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Jump-Off 58
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
Treat a horse like a woman and a woman like a horse. And they'll both win for you. ~ Elizabeth Arden
Get Well Soon
Malaysian Equine Council or Majlis Ekuin Malaysia (MEM) Executive Secretary Malik Jeremiah suffered a serious heart attack on New Year’s Day. Jump-Off wishes Malik a full and speedy recovery.
Eventers Do It 3 Days Running
Congratulations to Malaysia’s Eventing Team on their success at the Doha Asian Games. They had two of their three riders in the top five, and Husref Jeremiah finished with an individual bronze medal.
Officials at the EAM are reputedly now saying, “We told you so.” But is anyone listening?
Wet Desert
So much for desert weather. Doha turned out to be a wet desert! More rain fell during the Doha Asian Games than in the last forty-two years or something as statistically significant. Malaysian Eventers were ready for it though, having had rain at almost every event in 2006.
Doha Drivers
With a citizenry of 850,000 people, Qatar relies on approximately 2 million foreign workers. Yet more foreign workers arrived from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India just before the Asian Games and found instant work in many sectors, including the transport industry. Taking taxis during the Doha Asian Games was a game of chance as most taxi drivers hadn’t been in Doha much longer than the athletes and officials. One taxi driver that was hailed by a Malaysian Eventing Team official had been there just five days! It was quite normal to jump in a cab only to jump out again when you realized the driver had less idea of where you wanted to go than you did!
Doha Taxi Fare
Malaysian Eventers wanted to experience traditional Arabian food for their post-medal meal. Relying on taxi drivers for finding such a restaurant wasn’t such a great idea, however. After three hours of hide and seek, the immigrant taxi drivers eventually found them an Indian restaurant, naturally.
Perhaps it would have been easier to refer to the Doha Dining Guide, a 110 page book published by the Doha Asian Games Organising Committee.
Visit Malaysia Year Comes Early
Visit Malaysia came early for three Thai Eventing horses that were to make the trip to the Doha Asian Games. They trucked from Bangkok all the way to KLIA quarantine only to be turned away from the flight to Doha as the horses’ blood tests had not been done at an Asian Games accredited laboratory. They trucked all the way back to Bangkok, and eventually did not get to Doha at all.
Or Malaysia My Second Home
Intent on supporting Malaysia, the northern neighbours sent the two Eventing horses that went from Australia to Doha for the Thai team back to South East Asia on a flight with the Malaysian horses. With no float on hand to fetch them from KLIA to Bangkok, they almost made it “Malaysia, My Second Home”.
Rolled Off
Commiserations to the Indonesian Eventing Team which lost the team bronze medal on appeal to India. Andry Prasetyono was eliminated for using roller spurs in the jumping phase. Without his score the bronze medal rolled into Indian hands.
LKY supports Malaysian Eventing
That Lee Kuan Yew attended both the Malaysian Eventing Team’s fundraisers at CoChine and Bien Sur! was a bit of a surprise, even though we know it was well supported by TLOTB. Here’s a photo of volunteer Kuan Yew. Jump-Off notes this Kuan Yew is actually a Malaysian and not from TLOTB at all.
Endurance Mission Accomplished
"We would have not done it without them," said Malaysian Equestrian Club president Datuk Seri Dr Jamuluddin Jarjis as reported in the New Straits Times of 29 November 2006. Datuk JJ was referring to the Endurance riders who rode in the Sultan’s Cup rather than the Asian Games. Their performance enabled Malaysia to hang on to hosting the World Endurance Championship of 2008.
Jump-Off notes the New Straits Times prefers to call it a club rather than an association.
Beleaguered
The South East Asian World Cup League’s website seems to have ground to a halt before the last World Cup qualifier of 2006. Neither has any information about the 2007 League dates been uploaded. (Equestrian.Com.My has this information in our oh-so-comprehensive 2007 South East Asian Equestrian Calendar.)
Problems within the South East Asian World Cup League? Who would have ever thought it possible of a group that was once so tightly knit.
Schoolgirl Dreams
To the silent envy of her girlfriends, Ong Wan Ming is regularly asked for identification when she goes out on the town. Her schoolgirl looks belies a steely determination in her alter-ego as Malaysian Eventer.
Skillz
Turning up for an interview to join the Equestrian.Com.My office staff was young Devi, who came with an alleged “Computer Science” diploma from a local college. Filling in an interview questionnaire, she ticked off HTML as one of her skills. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages.
Interviewer - So you can write HTML code. Devi - Yes. Interviewer - Have you worked on many websites? Devi - Yes. Interviewer - Which ones? Devi - Explorer. Interviewer - Explorer? Are you saying you wrote Explorer? Devi - No, I’m writing with that HTML Interviewer - I’m confused. What do you mean? Devi - I’m using Explorer for the internets and *haatmill* to write. Interviewer - *haatmill* ?? Devi - You know, HTML, * haatmill * for the e-mail. Interviewer - Ahhh, Hotmail! Devi - Yes, yes, HTML, * haatmill *
* Shakes head
Thumbelina the Horse
Thumbelina, the world’s smallest horse stands at just 17 inches tall. That’s just 4.1 hands not so high.
Sex with Not Thumbelina the Horse
Obviously out of hot-selling ideas, Hollywood has made a film of the man who died emulating Catherine the Great’s alleged feat.
Scotland vs Afghanistan in Buzkashi World Cup
In a case of too much scotch, Scotland’s one man team wishes to take on Afghanistan in the Buzkashi World Cup.
Website of the Month: www.cyndycross.com - the memorial website for Cyndy Cross, who did much for equestrian sports in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Transitions:
Appointed: Singapore’s Ho Nai Yue has been appointed President of the Ground Jury for Jumping at the 2007 Thailand South East Asian Games
Appointed 2: Malaysia’s (and Equestrian.Com.My's) Natasha Mustapha has been appointed a member of the Ground Jury for Eventing at the 2007 Thailand South East Asian Games
Born:Zara Karan, daughter of Dr Julia Smith and Pravin Karan, at 9:48 pm on 18th November 2006, weighing in at 2.9 kg.
Celebrating: Malaysian Eventing Team will be having a medal celebration at CoChine on Monday 15th January from 6:30 p.m. onwards. Everyone is invited to this BYO party (buy your own). Congratulations: to all South East Asian medal winners at the 15th Doha Asian Games: Qabil Ambak, Husref Malek and the Malaysian Dressage Team of Qabil Ambak, Quzandria Nur, Puteri Alia Soraya and Nini Lee.
Congratulations: to Wan Zaleha Radzi and Peter Imran Winton on the arrival of their son, Imad Imran Winton (pic above).
Died: Kim Hyun-Chil, Korean Eventing rider, in a fatal fall at the Doha Asian Games.
Died: Gabriel Donoso, +9 goal Chilean polo
player. The Maestro never came out a coma after an accident
playing on Sunday 5th November in Buenos Aires. Recovering: Malaysian Equine Council Secretary-General Malik Jeremiah is recovering from a serious heart attack that happened on 1 January 2007.
Recovering: International Eventing Course Designer Brian Schrapel of Australia is recovering from a broken femur after a young horse fell on him. In addition to building and judging at some of the top events in the world, Brian also trains racehorses. We hope he will recover in time for the 2007 Thailand South East Asian Games, which he has been appointed to build.
To read previous editions of Jump-Off, please click on the links below:
Thanks
to everyone who has contributed to this (and previous) Jump-Offs. If
you have an interesting story that you think should be in Jump-Off,
please e-mail pete@equestrian.com.my
LKY supports Malaysian Eventing