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 only (major) races around are held in Niger, and most Niger horses will be resting throughout the warm season. The season opens again after September, after the rainy season when the horses have a chance to fatten up on the green grass.

On Saturday the 28th, I blogged about the three of us (Alice, Jmackie and myself) getting the horses ready to go to the track and promised a follow up. Well, here it is!

The first people I meet at the track are always Ali and Yaronbaba (when the latter one is in town).

These guys always make me so happy! We just have so much fun together.

I had been riding Maya for a while and was frustrated by her newfound stubbornness, so I gave handed her over to Yaronbaba to let her have a good stretch and to be reminded of the fact that despite being such a sweet horse, she is still a horse - not a future world leader.

OK, so it’s warm season, and when you take off your helmet, you look as if you’ve been bathing in the sea. But you dry up within minutes!

Pictures from the warm-ups…

Not all stallions can keep their cool, but they’re not expected. Angry horses are said to run faster, which is why some jockeys take to whipping up their stallions for no reason, except to create a very high level of frustration before it’s time to go.

Bala - one of Niger’s top jockeys and my second favorite to Yaronbaba. He raced with Arwen in January (when Yaronbaba was in Nigeria) and won.

So a good way of getting good pictures in a country where people often flock in front of the action is to sit up on the back of a horse!

After 20 minutes: trying to get organized…

And they’re off! Well almost, for unfortunately, it was a false start…

While they were getting back in line, Alice and Jmackie posed together with Yaronbaba, who wasn’t racing this heat.

Walking backwards to the retake the right positions… Races at the Zinder track take about five or six tries before the horses get to go off at the same time. It gives lots of opportunity for photo ops and boosts expectations!

Beautiful and soooo ready to go!

Half of them go, half of them stay behind.

Nothing to do but to return back home…

A VIP decides to take matters in his own hand and make sure there is no false start this time.

Just need to say hello to the camera woman first!

Then finally, all horses are in a perfect line…

…and they’re off!

Oh the power of all that exploding horse adrenaline! It’s soooo cool!

The whole excitement (which has been building up for an hour) is over in less than 2 minutes, but the ambiance is great!

Yaronbaba informs Jmackie of which horse is favoured to win, but she seems a little dubious…

50 seconds left

The final stretch… Which horse is going to hold their position? There’s a lot of money involved here, for although the first prize is a motorcycle, all the participants have paid a fee of 50,000 CFA in order to participate, so there’s a lot at stake for everyone involved.

… and the winner is the horse in white!

That’s it for this time, folks!