Melaka - pre ride day - a long day

Hello everyone! -So i'm going to try to sum up my day, I woke up at 7AM (7PM east coast time) feeling rested so i decided to go try my very own endurance to the heat and humidity: I went running by the beach down to the hotel, while I was at it, I run barefoot, well, I'm NOT ready for this kind of humidity, I run about 1.5 miles and it was HARD, I can only image what the horses will go through tomorrow... It's a good thing the rides happen at night here.

After this I had breakfast with Sarah, Peter from Singapore (3 hours drive from Melaka), he keeps his horses here and compete in Malaysia a lot, he is very knowledgeable and was very helpful today. And also his wife (forgot her name), and 2 young girls from Australia, coming to ride in the 40K.
We had a gargantuous breakfast and then we headed to the stables.

They are established for the ride only, around a huge stadium.

OH MY GOD! So many NICE horses here! I would love to take a couple back home, a lot of them with very very good conformation.

I met Shaklan, the horse I will ride in the 40K (25 miles), he is a big boy, probably 15.3, gorgeous head, he was bought by the king and then handed to Hamdan (the maestro ride organizer ).

I wondered around pretty much all day, taking pictures, talking to people, it was a very nice day. Tomorrow there are a lot of riders, I could get to know how many in each distance.
There are riders from all over: Singapore, Chili, Australia, New Zealand, of course Malaysia, France and US (I apparently gain the double nationality, I wish!)

We headed back to the hotel just on time (ok, ok, a little late) for a fabulous diner with live music and dance near the beach, I tried all kind of foods, I have always been curious and will try anything new in sight, hmm everything was delicious (and spicy).

I was heading to the bar to take my local ambien (beer) so I could fall asleep right away, when I found a Chilean breeder doing the same thing as me, we had a nice chat, he breed arabians and anglos and is very active in the endurance world in south America.

It was a long day, and know i'm ready to collapse (the local ambien did its job), tomorrow is another long day, we are being tourist during the day, visiting the beautiful city of
Melaka (UNESCO Wolrd Heritage Centre) and the day will be ending by an endurance ride, yeah!!!

Wish me luck! A lot of beautiful but HOT horses here!