January 8, 2009
It’s taken me over a year but I finally made it out horseback riding. Anna, one of the women from the New Year’s Eve party, rides every day and invited me to come out with her. I explained that although I have been riding for 9 years with RD it has been all “western/back country” riding and I have no formal training. She made sure that they gave me a “beginners” horse (one very forgiving of mistakes) and it’s a good thing...all I can say is "I stayed on the horse"...it was an English saddle and a horse only trained in English riding signals (of which I know none)...but it was still fun and got me out of the house. I'm going to buy riding pants as soon as possible because the seam of my jeans rubbed a saddle sore on my ass...they actually wear those tight little riding pants for a reason...go figure. I also need riding boots. I borrowed a pair Anna said were too small for her but she wears a 39 and I wear a 36.5 so I had to wear really thick socks to keep them on and they still felt like oversized clown shoes.
I had trouble from the beginning, just getting on the horse was an event! I didn’t realize how much I used the saddle horn to pull myself up and you can’t put your foot in the stirrup unless you weigh nothing because there is only one “girth” strap holding the saddle on. They have this funny way of getting on with assistance (you bend your left knee and the person helping you grabs your shin and lifts as you extend your left leg and throw your right leg over the saddle) but since Anna weighs 100#’s soaking wet I thought it best to use a box. I was given a quick “lesson” on how to hold the reins and we were off…slowly…apparently even the way you get a horse to walk fast is different, but with a bit of coaching we finally got going. We walked for at least a half hour down dirt roads lined with palm trees and peacocks (the property is owned by one of the Sheiks) before she decided I was doing good enough to try a trot. I was pitiful (but in my defense I think my stirrups were too short) and I’m pretty sure that’s when I lost the skin off my ass. By the end of the ride she said I was holding the reins with perfect form…if I learn one thing each time I ride I may get it down in about 10 years…
There’s a labor camp just behind the property with 7,000 workers, apparently they “belong” to Sheikah Mozah (the Emir’s 2nd wife or “consort” as they call her…she’s the only “public” wife) to use when she needs something done. I can’t even imagine why she needs so many. I’m told one of the workers got caught stealing three peacock eggs and was sentenced to a year in prison and then will be deported…they were having a problem with the eggs being stolen for food and this poor guy was the first one to get caught so they decided to set an example.
I've decided to take "English" riding lessons once a week and then ride once a week with Anna as practice. On top of that Anna is Swedish but speaks fluent French so when my Rosetta Stone French lessons get here I'll have someone to practice with while we are riding!
January 11, 2009
I spent the morning running around town trying to find riding boots and riding pants. First store only had size 35 boots and the pants were all either bright colors or beige (not great for wide hips…I’m looking for “slimming” black). Second and third store’s smallest boots were size 38 and no pants at all. Final store had size 37 boots and black pants. I need 36.5 but they don’t “do” half sizes over here. I also need something called “half chaps” which are kind of like tight leather gaiters but I arrived at the last store at 11:55. At noon they turned out the lights on me signaling it was time for me to go (stores outside of malls are closed noon to 4). I had time to try on the boots and pants but will have to go back for the half chaps.
In the afternoon I was on my way to the hospital for my 2:30 acupuncture treatment (for my neck) when I hit a stretch of road that was all backed up and barely moving. Turns out about 5 car lengths ahead of me there was a Qatari lying in the road (3 lane road with 100kph speed limit…he was not taking a nap) with 5 or 6 guys standing around. His head scarf was laying in my lane and I ran over it as I went by him, 30 meters ahead was his white Land Cruiser, upside down. How do you flip a vehicle on a flat, straight, dry stretch of road with no other car involved?
January 12, 2009
I took my first riding lesson today. Of course traffic was awful so even though I gave myself an hour to get there, thinking it would take me between 30 and 45 minutes, I was 15 minutes late. I was expecting it to be a private lesson but Anna set it up for me and obviously something was lost in translation because when I got there another woman was already in the arena with Delphine, the instructor (a woman with MUCH more experience riding English than I, which I suppose isn’t saying much since I only have 1 hour). I don’t think I truly understood just how different riding English is compared to Western (or maybe I know so little about Western I don’t see the similarities other than the horse). You have to think about every part of your body and coordinate your movement with what you want the horse to do. Keep your hands down. Keep your heels down. Keep your knees in good alignment. Lean back slightly when you stop. Use a tiny “pull” to turn the horse. Post; 1 – 2, 1 – 2, 1 – 2. Now I know why they call it working the horse. It’s hard, not at all relaxing like riding in the woods (which I used to think was hard).
On the positive side I stayed on the horse, walked, trotted and did a variety of exercises with varying degrees of success. Sometimes my hands were in the correct place, sometimes my heels were down, and sometimes it even happened at the same time! Delphine looked at her schedule and found someone of similar riding skills for me to take my next lesson with, at least I wasn’t so bad that I needed to do a private lesson to catch up. She thought it would take about 5 lessons for me to “put it all together” and feel comfortable.
January 17, 2009
After running some errands in the morning we went to lunch. Twice during the morning RD had tried to get a cup of coffee but the lines were always too long. (He would rather go without than stand in a line). When we sat down he ordered “White Coffee” thinking he was going to get coffee with milk. Never assume anything in this country. They put a cup of hot water in front of him and we both looked at each other, then at the waiter. Apparently “white coffee” is hot water with “rose syrup” in it…tasted like perfume, it was nasty. Is it “blue coffee” if they serve it in a blue cup?
January 18, 2009
Driving out to the riding stables this morning (32KM) I saw camels grazing on bushes in the desert. Thirteen months here and that is still a weird sight. I had my second riding lesson…it was awful. She put me on a horse that was so wide my feet did not touch the horse’s sides. When I tried to kick him into a trot nothing happened. I ended up with swollen knee’s from kicking him for an hour while she kept telling me it was always the rider’s fault, never the horses fault. I was not happy. Apparently she is used to training Olympic level riders…I don’t think she knows what to do with me. It’s like a college professor trying to teach third grade.
After the lesson I rode for an hour with Anna (on the horse I rode last week) and had absolutely no trouble getting him into a trot. Maybe at a higher level of experience it is always the rider’s fault but when you are a beginner, believe me, little things like a “wide” horse can make it impossible.
January 21, 2009
Finally found some “half chaps” in a tiny (my closet is bigger), overpriced store at the racetrack. I’ve been trying to get there for the past week but it turns out they have the weirdest hours I’ve seen yet here in Doha. They are not open in the morning, then they are open for 1 hour only from noon to one, closed for the afternoon, then open again from 4:15 to 8:30. They thankfully had my size but didn’t take credit cards! The woman just sent me off with them and told me to bring the money tomorrow!
My afternoon was filled with “waiting” at the Embassy to get something notarized. They also wanted cash, 110QR which is about $30…I had 100QR (I was expecting it to be about $5 so was not prepared). Luckily they have a cash machine right there but it only gives out 50’s and 100’s…and you had to have the exact amount because they couldn’t give out change. The cashier’s computer was down so he was doing hand written receipts and just putting the money in a stack on the counter (drawer wouldn’t open). It was obvious that he had change there, you could see it, but he still wanted the exact amount. One guy went out and got change from the guards. He ended up giving a guy 5QR just to move things along because as you can imagine it was a total bottleneck at the cashier’s counter. Finally, a woman waiting asked if anyone needed change because she had plenty. Saved me 40QR, I was going to give them 150QR just to get out of there. 
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