Equestrian: Desert raiders

There was a movie this year, Hidalgo, which told the story of a man and his horse competing in the centuries-old long-distance horse race, the Ocean of Fire, an epic contest across burning Arabian sands in 1890 with both horses and riders at risk. This was a 3000-mile survival race for a prize of riches.

Now cut to present-day Owhango, near Taumaranui, a 20-year-old farmer, Mark Tylee, and his horse Jamahl. Like Hidalgo's supposed true-life hero, Frank T. Hopkins (played by Viggo Mortensen of The Lord of the Rings fame), Tylee is an accomplished rider.

He speaks with the simplicity and sincerity of a New Zealand farmer - not unlike the "howdy all, don't hurt my horse" style of the iron-jawed Hopkins in the movie. And Tylee and Jamahl will take on the world's best as part of a New Zealand endurance riding team in a gruelling world championship in the heat of the United Arab Emirates deserts on January 27.

But there all similarities end. Hopkins - and the Disney movie - were discredited for butchering history. Hopkins, supposed to have been a rider in the US cavalry, was allegedly asked by powerful Arabian royalty to race his little Mustang against noble Arab horses of impeccable bloodlines in 1890 - the first Westerner to be invited in this 3000-mile epic of distance, death and defiance of the heat and wastelands of Arabia.

Only two problems - 1) the race never existed (if you draw a 3000-mile line from anywhere from the suggested starting point, you end up in places like Romania) and 2) Hopkins appears never to have been in the cavalry but dreamed the whole story up while he was a labourer building a tunnel in Philadelphia.

Red-faced Disney officials changed the billing of the movie from "true story" to "based on a real-life account" which is a wonderful exercise in semantics.

Cut to Owhango once more. While Hidalgo and the real-life Hopkins appear to have been so much horse hockey, Mark Tylee and the 26-strong New Zealand team who leave next week for Dubai are as real as the total 3000km Jamahl has galloped in his career.

The 2004 World Endurance Championship involves real endurance, real horses, real hardships and a real chance that New Zealand might take another world title, as they did in 1998 when an unheralded Kiwi team shocked the endurance world and took the top prize.

Unlike Hidalgo's 3000-mile fantasy, the race takes place over 160km and is divided into stages of 16km and 36km. The horses must carry a minimum weight of 75kg. The event takes about 10 hours.

Throughout it all, the welfare of the animals is paramount - and, in fact, even becomes a factor in the race. Between the six stages, riders must submit their horse to a veterinary check. All the time, the clock is ticking. They have a time limit to get the horse's heartbeat down to 64 beats per minute.

The horse's dehydration levels are checked and condition checks made to ensure the horse is fit to resume. It is then fed and watered.

Tylee explains: "The horse's health is a major factor. This is a time-based event in that the winner will have the lowest time for racing the course.

"So it becomes an exercise in training and judgement. You have to train your horse to recover quickly. When you are riding, you have to decide whether to push the horse hard to the end of the stage or whether you take it easier - and therefore save time in getting the horse's heartbeat down to the required level. You can be five minutes ahead but lose seven minutes with the vet."

Tylee works regularly with a heart monitor and dehydration measurements to make sure that the hardy Jamahl is not just fast over the ground but fast in satisfying the veterinarians.

The 26-strong New Zealand team consists of six riders, four of whom will ride as a team and who will also compete as individuals. The rest of the party will be their mostly Arabian horses - the tough breed renowned for endurance - and the grooms, farriers and other people necessary for their welfare.

The team is leaving early enough so the horses and riders can adjust to the Dubai heat, although, as Tylee explains, it is technically their winter so temperatures will be from 24 to 27 degrees - hot but not horse-busting.

"It's a tough event," he said. "It's run on a clover-leaf course and is flatter than we are used to in New Zealand. But when you factor in the pressure, the sand, the heat and other conditions, it isn't easy."

The horses would ideally need a period of months to acclimatise but Tylee says two-and-a-half weeks did the trick for the 1998 world champions so it'll have to do for them as well. He also has local knowledge - he has competed in Dubai before and lived there for eight months while he trained horses for Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, desert experience which will undoubtedly stand him in good stead next month.

Tylee also expects to come up against some of the Sheikh's horses he personally trained.

"It's all about starting slow and patience - building up the heart, getting the legs sound. It is very much like Arthur Lydiard's philosophy for human athletes of starting slow and building up over time. I reckon his philosophy must the most under-rated of all time - it even works for horses."

As for Jamahl, Tylee is noticeably proud of his 11-year-old gelding. "He's done 3000km in his endurance racing career and has always given 100 per cent and has always been 100 per cent in terms of health and injury - and that's a great insurance policy to have."

Tylee has been endurance riding since he was nine and laughs when you ask him how many hours he devotes to the sport: "All of them," he says. Father Ray was an endurance rider for 20 years and is manager of the New Zealand team. As farmers, the Tylees somehow have to fit in their livelihood with the time-consuming demands of training endurance horses.

Cost is a factor too. Tylee went to the two-yearly world championships in France in 2000 but had to pull out of the 2002 Spanish championships when, selected as an 18-year-old, the costs proved too high. This year, however, the Dubai organisers have paid the highly expensive way for most of the New Zealand team, although they are still seeking extra funding.

"We've got a good chance," Tylee said. "The UAE will be very tough in their own backyard and Australia, France and the USA will be right up there. Italy and Spain are also very good.

"The horses all get trained pretty much the same way and there are some impressive animals all round. It'll probably come down to who goes best on the day."

New Zealand's other riders, from whom the four-person team will be selected 48 hours before the event, are Pauline King (North Canterbury), Denise Hill (Taumaranui), David Marshall (Canterbury), Brian Tiffen (South Canterbury and New Zealand's best performer at Spain in 2002) and Kevin James (South Canterbury).

- HERALD ON SUNDAY