME event. The trail, the organisation, the horses, vets, the town itself and, most of all, the ATMOSPHERE! You have a year to ensure you have YOUR horse ready for next year’s effort. But for now, why not sit back and I’ll take you through my perspective of Shahzada 06.

A Disappointment
We arrived on Saturday; me with Tom and mum with Ginge (Cudgelbar Tarquin). Set up camp in a great posi – thanks Neil – I was very specific, in fact I almost wrote an essay, on what I was hoping for in our camp spot and Neil delivered. But,, dear reader, don’t get any ideas – I have booked that particular spot for the rest of my lifetime and bribed the owner with beer too.

On Sunday, we rode the ponies out to and then up/down Jack’s Track for a bit of a limber up. This was our first experience of the new, majorly improved trails (I have ridden Jack’s previously on the St Albans ride in 04 where it was very eroded and rutted). The horses travelled along really well and the weather was marvellous. Stopped to take a couple of photos at the top of Jack’s when, after a mere hour in use, the camera battery died (bloody thing hasn’t been right since dad took it to Svaalbaard!). So much for documenting our Shahzada journey…

Back to camp and clean the nags up for pre-ride vetting. Quick practice trot, all looks good and into the vet ring. Trotted Tom fine but, SHOCK!, mum was asked to trot again!. Although cleared to start, Ginge didn’t look quite right and, after a lot of discussion and a few more private trot outs, mum decided to withdraw. This was completely unexpected as Ginge is by far and away the soundest horse we have owned. Needless to say this was DISSAPOINTING… Mum was pretty brave about it all and in the end, we both agree, that maybe, had we both started, neither of us would have made it through.

(That’s right dear reader, I am telling you that when you come to Shahzada next year you MUST bring a strapper. Better still, BRING TWO! I am pretty independent and don’t really like having a strapper, even at 100 milers, but at this ride there just isn’t enough time to get it all done yourself AND do your horse justice.)

The Vetting
Here is probably a good time to talk about the vetting. Much was made of the approachability of the vets. And rightly so (though I do wonder how much of that was simply because they said ‘WE ARE APPROACHABLE’).

There was, however, a different procedure for trot outs this year. As I understand it, in previous years, if a horse did a dodgy trot out it was spun and if ok but just a bit scratchy it had to represent. This year, the scratchy horses were simply given a B for gait and a comment in the book and allowed to go on. The horses with the dodgy trot out were allowed to represent prior to the next leg. This gave owners/riders/strappers the opportunity to work on the horse in the intervening time. In many cases, they were able to resolve any lameness type issues completely. Of course, the final trot was the final trot, nothing dodgy please – and so it should be.

I found that I was a little tense for Monday and Tuesday vetting. By Wednesday, one settles into the routine and those long, between leg breaks really make all the difference – having time to do EVERYTHING between legs is great! In between legs I did things like alter gear, have showers, massage my horse, gossip with other riders, nap, even pop over to The Fickle for a latte! (god dam city slickers). Even for the final Friday vet I felt pretty relaxed about the whole deal. Lets face it, if you don’t get through, sure it is disappointing but gosh, really, who cares – what a ride! Probably though, the fact that Tom felt so incredibly fit and forward throughout the entire event significantly reduces my VCS (vet check stress).

Monday
Monday morning and a 4am shotgun start, down along the Common Rd. I rode this leg with Virginia Dodson on Franshar Park K Shar (my ride at the Boonah Quilty) who was using Tom’s bottom as auxiliary brakes (a role Tom is used to have performed the same role on several rides previously for Ginge). Virginia did a great job (and had the good sense to utilise Sharon May Davis - surely Australia’s premiere equine body worker - when a few issues popped up with Shar later in the week) for a successful completion.

Up Johnny’s (another super-smooth track refurbishment), along Transmission Rd (more of a forestry track really) then down Blue Hill, past the Bailey’s and there was Lyn standing in her drive (looking fabulous) so we had a quick chat before moving on across Word of Life crossing (Word of Life is sold – will it get a new name I wonder?), now just a big sand bar, and our first photo opportunity with Main Event Photography, the on course photographers. What a great job they do – though, disappointingly, they had a bit of a sleep in and didn’t makes The Steps early enough to capture Tom’s descent on Thursday morning - bummer. From Word of Life a 4km trot back into St Albans.

Now, I think it is quite obvious that if I were to give you a blow by blow, leg by leg account, as much as I would love to do so, we would be here until Shahzada 07 before I am done. So instead, I’ll just continue with some observations and highlights.

Roadwork and Technical Trails
Ah yes, the road. There is A LOT of roadwork in this ride: Every leg begins and ends on road. At least 4km, (up to 19km on the final Friday morning!) – so you better have a sound horse. One of the things I did find very interesting is the number of riders who would religiously walk (mounted or unmounted) down every hill but would happily pound along the road in a flying trot or fore-handy, concussive canter!

Speaking of concussion: During Shahzada we had the good fortune to meet a number of people, including Jean Koek from Digital Infrared Body Images. Jean is a commercial thermographer and was there to follow up on Jen G’s horse, Ferrymaster, who she had imaged at the Quilty. Now Jean also works with Jan (dahling) T in Queensland, another barefooter, so she tracked down some of us barefooter at Shahzada and took images of our horses. I found the comparisons in the different temperatures in the feet of shod and the unshod horses compelling. It was also interesting to see the shifting heat patterns in limbs and feet as the ride progressed. For example, Tom was pretty OK, thermally speaking, til Wed arvo, where his off hind hammy heated up. The next day his off fore was one degree warmer than his near (off side lateral problems). After the next leg the heat patterns in the feet had swapped, probably the near fore took more weight as a new heat pattern became apparent in the dorsal cannon off fore.

The technical trails are a BLAST. I couldn’t get enough of them. Tom is great on tricky terrain, is pretty good travelling uphill and is exceptional travelling down. We just gobbled up Prestons, The Steps, McKechnies, Boyds and Bakers. I led up and down every hill except Shepherd Gully on Wed morning, where Tom was just too FULL OF GO and I felt I would have been risking my life trying to lead him! We made up a lot of time on the technical trails, which was just as well as we lost a lot of time on the road. I was much to conservative on the road, often getting off and running a fair bit of them. Similarly, there are a lot of areas on the hills (the top half of McKechnies and the first half of Jack’s for instance) where you could easily stay on and trot along. Altogether I think I would have been walking/running for about 160km, next time I’ll reduce that to about 80km – I reckon we could easily cut about 2 hours off our riding time.

Gear and Barefoot
I am really, REALLY pleased with my EasyBares. I used boots on all feet for the entire ride. I did loose a hind boot when cantering along the Great North Rd, with some very rough track over which I should probably have been walking/jig-jogging. But hey, it was Wednesday morning, Tom was firing, the sun was dawning, and the birds were singing. I ask you, who could possibly walk in such circumstances? And the boots were giving exceptional footing over the stony/rocky surface. Anyway I knew instantly it came off. The gaiter was half broken. No probs. I put it in my Stowaway pack, put on the spare boot I was carrying and off I cantered. Except that I didn’t actually zip my Stowaway pack back up and the boot fell out. Thankyou Shelly and Steve for finding and bringing it back to camp for me! The boots Tom had on his front feet had already done about 1000kms prior to Shahzada – and they still have wear left in them! That IS value for money.

I did loose a boot on two other occasions, but simply because I didn’t do up the gaiters. Unfortunately, one occasion was the final trot out. As the peanut gallery whooped their encouragement, Tom simply accelerated and the boot went flying off! Not a great advertisement for EasyCare and very remiss of me considering how well the boots had performed all week (I wonder did anyone get a photo of it flying off – I would love to have one).

I had no rubbing problems at all until Thursday, where I had noticed some hair abrasion on the heels and so had decided to ‘wrap’ differently (‘wrapping’ refers to the use of vet wrap or sports tape under the gaiters). Well, of course, one should never do what one hasn’t tried at home. My new style of wrap was no good, and bunched up under that gaiter, causing pastern rubbing (the following pix are off fore and off hind – the worst rubbed feet).

As you can see not so bad that any skin was broken but hair was removed and in the future I think I will adopt Carol’s style of wrapping – she had no rubbing at all. Tom’s feet did not wear at all due to the full time boot use. Next time I will ride some of the legs barefoot, just to get some wear happening. Here are some pre-ride and post-ride photos. The post ride photos were taken on Tues 29 Aug after a light trim as his feet had grown longer over the period (stimulation without wear of barefoot = longer hoof).

I alternated saddles: Mon, Wed and Fri in my Cheyenne; Tues and Thurs in my Isaballe. Next time I will just stick to the Cheyenne for the entire ride – it was much the more comfortable saddle and with the Stowaway Pack I could carry spare boots, syringes of electrolytes, even a bridle (I rode in a halter only in the afternoons, Tom was much to energetic in the mornings – though I did change from a bit to and S hack from Wed as his mouth had started bleeding from early over-exuberant behaviour). I did find I had to put the fibreglass pommel insert back into the Cheyenne (I usually have it filled with pillow stuffing) to add more stability and keep the saddle off his wither.

I mostly rode in my usual clothes: boots, gaiters, jeans (I did wear shorts for one afternoon leg – they were fine too) and a t-shirt. I used three different types of shoe: ariat terrain, Dublin jodhpur boot and Nike sneaker. The Ariat and Nikes were great, good support and comfortable off horse. The Dublins were hopeless for walking/running and my feet went to sleep while riding. They are ok at home but clearly not up to scratch for competitions with extended riding times.

Drugs! Have them available: for you, not the horse! I am not a fan of drugs but on Thursday I was having a lot of trouble just walking – a consequence of an old tendonitis flairing up after all the down-hill running. I know the quality of my riding on Thurs suffered for it. Murray supplied me with a potent (but unnamed!) analgesic on Friday and I could get back to enjoying the ride and the scenery instead of focussing on my dodgy ankle.

Outstanding Horses
For me there were four ‘stand out’ horses competing. The winner, Evonglen Holmgaard is such a top little horse. Brad had ‘V8’ crayoned on his hindquarter and you could see why. I saw this combo out on track almost every leg (as they went motoring past!) and on all but one, where they still looked pretty good, they looked exceptional. This horse would have been my pick for the Best Managed horse. I don’t know the breeding of this horse.

Two horses stood out as sheer magnificent riding horse types: Hillbrae Garnet (Baram Boy (Abiram x Zeta (Count Manilla)) x Debparobkee Saphire Crystal (Wagga Salcrystal x Arkab Janita) ridden by Julie Fletcher. Julie told me this horse has over 5000km (alas, I think they went out lame on Friday). Karumba Nazrani (Ralvon Traveller (Ralvon Pilgrim x Naufali) x Nerita (Boyar x Queen of Hearts), ridden by Rowena Robinson is not only a great looker but oh so beautifully behaved on trail.

And of course, the old stager, Judstan Sharwayn (Sumerland Robreyn (Shafreyn x Jillian) x Jedda (Flash Design x unnamed).This horse must be the one of the most underrated in the country – his achievements are phenomenal! And another joy of Shahzada is there is actually time to talk to other riders - properly talk. For instance, I wonder how many people know that, in a previous incarnation, Mark was a jockey!

But really – all the horses are legends – you don’t bring a dud horse to Shahzada. There was the now Toft owned, treadmill-trained, Blue Bronco, who, ridden by former owner Anne, showed how how whiz-bang conditioning technology applies equally well to these old style endurance tracks. The endearing Oakey Dokey and Jan Wade, symmetrically trotting their way around the trails. And even one experienced gelding (5th buckle from 5 attempts), who, under his even more experienced rider (now 12 Shahzada buckles!), was so self assured as to back right into the trophy table during presentation - breaking a trophy or too and nearly breaking Halifax as well!

I think one of my next projects will be an analysis of bloodlines for Shahzada horses, though, looking at the horses above, the results mightn’t be that surprising. As just one example, Tom’s sire, Seraja, also completed Shahzada at his only attempt.

That’s All Folks
As a first time rider I found there was a lot to take in and a very steep learning curve. It was a fabulous experience and an amazing bonding experience with my horse - quite unlike any other ride I have attended. The exceptional effort by all involved, from little things like apricot pies available from Archie’s in the vet area to major accomplishments like the massive containers full of water for the horses at the top of the hills, meant you could really focus and enjoy your ride.

I sought advice from anyone and everyone - and I listened. That doesn’t mean I necessarily did what was suggested – I just considered how that could fit into my Shahzada attempt. I made some small mistakes along the way but I did do one thing REALLY right: I rode my own ride. This is my advice to any first time riders for next year, RIDE YOUR OWN RIDE.

Most of all – Tom is a superstar! OK, he is kind of a funny/awkward looking fellow, with a complicated way of relating to the world. But then, so am I. We match! And boy what a heart he has. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend to share this trail.

If you only get one thing out of this story it should be this: if you are considering, or have previously considered and dismissed, the idea of riding Shahzada – Just Do It. Print off next year’s entry form and send it in. NOW!

CAROL LAYTON'S SHAHZADA STORY:

It is difficult for me to find the words to convey my sheer joy and amazement at successfully completing the 400km Shahzada endurance ride on my 6 year old Arabian gelding, Omani Mr Sqiggle (Sqig). Not only that, Duncan McLaughlin and I completed the ride barefoot and booted for the Easycare contest. Then, on top of those two achievements, both Duncan and I had our names read out for the 6 horses called up for 'Best conditioned/ managed horse award'.

Many endurance riders consider being called up for the workout to determine the 'Best conditioned/managed horse award' a higher honour than being first across the line. The award call up is designed to honour those who can consistently maintain the welfare and logbook results of their horse over 400km. It means that right throughout the 10 times over the 5 days the vets scrutinise your horse, at no time is there anything dodgy about gut sounds, hydration, heart sounds or gait in the trot out. No issues with his back from the saddle, girth galls or injuries from the course.

Shahzada is based at St. Albans near Sydney, a pretty little historical town beside the McDonald River, unfortunately a dry sand bed this year in the ongoing drought. The course winds its way in 50 or 30km loops (called legs) through scenic sandstone hilly country combined with very hard road work. Many riders fear the road work most of all due to the hard concussive surface, topped by compacted road base to resemble hard bitumen. At least last year when I did the 130km trainer on our little barefoot stallion, Leshal Ikon, there was a bit of sand on the edges to track along but not this year.

Three years ago in my first attempt at Shahzada, my horse had a 'bingle' with rocks up a narrow track called McKechnies on the Monday afternoon. I was in front, leading Ikon and he had been good at picking his way amongst the loose rubble and rock as we climbed steadily. However, the track went through a narrow chute created from a long boulder split in half. Half way though the chute, Ikon sped up in the narrow confines and instead of trampling me, his legs spread sideways and scored cuts and knocks from the rock. The very long climb on the Tuesday morning up a single track called Prestons followed by the steep descent was too much for Ikon and we vetted out for lameness.

Fortunately for us this year, the new Shahzada committee had worked very hard to make the tracks a lot safer. McKechnies was unrecognisable with the boulder chute completely destroyed. A sign on a tree points to where it use to be, now called Allan's rock, named after the huge effort by Allan Caslick to remove it. Yet McKechnies is still not to be underestimated, still very tiring with its steep gradient but far less scary for me.

Tuesday's climb up Prestons and then the short descent gave me the only fear of vetting out for the week. Sqig is generally a delight to lead along single track as he lowers his head quite low and checks out the track and thinks about where he puts his feet as he follows my feet. At about the steepest point of the descent, the track had two small sloping slabs of sandstone divided by a very narrow gullet of sand, sloping steeply down to a drop onto sand and then the next drop down around a tree with exposed tree roots. Sqig decided to head to the right side of the track onto a ledge that led nowhere. To make room for him, I had to go down the slabs and my head would have been level just below his knees. I pointed him in the direction of the right way to go and bloody hell, he leaped neatly onto the other side of the track, a rounded boulder. If you can picture a circus horse balanced on a stool, you might be able to begin to picture Sqig, all 15.1 and a bit of him trying to get a purchase with 3 of his booted feet on the rounded boulder and his right hind stuck right up under him trying to find a spot to put the foot. I was amazed that the boots had so much grip. The rider behind me told me afterwards that he was amazed that my horse didn't fall on me. I told Sqig in no uncertain terms to get off the rock and get down to me and managed to step out from under him as he came crashing down.

There was about 10km of road work to do at the end of this descent and thankfully he didn't feel lame at all. I still felt I needed a miracle to avoid vetting out. Fortunately, a very nice lady called Jean Koek who offered to take digital infrared body images (thermographs) of Sqig through the week found no issues on our return to base. A huge relief, what a blessing it was to have those thermographs. Thankyou Jean!

The rest of the ride was very enjoyable. Before one leg, Jean told me that there was more heat in one shoulder than the other and to try to massage it when I could. I followed her instructions as well as continuing to be meticulous with changing diagonals. After that leg, Jean said that the thermographs showed that there now was more heat in the other shoulder! I stopped worrying about the shoulder and enjoyed the riding and beautiful scenery.

The next scary section of the ride was on Thursday where we had to climb down a sandstone bluff called 'The Steps'. The Steps is a series of narrow, uneven sandstone ledges and loose rubble and again, a very narrow track. The best feature about The Steps apart from the view is that the scary section is very short. Sqig was fantastic as he seemed to understand how important it is for his own welfare to study the track and think about where to put his feet. I was very careful about ensuring that he didn't try any alternate routes. Being on the side of a bluff, there is simply nowhere else to go.

Friday meant that we had to go up The Steps but it was feeling like 'old hat' and we had no trouble at all. I cruised around the last leg thinking how each day had been a blessing past the Tuesday but now, on Friday I just wanted to get that Shahzada buckle.

Back at base, the Chief Steward had made himself a sign that read 'Howzat'. The crowd watching the horses vet through on the Friday is known as the peanut gallery. As each horse trots out under the gaze of all the vets, everyone yells and cheers as the horse trots out and claps when the horse is sound and the Howzat sign goes up. Lots of sympathy is offered to any rider whose horse vets out on the Friday afternoon. Their names are added to what is known as the 'Friday Club'. I did not want my name added to the list.

I didn't cry but I was very close to losing it, Sqig passed all the vet checks and was sound. The cheers went up, people clapped and we posed next to the Howzat sign.

Our success was due to the team work in camp. Robert Howden, my barefoot trimming other half strapped for me during the week. I'm very grateful to Rob as he would stay up late and massage Sqig's hamstrings while I slept blissfully ignorant of all the hard work going on outside. He was very careful putting the Easyboot Bares on Sqig before each leg and Sqig managed to get through the whole 400km without any rubs. How did we do this? I came up with the idea before the ride of using Sportstape, tape that I've used in the past for my feet to prevent blisters on bushwalks.

I got the widest Leuko Sportstape and Rob taped Sqig's pasterns, making sure that the edges of the gaiter were on the tape. In the past, we have been able to do 80km rides without any problems with gaiters. Sometimes a bit of hair would be rubbed back where the gaiter sits over the bulge of the suspensory ligament on each side of the pasterns but not enough to cause concern. We figured 5 × 80km rides in a row without protection under the gaiters would be asking for trouble. The tape only moved once on one leg but it didn't cause a problem. We will certainly be using the tape again for future endurance rides. Rob was also very generous with applying Curash powder to the inside of the boots and gaiters. At the end of each leg of the ride, only sand in the toe area would be in the boot making the boot a nice fit.

I'll be back for the next Shahzada if all goes well. Thankyou to all the people who worked so hard to make the week a terrific success. Commiserations to those who didn't get their buckle, I vetted out on my first attempt and very glad to make it on my second.