Mikee, my golden girl

Dad, I lost my stirrups on four jumps of the second round!" Mikee shrieked... "Mommy," she said on a long distance call from Korea, "I have money na to pay many bills! It’s been so mahal to bring Rustic Rouge to Malaysia, Korea and soon back home. We can’t even choose our own forwarder. Buti na lang, Lito (the groom) bandaged Rustic’s shins for the trip because they were accidentally slashed somewhere. If he didn’t wrap them up, Rustic would have been injured. I would not have been able to ride her!"

I remember in 1998, Mikee sent her horse Luisita on a KLM flight to Malaysia with Toni Leviste’s. The care was superb. A groom came all the way from Amsterdam to handle and feed the precious cargo. We saw Luisita put inside her stall gently and off to the airplane. When horses weren’t required for competitions like in Mongolia, India and Indonesia the girls drew their horses’ name or number. Whatever they picked became their horse for the competition. Hard, right? And that’s just a few days before with not enough time to practice on them. That’s the first obstacle the rider has to hurdle.

Mikee is finally hugging and kissing her children, and her son Rafael is pulling her hair. Last Wednesday upon her arrival – moving away from friendly reporters, she whispered, "Mommy, I have something for you. I brought home the flowers I received in Korea after I got the gold medal. It’s for you, Mom. You might want to preserve them inside a glass frame." It’s the sentimental mementos that count for the two of us.

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Mikee’s first riding experience was at D’Rossa. We rode together that late morning. I was much faster and she was trying to catch up as I cantered around the bull ring. My one advice when she knew less about horses was, don’t let them know you’re scared. They can smell and sense fear and they’ll take over.

As I survey my study room this early morning, I notice my slim Buddha with her elbows almost resting on her waist, her hands raised outward, her palms up as though stopping incoming waves of bad fortune. On that cocked wrist hang four medals on their two-inch-wide and 34-inch-long grosgrain red, yellow, blue, white ribbons. Three were won on one day from the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Jumping Challenge in 1997. The fourth was for FEI Children’s International Jumping Competition in 1994 PEF National Rider of the Year Show Jumping Class A, third place. Third! It sent Mikee home dragging her boots. "Saan ang mommy ko?" with that disgusted tone, angry at herself. Her fists closed, she was gesticulating with her arms in frustration. That tiny medal still has some dirt on it today! Dried-up earth on the back. Ah, must have been because she leaned down to examine her horse’s hooves. These four are my treasured medals from Mikee. Special because when she arrived home from those competitions (and she hasn’t changed) she called yaya Grace, "Saan ang mommy ko?" "Mom, I won these for you," and she put them around my neck.

Just three weeks ago I put her numerous ribbons inside boxes and displayed them inside her glass case. My secretary, Lulu Tanalgo, in the meantime in our Baguio home, arranged many of them inside frames. Seeing them I remember the effort Mikee put into winning them. Sweat, tears, time, cost, a broken knee twice, a broken arm, a broken shoulder. My eldest daughter Liaa would call her dad Peping and me. "We’re in Makati Medical again! Now Mikee is having a brain scan." "What?" "It’s ok, ok. She’s all right," Liaa would calm us down.

Little by little, year by year, the value of patience became hers. "Mikee, don’t cry," Peping would tell her, "Just try harder and concentrate." Vicky Roycroft, her Australian trainer since she was 14 years old, would say, "Face the direction you want your horse to go." Later she’d say, "Ping, buy her a better horse. Luisita is too old." Well, guess what – something great happened! Tita Virgie Ramos bought her Silky Oak (now in retirement). Both Luisita and Silky Oak garnered 85 ribbons and 12 medals from competitions such as the Philippine Equestrian Competitions, Benny Cabral Memorial (1986), Samsung Dressage Competition (1988), Equestrian Promotion Ayala Alabang (1989), Fil-Am Horse Show, Clark (1990), Paris (1991), Fil-Am Horse Show (1991), Anni Cup International Show Jumping (1991), Yabut Memorial Cup. All these wins, over tears and a rosary she held on to through the night. All my children do that. So do I, so we don’t get bad dreams.

Every trip to America brought Peping home overweight with horsey medicines, massage balms, horse vitamins that my daughter Pin, friends Aldrin Roxas and Reggie Peña would order from Millers. Her boots came from Australia care of A.O., horse dress sheets, horse collars, helmets from Dover’s, whips, stirrups, saddles, horsing clothes like jodhpurs, blouses, socks again at Millers. Riding attires look great on her. If you see Mikee walk, you’ll find her a little stooped but once on a horse, her posture is erect, weightless on her horse’s back, knees locked on her sides, heels down by the horse’s tummy. In Indonesia a teacher told her pupils, "Watch that rider. That’s the form you all should have."

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Then last February 26, Mikee’s 28th birthday, her hubby Dodot (Jaworski) gave her an alkansiya. He said, "Let’s save our money and put our extras inside this piggy bank to buy you a horse." She shook it and heard a coin. There was a piece of paper peeking from inside the slit. She drew it out and there was his birthday present. A check for her to purchase a horse. It was not a world-class horse like her riding buddies’, but if she and Vicky trained her new horse, its quality would be what they wanted; she could become a champion.

So there was born a partnership between Rustic Rouge and Mikee. Rustic Rouge is a tiny horse with an enormous heart and a fighting spirit like her rider. Vicky chose her in Australia. Rouge fell for Mikee the way Mikee learned to love her and burden her with so much hope. Their thoughts and plans and ambition went towards one direction for victory! So sentimental but loaded with responsibility to share. That’s how Mikee is with her horses because when Mikee’s not doing well her partner reminds her with gestures to use better judgment on what she can do. In fact, Mikee was the only rider who communicated with Rustic Rouge through sounds Rustic is accustomed to. Talking to her during the jump off through "Tsk, tsk," meaning "Let’s go," to "Ho," meaning "Hold it," as in Rustic, you’re going too fast, getting frisky and too excited. Rustic understood. These sounds could be heard breaking the silence in the bull ring where one could hear even a pin drop.

For sure the horse, like its master, must be adjust to each other and both need each other’s touch and encouragement. Both also must be focused and connected and concentrated. A pair, now one. Both Mikee and Rustic are therapeutic for each other. Where one lacks, the other compensates. Another observation – when Mikee’s partner performs with great precision she gets kissed and kissed. When she’s naughty and disobedient, Mikee whispers in her ears words of admonition.

I know horses have provided Mikee an avenue to know human beings. The understanding adds to spirituality derived from kindness and patience. Peping says horses are like human beings – in fact "some are like me or me like them." He said, "Tingting is like a horse. You can’t pull the reins too tight, she rebels. You can’t go too loose, she gallops away." Mikee galloped and cantered away but she’s always been back home to "Mommy, come with me."

Everytime she jumps a hurdle, I peep through my fingers covering my eyes. Mr. Rubiyanto of Brunei or Jadji Fatil and his wife Zurina of Malaysia or Rafiq of Indonesia say, "It’s ok. It’s over," when Mikee’s done the course. Wow, how Mikee likes to chat at night. She did it too in Busan with her roommates, her niece Michelle Cojuangco Barrera and Toni Leviste.

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Mikee – now accustomed to traveling alone – arrives at any airport, checks at the rent-a-car counter and drives herself to her stables using a map. Amazing girl in strange countries. Years ago in Belgium she fetched Lulu and me at the airport hours away from her cottage, driving beside swift cars on the autoban. At 6 a.m. before the sun would make the horses sweat too much Mikee rode Luisita with Vicky coaching her. By 8, we’d work together. "Pass me that other broom, Mom." She’d sweep the manure. We’d bathe her horse, dry her up. Mikee would walk her around the paddocks, feed her, scooping hay from the pile and lock her in the stable. Twice weekly, she’d do the laundry and let her clothes dry on the radiator. Iron them out and try to befriend the Swiss, Belgian and the French girls at dinner time as they lived together in that tiny cottage. I am sure Toni has done all that, too. It’s a rider’s lifestyle. Mikee’s manager Girlie Rodis once followed her to Europe and slept in the freezing cold trailer as they traveled around Germany. It had a shower but the inconvenience was memorable for Girlie and it became the last time, too. But not for Mikee.

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Everytime Mikee goes on a trip, I know I will get a call the night before. "Mommy, come na early tomorrow. I need to pack my clothes." Clothes? Yes, to pack, not the pretty clothes but T-shirts and jodhpurs. Sometimes even pack a saddle she forgot to put in her trunk that’s sent ahead with the horses and Lito. In reality Mikee looks great, more young, more professional in jodhpurs. If she could, she’d wear them to bed too. She hates wearing any other clothes.

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Mikee has always been very focused on her ambition to be a superb rider. I’d see her languid eyes shine like her children’s as she seesVicky ride. They were sad yet hopeful and shining. If you saw her cry a bit on television, you’d also see the discipline that made her stop. I can bet with you at her hotel room she cried inside the locked bathroom because she didn’t want others to feel sad-happy but happy-happy which by the way is her son Robbie’s favorite expression. It’s not surprising then that she brought the Korean Jin up the gold medalist’s stand. Amid the victory Pete Cura reminds me about the KAO executive who asked Mikee, "Have you heard about KAO?" "Yes," she answered. "I used it on my horses." He never called her back to do an ad. Mikee has always spoiled her horses for their coat (thanks, Nisce Yabut) to shine and look handsome like her whippet and jack russel terrier from Australia.

Children should be raised caring for pets. They learn to be responsible and kind. Every caring rider runs to her horse after practice rounds or competitions to check on her horse’s condition like Tata Locsin, daughter of Teddy Boy Locsin, Janina Santos and Becka Dosch did. Paola Cojuangco, Michelle Cojuangco Barrera, Toni Leviste, Danielle Cojuangco do that too to know what pain their horse may be suffering or even to clean their hooves and give them water or walk their horses to loosen up their muscles. They don’t let their staff do it. They do many chores themselves. Horses make human’s work harder that humans became unspoiled.

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Children should also be brought up knowing their parents’ financial limitations. "We can only buy this horse at this price. You must train her yourself to get what you want out of a horse." Peping would have serious conversations like that with his third daughter. Believing she lacked the fast horse and therefore the ability to ride, she would become misty-eyed. She proved herself wrong. But the ability that made her an actress certainly paid for some of her skills especially to represent her country. Of her two ambitions, she had to give up one – that of being an actress. Being a mommy now, one occupation had to be sacrificed. She chose to become a champion rider and a mommy.

Mikee – while training and competing in Malaysia before Busan – telephoned her dad crying, "You mean I can’t ride in Korea?" "Mikee, wait till tomorrow, everything can be sorted out." Well, Dodot settled one problem and became Mikee’s biggest sponsor. The equestrian federation realized she had the qualification to compete in Korea.

"Ah, thank you, God." Words she couldn’t stop saying, like Lito who was crying longer than Mikee. If you noticed on TV when she got off the horse she kissed Rustic Rouge first and hugged Lito second. On her victory parade around the ring, she reached for the Philippine flag Lito was hoisting and speedily handed to her. Cantering around the ring she waved that heavy big flag which made everyone so proud of being a Filipino.

There’s my most nationalistic daughter. And why not? A rally participant after Ninoy died, in her veins flows the blood of General Adriano Hernandez, her great- great-great lolo from Iloilo. In her life the spirit of 1896 revolutionary Crisanto de los Reyes, who partly financed the Cavite Mutiny, lives on. She carries on the line of legislators Melecio Cojuangco and Lorenzo Sumulong. And it’s just like Mikee to work very, very hard para sa Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangan, Ating Filipinas.