I’m now back at work after arriving home yesterday afternoon from the Shahzada Endurance ride in NSW.

Melissa & Steve Longhurst, Kath Ryan and myself left with our horses (Narmond Silver Gift, stallion Matta Mia Nimi & Sa’eed) early on the Tuesday morning straight after the Queensland State Championships – taking the inland road via overnight stops at Taroom & Gunnedah. The three boys all traveled well and got along with no issues at all among the 3 even though they’d never spent much time together before. Sa’eed, very early on, got a reputation as an eating/drinking/peeing/pooing machine as the long trip didn’t upset the routine of any of these vital functions! Not bad for a novice horse on his very first big trip! Silver and Nimi also bonded quite quickly with Silver ‘escaping’ from his yard at Gunnedah, just to spend the night with Nimi. Also joining us for the trip were Steve & Melissa’s dogs – Sally, Ocre, and Pearl.

We arrived at St Albans (approx 1830km trip) on the Thursday afternoon – early enough to get camp set up and settle the boys into their yards. We collected heaps of firewood - which we would come to need as our fire was kept nearly continuously lit the entire 10 days we were there! Our camp spot was in the towns park and pretty much opposite the ‘Settlers Arms’ Inn, and only about 100m from the vetting area and in/out timekeepers. The campsite/park backed onto the river which (due to the drought) is not running so resembled a ‘beach’.

St Albans is a very old and tiny town about 20km from Wisemans Ferry. For the week long Shahzada event, endurance ‘takes over’ the town – with riders camped on every vacant allotment & footpath in town.

Arriving a few days early gave the 3 boys time to settle after the long trip and also gave us time to check out some of the local tracks – and the local restaurant – The Fickle Wombat.

With the 5 day 400km marathon starting at 4am on the Monday, both Silver & Nimi were vetted through on the Sunday afternoon, and we had the first ‘Pre Ride Talk’ on Sunday afternoon. This is where we were all introduced to the ride committee, vets, WICEN (radio guys) etc. This was the first Shahzada with the new committee, after talk that the ride may fold due to lack of workers – but the new committee have spent a great deal of time to ensure that the event went ahead. Sa’eed was entered in the 2 x 80k rides that the new committee decided to hold this year – one on the Tuesday and one on the Thursday.

Basically there are 4 roads out of St Albans – 2 on each side of the river, and each leg headed out and came back along one of these doing a loop through the range that surrounds St Albans before coming back to base. Having wanted to go to Shahzada for a few years, I had heard of some of the tracks used – Boyds, McKecknies, The Steps, Prestons etc and I got to ride (lead) Boyds, McKecknies, Bakers Creek track, Short Wellums, Jacks Track, Woomera Path, Blue Hill, and The Steps. These tracks are amazing, quite ‘technical’ and take a bit of thinking – you can’t ride The Steps – they are literally a series of narrow, twisting steps of sandstone boulders from a few inches, to several feet in height. Riders and horses much take this track quite steady and thoughtfully to negotiate soundly.

Prestons was one that I didn’t get to ride (lead) – as the organizers thought it may be too much for us poor 80k riders. So the marathoners did it instead. Although after seeing the white faces of the returning riders – perhaps better that I didn’t! This is (I’m told) a very narrow, very steep path that riders must tail their horses up – it’s way too steep to ride up!!! It also has quite sharp drop offs to each side – not for the feint at heart!!!

As with any marathon, riders must manage their horses very carefully over the 5 days to ensure a successful completion, and often even minor issues can turn into major problems if not picked up early. When you add the extra stress of an 1800km+ road trip – you have to watch your horse very carefully! Despite a few ‘heart stopping’ moments both Melissa and Kath managed their horses very well (with the support of ‘Super Strapper’ Steve, and myself on non-riding days) – and both progressed to the last leg of the event. The last leg was 30km in length and included having to negotiate the track up The Steps, along the top of ‘Transmission Road’ before an easier decent and 12km of dirt road and home for the final vetting.

Melissa and Silver had a relatively trouble free leg – cantering in over the line. A successful vetting saw them with 5^th place overall and with 1^st New Shahzada Rider.

Kath & Nimi had a little bit more of a scare with Nimi taking a tumble along Transmission Road! With bark off his knee and chest, Kath was quite concerned and nursed him home. After a tense half hour of strapping, Kath headed over to vetting not knowing if the fall that Nimi took would catch up and put them in the infamous ‘Friday Club’ of horses and riders vetting out after the completion of the 400km! To make things even more tense the vet panel asked for a second trot out before all giving the ‘Thumbs Up’ for a successful completion! Two out of two for the Mackay contingent at Shahzada – what an effort.

And on a smaller scale – Sa’eed successfully completed his 2 x 80km rides also, with very good heart rates, and keenness out on track for both rides (and barefoot also!). So 4 out of 4 for the week – Not a bad result at all!!!!

And just a few snippets of trivia of the Mackay crew –

In the two weeks us and our horses traveled over 3600km by road for the event.

Our horses successfully completed 960km in competition.

Melissa and Silver placed 5^th overall with a ride time of 36hrs and 22mins (and were the 1^st New Shahzada rider).

Silver also had the fastest average speed on the final day, of all the horses (11.5 kph)

Kath & Nimi placed 11^th overall with a ride time of 40hrs and 21 mins.

Nimi had the lowest average heart rate of all horses in the marathon – 35bpm!

Sa’eed placed 4^th HWT in each of his 80km events.

56 riders started the 400km marathon ride, and 37 successfully completed.

4 horse/rider combinations joined "The Friday Club"

So not only did our camp have 100% completion, we all finished with very respectable placings!

The whole week was a huge lot of fun, the atmosphere of this ride is one of the best of the rides I’ve been too - our trip home involved us planning our return trip to Shahzada in 2007!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Steve & Melissa for allowing me to share the trip down and giving me the chance to participate in the ‘Shahzada Experience’. Also to everyone who helped make this event happen – thanks, and congratulations!