While Diva stole the show last month, today is Zidane’s turn! Our BOY is finally one year old!!! He and Diva have practically grown up as twins. Whatever one has done, …the other has copied and tried to do “better”. Although his time with us is up now, I am grateful to have watching him [...]

read more from this topic.....

The Zinder race track is situated a few km out of town (in the direction in Niamey). In the weekdays, I often send one of our horses to do a lap or two at the track (Sahara has been training quite extensively this season) and on the weekends when I have time to ride out [...]

read more from this topic.....

The Zinder race track might not be where I normally go to skywatch, but an action-filled setting is only a bonus when the sky happens to be in a particularly beautiful setting mode. Staffan and Inger – our friends from Sweden – were lucky that Zinder hosted one of its few major racing event during [...]

read more from this topic.....

This past weekend saw the city celebrating Tabaski (also known as Eid al-Adha), which together with Ramadan is one of the two major highlights of the year. Anette and I spent the morning taking care of (and catching up with) the animals of Ishtar’s Ark, before heading out in the afternoon to greet friends. The [...]

read more from this topic.....

When people come to Zinder, and they wonder what to do after having been to the sultan’s palace, I always recommend the race track. Although is a difference between small and great events – rare are the weekend when the track lies deserted. Races run on Saturdays and Sundays – with training sessions on Tuesdays [...]

read more from this topic.....

I am turning a year older today, and what better than to post an entry about the day when we introduced Isolde to the track just a few weeks ago? It was a fun day, because all the other Garvis presently in Niger came out too see her! And I got to do some fun [...]

read more from this topic.....

An expat friend wanted to see the Zinder race track, and so I offered to bring him there on horse. As Arwen is heavily pregnant and Sahara was still limping slightly, Ali brought over Maya and Freya from Gill’s concession and the four of us headed out on a very pleasant excursion. The track was [...]

read more from this topic.....

Here are a few highlights from the Nigerien racing season ending at the Zinder track: Zinder – one of the most laid back race tracks in the world A traditionally dressed horse with multiple decoration Horse and rider heading through the crowd  A well photographed pair! Traditional musicians For other posts on horse racing in [...]

read more from this topic.....

On Sunday, I went to the race track with another expat. I had asked Ali to ride Arwen straight to the track, and then Tom (who rides an ex race horse by the name Luke) and I took the longer detour through the Zinderien bush, which gives the best of both riding worlds… It was [...]

read more from this topic.....

I promised I’d take you back to the track at some point during the two week long horse racing event that is taking place in Zinder right now. Horses have arrived from all over Niger and the following weeks mark the end of this year’s official Nigerien racing season. After two weeks from now, the [...]

read more from this topic.....

Today is the Journée de la concorde, national holiday in Niger, and there will be great races at the track. I’m won’t be able to participate as I am going to field station this afternoon (and Ali won’t be able to participate either because he has a souna!), but I did go on Saturday and [...]

read more from this topic.....

When we came out from Maya’s house (which I blogged about last Saturday), Babaye, who is the horse trainer of Maya’s neighbor (a politician with a deeper interest in horse racing who has about twenty horses stationed the Zinder region), wanted us to come inside and see his boss’ latest addition. At first, I thought [...]

read more from this topic.....

We had planned this weekend to take Haruna to the race track, but when Saturday arrived, the races had been moved to Dogo. Seeing we were up for a little adventure, we decided to hit the roads (and what bad roads it was!) and go to Dogo and show Haruna some of the typical Nigerien [...]

read more from this topic.....

Yesterday afternoon when Anette and I passed by the track to take our girls for a round, we discovered that this weekend held an ambitious program at the Zinder track and that there were quite a few important guests there. On Saturday, we met with the governor of a large Nigerian state, and on Sunday, [...]

read more from this topic.....

Since it was Ramadan, there were a few races at the track (nothing big). Anette and I deciding to bring out the girls and let them parade the new racing saddle I bought with me in Sweden. Arwen was first to go, and loved every inch of the track (as usual). The biggest change this [...]

read more from this topic.....