Taking a leap in communication

Equestrienne Marie Antonette "Toni" Leviste calls a 10-hectare horse spa in Lipa City, Batangas her sacred "space." It is known as the Globe Platinum Equestrian Park, which, since its completion in 2004, has also become home to her horses when they are not training or competing abroad.

In addition to the sprawling equestrian park, Leviste’s horses also have a virtual home in a Sony Ericsson P910i smartphone. There, the equestrienne has been keeping photos of her horses and details of their passports, which are required of competition horses traveling abroad.

"I have a whole album of all my horses on my P910i and I also take short video clips of them running in the paddocks or grazing in the fields. I also use my P910i to store vital information of their travel documents so whenever I need to fill out a form, the records are easily accessible to me," she says.

Since becoming a smartphone user last year, Leviste, who is skilled in caring for and riding horses, also quickly learned how to use her P910i as a business tool as she travels mostly around Europe shopping for horses.

Aside from managing her appointments better, the phone’s a good tool to send and receive videos of horses

"My P910i is useful in taking videos of horses from abroad that are either for lease or sale for my purpose or a client’s. It is a practical way to keep a record of all the horses that I have an interest in… or when I’m in the country I can use the P910i to receive videos from agents in Europe who wish to show me their horses," she explains.

Workhorse

Being based in Belgium where her coach and trainer lives, Leviste says that riders from the local equestrian community often task her to look for a suitable competition horse for them in Europe. This entails her driving around the European countryside in search for the perfect horse that suits a particular rider.

"I can go from country to country in a matter of days. Sometimes I am in three countries in a single day like driving from Belgium to Holland to Germany and back," says the 30-something Leviste.

It is during this mad dash to find good steed when her dependence on a mobile phone increases. On many occasions, Leviste says she has used her P910i to facilitate business transactions from start to finish, which usually involve many long and regular mobile phone conversations and countless SMS (Short Messaging System) and MMS (Multi-media Messaging System) to her clients.

"I make it a point to send MMS of horses at the top of my list, so that my clients have an idea of what the horses look like. They trust my sense of what type of horse will suit their purpose, but I make sure they are happy with how the horses look, so it’s important for me to send them MMS of the horses I am considering. The deal is completed when I know the client is happy with what they see and based on my description of how the horses feel ‘under the saddle’ (when I ride them). I cannot do this without my mobile phone, that’s why I simply cannot do without one," says Leviste.

The renowned Filipina equestrienne now also does mobile e-mail on her handset to make her more mobile.

"Instead of having to wait until I get to my hotel room anywhere in the world in order to check important e-mail, I just do it directly from my handset. This makes my life worry-free as far as connecting to people," she adds.

At one point, the benefits of mobile e-mail became very real for Leviste when she found herself waiting at the cargo area of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia for her horses coming from Amsterdam.

"A horse caretaker was flying with my horses from Amsterdam. While waiting for them at the KLIA I had to be in constant communication with the horse shippers based in Germany, to ensure that all the documentation for the trip was organized and settled. There was no Internet access available at the cargo area at the KLIA, but I had no worries because I had my P910i with BlackBerry Connect to let me check and communicate via e-mail to Germany and Amsterdam simultaneously. That’s what mobile communication is all about, isn’t it?" says Leviste.

The horse spa

The Globe Platinum Equestrian Park is not only a "horse spa," but a sanctuary for Nature lovers, Leviste says. It has a view of the Malarayat mountains in the north and Mt. Makulot in the south and is filled with various trees – mahogany trees lining the perimeter, acacia trees along the driveway, and hundreds of fruit-bearing trees all around. It took three years to convert the flat and barren ancestral land of the Levistes into one of the few world-class equestrian facilities in Southeast Asia.

Riders from both local and regional equestrian communities could also keep and train their horses in the park "where horses, just like people, can relax and savor Nature’s beauty," says Leviste.

With her at the horse spa in Batangas and her coach in Belgium, mobile communication again provides their most reliable link. Leviste says she uses her smartphone to send videos of her daily training to her coach to update him on her progress with the Team Globe Platinum horses.

"All my horses – Leap of Faith, Maktub, and Tosca – have the name ‘Globe Platinum’ affixed at the start of their names. My equestrian campaign has been sponsored by Team Globe Platinum in partnership with Sony Ericsson in the past year – two companies that strive for excellence in their products, as I do in my sport," she says.