Article published in September edition of Masquarade magazine - new style and fashion publication in the Middle east. I took all the photographs also.

THE HORSE - FROM THE ARABIA TO ASCOT

Early risers in the British racing town of Newmarket can glimpse something magical as the sun rises over the paddocks – strings of thoroughbred racehorses passing almost silently through the still slumbering streets to be exercised on the surrounding heath.

Those on the heath to see this equine nobility in action can, on rare occasions in the months from April to November, also glimpse the hawk like profile of the owner of many of the finest steeds.  

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, often wearing tweed while surveying these dawn gallops, has two Newmarket stables housing the Maktoum family’s famous Godolphin thoroughbreds.

The ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the UAE is not only the world’s most successful racehorse owner, but also a man who values horses in a very special way. When it comes to understanding people and the challenges of government, Sheikh Mohammed believes much can be learned from horses.

In his book “My Vision – Challenges In The Race For Excellence”, the Sheikh writes: “If you know how to please horses, you know how to please people. And if you know how to respect horses, you know how to respect people. And if you are good at raising the morale of horses, you’ll be able to do the same for human beings. ”

Sheikh Mohammed, himself a world class horseman, devotes an entire chapter of the book - not yet translated into English – to horsemanship and politics with a reminder of the value put upon horses by the Prophet Mohammed himself.

In the Qur’an horses are described as a gift from God. “When God created the horse, he said to the magnificent creature: I have made thee as no other. All the treasures of the earth lie between thy eyes. Thy shalt carry my friends upon thy back. Thy saddle shall be the seat of prayers to me. And thou shalt fly without wings, and conquer without sword; oh horse.”  

Horses have been exalted – and highly valued  - in the Arab world since ancient times. They enabled the early warriors of Islam to spread the faith across the entire region. Their prowess in war lasted until 20^th century armaments made horsepower valuable only in motorised vehicles.

But the importance of the horse to mankind endures and its position in the Arab world, revived across the Gulf region in recent decades, is the subject of: “The Horse – From Arabia to Royal Ascot.” an exhibition at London’s British Museum until September.Those unable to get there, can visit the House Of The Horse Museum closer to hand in Dubai’s al-Shindagha district.

The London show marks the Diamond Jubilee of one of Britain’s most passionate horse enthusiasts, Queen Elizabeth the Second. At 86 she has now forsaken the saddle but is still a passionate racing enthusiast.

The ruling classes have long enjoyed equine sports of many sorts – from horse racing and show jumping to the ancient – though now illegal - sport of fox hunting. That spectacle with riders in hunting pink and packs of Beagles can still be seen in the English shires. But no ultimate kill is allowed.

Across the Gulf region horses are also used for falconing - another popular hunting pursuit. The founding father of the Emirates. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan said one of his earliest childhood memories was of his ancient sport.

The first verified record of the domestication of horses is in Kazakhstan around 5,500 years ago. But Nigel Tallis curator of the British Museum show says: “It is in the Middle East that it was first used to it’s fullest potential and you see these incredible inventions appearing. The horse becomes part of these urbanised, civilised societies.”

One exhibit suggests that the relationship between humans and horses may have originated far earlier, in the southwest of what is now Saudi Arabia. Some years ago a farmer digging a well came across a cache of carved stone artefacts including one appearing to be of a horse with a bridle. Scientists have not definitively verified its age, but think it could be 2,000 years older than the Kazakhstan finds.

The uses of horses in agriculture, war and sport are well documented throughout the exhibition – stone fragments with Egyptian, Assyrian and Persian war chariots and Furusiyya manuscripts detailing Islamic ideals of horsemanship together with more modern racing paintings.

Horses have played a crucial role in the development of human societies around the globe. Probably the earliest horses with Arabian bloodlines to reach Europe came indirectly through Spain during the era of the Caliphate. Later others would have arrived with returning Crusaders as spoils of war.

Another major infusion of Arabian horses into Europe occurred when the Ottoman Turks sent 300,000 horsemen into Hungary in the 16^th century many mounted on captured pure-blooded Arabians.  After the Turks’ defeat at the gates of Vienna many of these animals provided foundation bloodstock for major Eastern European stud farms.

Interestingly no horses of any sort were known in the Americas until the arrival of European settlers. Aztec warriors thought Spanish conquistadores on horseback were fabulous creatures. Cortes is known to have brought some sixteen Arabian horses with his army.

Today the Arabian remains the most highly prized of all horses – a pure bred whose qualities were first formally recognised soon after the Hejira.  Its distinctive features are finely chiseled bone structure, concave profile, arched neck, comparatively level croup and high-carried tail. The Arabian has the high spirit and alertness needed in a horse used for raiding and war, combining willingness and sensitivity.

They’re the stuff of myth. It is said, for instance, that the only horses that survived the Emperor Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow were Arabians.  Both the Emperor Napoleon and his nemesis at the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, rode Arabian steeds.

The Arabian is a versatile breed. It dominates the discipline of endurance riding, a sport in which both Sheikh Mohammed and some of his sons, have excelled and competes today in many other fields of equestrian activity.

Perhaps the greatest is horse racing, the so-called sport of kings. No racing event in the UK is more gilded than Royal Ascot every June, a highlight of the social calendar though race meetings are held across the country throughout the year and long ago transcended class barriers.

And of course some of the finest racehorses are Arabians. Sheikh Mohammed’s horses from Godolphin have won the world’s richest race, the Group One US $10-million Dubai World Cup, on six occasions from Almutawakel’s win in 1999 to Monterosso this year.

And they notched up another triumph at this year’s Royal Ascot when the Sheikh’s leading jockey Frankie Dettori won the Gold Cup aboard Colour Vision, narrowly beating another Godolphin horse, Opinion Poll, into second place.

For most of the world horses are now seen primarily in the sporting arena. In war and agriculture, they’ve been largely eclipsed by machines. But in the Arab world they are still accorded a special place in the social order.

Sheikh Mohammed says: “The back of a horse is not just somewhere to sit, but a platform from which the rider feels he can take flight to the heavens. This feeling opens up wide horizons for vision, it gives birth to new ideas and it purges the mind of the routine and the commonplace. It enables the leader to see the way that lies ahead of him and his people, so that he knows where he is going, what his goals are and what the far horizons will bring him on the morrow and what it will bring his people.”