The Road to the SEA Games

I’m riding KLIA’s WiFi this morning, rather than my polo ponies as I am off to Bangkok for another SEA Games meeting. We are trying to sort out stabling, floating, and to a lesser extent, where we will play and live. The SEA Games polo tournament has been set for VR Sports Club Bangkok, not Pattaya. It’s a lovely club with a very good field and clubhouse. Unfortunately, with only 88 stables it does not have enough stables to accommodate the 120 horses coming for the SEA Games. Rather than put up temporary stables, they have offered Singapore and Malaysia stabling at Siam Polo Park in Pattaya. That’s a 3 hour float trip to an another 3 hours back each game day. Only Singapore and Malaysia would have to float while the other countries (Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia) do not. Naturally we are not terribly enthused by this idea.

The organisers only need 40 temporary stables. Not a big deal for those of us who regularly put up hundreds of temporary stalls for our polo tournaments and horse shows in Malaysia. RSPC, who own 60, offered to lend the Thais 40 of them so everyone can be housed in the same club. There is also Garden City Polo Club about 20 minutes away from VRSC. If this could be used to stable some teams then floating becomes much less of an issue. I’m sure some solution will be reached.

Later this month I will travel almost 30 hours to get to Buenos Aires. It’s a polo pilgrimage I always knew I’d make some day. When I started polo in 1977 I didn’t think it would take me this long to get to Argentina. Other things got in the way of polo: racing, showjumping, eventing, business, family, life.

I’ll be staying with Pepe Moscono and playing with Ginnes Bargalo, who played in the high goal in Malaysia with Asad Jumabhoy. I’ll be helping Asad select some high goal horses for next season and will be getting some training in Pilar with Ginnes and other top players.

Then it is onto the SEA Games. Our ponies will precede us there. Asad and I send our horses from Kuala Lumpur, and will join up with the rest from Singapore. Our team of people from Malaysia will travel with the horses an work them for us in our absence so we will be relying on Karen Gan, Shariffie Hamdi, Sa’ari and Ilham to look after them while we get our practice in Argentina.

The horses take 3 days to get to Pattaya from Kuala Lumpur. Crossing the border they have to pay a custom’s agent’s fee of US$240 per horse both on the way in and on the way out. This isn’t as much as the US$600 per crossing for horses that are flying in, but it is stiff enough. In comparison Malaysia’s customs fee on entry/exit for the 2001 SEA Games was just RM100 per horse. Someone is making money out of the SEA Games.

And it’s definitely not the polo players. We are totally self-funded. It’s going to burn a big hole in my pocket. If you don’t understand why we do it, it only means you have never played polo. Play polo and you’ll understand.

Vote for Pete!

I’ve been nominated as *ahem* a Singapore Sports Idol! I guess this is all part of the run-up to the SEA Games but nevertheless, I never thought be be nominated for Idol-Anything at my age.

So, calling all Singaporeans or PR’s of Singapore, you can vote for me by clicking here http://www.teamsingapore.com.sg/publish/teamsingapore/sportsidol/phase1/cat/peter_jerome_abisheganaden.html

Your vote is a vote for democracy. It is a vote for peace. It is a vote for breast cancer research, nuclear disarmament and Bill 377A. Most of all, it is a vote for the old guys.

Looking Back

I found this old photo of the Singapore SEA Games Polo Team of 1983. We proudly picked up the bronze medal, even though just three teams participated. Malaysia beat Philippines in the final.

The players in the photo are the three Jumabhoys - Asad, Rafiq, and Iqbal. From the way we are lined up, I think I was playing No 2. Asad was definitely our Back. Rafiq must have played No 3 and Iqbal No. 1. I’m the skinny guy in the blue and white helmet. Asad is is the rollerball type helmet. Other than Asad all of us had small knee pads on and were probably wearing either Harry Hall breeches or locally made ones by San Koong Tailors opposite the Bukit Timah racecourse.  And we were riding in general purpose saddles. No self-respecting polo player be seen dead with this type of equipment nowadays!

I’ve always been fairly good a recognising and remembering horses. I believe that in the photo Asad is on Quarterman, who belonged to Eric Crombie at the time. Rafiq is in Dedmond Brown’s Papatoetoe. I am on Steven Loh’s gray Taruna, and Iqbal is on Lars Pearson’s Moggie.

After 24 years Asad and I are playing the 2007 SEA Games together. I am off to Argentina in November to get some practice with him. We will reignite the old partnership. It will be hard to do worse than ‘83 in that we didn’t win any games then. Ironically, if we are to do better this SEA Games, we’ll need to win at least a silver.

In Full

Yesterday my groom reported that Nata finally finished up her Cool Performer feed. It’s a relief. I had hoped she would take to it without me having to resort to lacing the feed with molasses or other tricks to try and make it more palatable. Palatability is a problem with fussy eaters. The manufacturers know about and are still working on improving it. Meanwhile I’m just grateful that Nata decided to finish up her bucket of feed.

The other two, Brook and Mia are eating it like champions. I’ve started working my two other SEA Games horses, Jakarta, which is loaned to me by Brian and Maureen Miller, and Trinity, which is loaned by my team-mate Asad Jumabhoy. Both are high quality polo ponies.

Jakarta is distinguished by the KP brand of Kerry Packer’s Ellerston on his left shoulder. The little brown gelding was Ubarjarra Andrade de Alves’ (+7) best pony at the RSPC International this season. I’ve played Jakarta some years ago and am looking forward to playing him again.  Jakarta is a fairly laid-back sort who lives on Mitavite Sustaina. I won’t be switching his feed as Maureen says not to give him any cool feed or he’ll go to sleep on me!
Trinity is a fairly highly strung young mare that arrived from the Argentine in March this year. She went straight into work and played very well in the high goal for Asad’s pro Pablo Dorignac (+6). I rode her yesterday for the first time and was impressed with the torque I was getting out of her V8. But she was nervous and a little spooky. And she really sweated up, even though we didn’t do much work.

Asad says she was very calm when he played her in Argentina before he bought her. Seems to me that Trinity is stressed out and is therefore a good candidate to switch to Cool Performer. I spoke with Karen Gan, Asad’s polo manager, and we’ll make the switch sometime this week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it works for her as she seems to be a very good mare that is fretting too much for her own good.

Eating Up

Just like my kids, some of my horses can really eat, and some of them are a little fussy. Zack eats and eats, while it is always a challenge to get his brother Zaine (Harry) to eat. Similarly Brook and to a lesser extent Mia have taken to the Cool Performer, while Nata is underwhelmed by it. While Brook and Mia finish their feed, Nata is leaving almost half of it on some days. She started out eating up, then some days would leave some, and the last two days she has left about half of it.

It’s a problem if she won’t eat it all, because I need her at her fittest and best. She is on two biscuits of Oaten Hay and 4 kg of Cool Performer a day. Still, we are going to persevere and try and get it through to her that she has to eat it. So we are hanging tough, keeping up her work and not supplementing her feed with her old feed. Hopefully she’ll get used to the taste of this extruded feed and start finishing up.

The other horses - Mia and Brook - are going really well on it. Their bay coats seem to have darkened (the high oil % at work?) and they are working really well. It’s a pity it has rained so much because I’d love to see how they play on it. Hopefully I’ll be able to test them soon.

Horseshoe Point Prepares for SEA Games

I got back from Horseshoe Point last night. While there I caught up with many equestrian friends as Thailand prepares to host the SEA Games this December. It was also good to see Paul Weier, my course designing mentor, who has been appointed course designer for the SEA Games.

There is plenty of good news for the sport: Indonesia look like they will be able to participate in eventing on their own horses. Brunei has submitted a polo team, bringing the number of polo teams entered for the SEA Games to six. Polo has more countries participating than in any equestrian discipline!

The arenas look good, and while I did not get to see the cross-country course at Khun Harald Link’s Thai Polo Club, I am told that Wayne Copping has done a good job with the fences.

It should be an excellent SEA Games.

Horseshoe Point is abuzz with excitement and preparations for these games. They have brought back their breathtaking classical dressage show. It is simply fabulous watching their Lusitanos dance to music, and even dance with a ballerina. If you haven’t booked your room yet, you’d better make that booking real fast. There aren’t that many rooms left during the SEA Games period.

Today is Raya and I am grateful to God that I am back safely with my family. Today is a wonderful day, and we will use it to catch up with friends of all races and religions.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Maaf Zahir Batin.

Wishing everyone:

Feed to Succeed

I have been thinking about feeding Stabilised Rice Bran for some time, and now I have been given the opportunity to trial a Malaysian-made extruded stabilised rice bran feed called Cool Performer. It is an affordable feed that is manufactured in Malaysia by Equine Nutrition Australasia. Cool Performer is already commercially available.

Rice bran feeds are becoming very popular the world over as people learn more and more about its benefits: reduced body temperature during exercise, calming effect, improved body condition and a healthier looking coat, reduced risks of colic, laminitis and tying up during exercise. Naturally these factors are getting horsemen’s attention in all performance horse disciplines.

Stabilised rice bran has the highest Digestible energy over any other feed at 17.5%. (Oats for example, they are at 11%, corn at 15% and most feeds that are sold pre mixed are normally at 15% MJ/DE.) Rice Bran naturally at 17.5% makes it about 1½ times more energy than oats. The beauty of this ENERGY is a horse can store it in a different way to grains, without getting hotter or crazier in his mind. I’ve experimented with some feeds like Equi-Jewel and found that these types of Rice Bran feeds keep them calm. It has something to do with a hypoallergenic effect that is caused by glutens in grain. Rice Bran is gluten-free, so there is almost no chance of crazying up your horse as you prepare it to produce a top quality performance.

Protein is another area where rice bran is the best. Oats contains 9.5%. Corn has very little where as rice bran naturally has over 10% protein content. Along with protein, oils are also very important to a horse’s diet and rice bran has an incredible high rate at 17% naturally, which is triple that of most common grains.

For some years I’ve been adding a supplement called Oryol to my polo ponies feed. It contains high levels of Gamma Oryzonal, which acts as an anti-oxidant and as a natural anabolic. Rice bran naturally contains Gamma Oryzonal, so I will be able to cut the costly supplementation out.

In this trial, I am switching the polo ponies I am taking to the SEA Games this December onto Cool Performer. These ponies are my own Brook, a 14 year old Thoroughbred Australian Mare, Nata, a 9 year old Argentinean Mare, and my friend Yeo Kuo lee’s Mijanovic or Mia as this 11 year old Argentinean Mare is better known. These three will start trialling this feed from today. I am being loaned two other horses for the games that I would also like to switch over to this feed, but will have to get the owners’ permissions to do so.

Previous to this the ponies had been fed with Wheaten Chaff, a standard Horse Cubes, lots of Oats, and Oaten Hay. It was supplemented with Electrolyte Plus, Growin+Biotin and Oryol, all from GRD Products. Sometimes at tournaments I’d add a racehorse feed like Mitavite Sustaina.

Switching the ponies over now means I have a month to trial the feed on them and compare how they go on it to how they played this season. By early November I will decide if they stay on Cool Performer. We will still be a month shy of the SEA Games, so it will not be too hard to switch them back if I think it isn’t giving me the type of performance I need.

In the new trial I will cut out chaff and feed only Oaten Hay, 4 kg to 6 kg of Cool Performer and supplement only with Electrolyte Plus. No more chaff, cubes or oats! To traditionalists in this part of the world, it sounds rather radical. It’s always a traumatic time for the owner and groom when feed regimes are changed. Sometimes more traumatic for us than the horses! My horses have been used to grains and because Cool Performer is an extruded feed, they will now be faced with just hay and a bucket of nuts. We need to get the horses eating this feed as soon as possible. Despite my concerns that we should switch over gradually I have decided to take the advice of Gavin Kenna of ENA to switch over completely from the very start to encourage them to eat the extruded nut. Let’s hope they start eating it straight away.

I’ll trial it for a month, and if all goes well, will feed it through the SEA Games and hopefully from now on. After all, at least on paper, it is a better feed for the horses, and at a cheaper overall cost than I am currently paying. Bonus: I believe in Malaysian-made!

I intend to let everyone know through this blog how the switch goes and how the horses are doing on Cool Performer.