With Animals...
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Equestrian Sports The horse has been an essential part of life in the Arabian peninsula for over 2000 years, as has been shown by the discovery of burials at Mleiha, in Sharjah where individuals were buried together with their prized stallions, the latter being bedecked in golden harness. Until recently the relationship took the form of an enduring partnership based upon survival in one of the world’s toughest environments. With the arrival of prosperity, the Emirati’s relationship with the horse made a crucial shift from survival to recreation. Today, all forms of equestrian sport are enormously popular in the UAE, but the purebred Arabian horse still holds pride of place.
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Horse Riding As you might expect from a country enamoured with all things equine, recreational riding is well catered for in the UAE. |
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Horse Racing Horses have always played a central role in traditional life in Arabia, however contemporary horse racing with local jockeys as well as top jockeys from overseas, has taken off dramatically over the past decade. Race meetings are held weekly during the winter at one of the UAE’s four racecourses. Going to the races in the UAE is as exciting and glamorous as anywhere in the world, nevertheless there is one significant difference. In accordance with the precepts of Islam, gambling is prohibited at all racetracks. |
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Endurance Racing Endurance racing involves long-distance riding over a grueling course under strictly controlled conditions for horse and rider. Purebred Arab horses, bred for stamina in inhospitable terrain over thousands of years, are particularly suited to this demanding sport, which is one of the reasons it has become immensely popular in the UAE, with national teams dominating in top-class events at home and abroad over the past decade.
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Camel
Riding The
Camel, a symbol of Arabia, is a major tourist attraction. Camel rides form
part of some tours and desert safaris. Tour operators and hotels can also
arrange camel rides separately.
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Camel Racing Camel racing takes place during the winter season (Thursdays and Friday mornings, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., from October to March) at special tracks around the country. The atmosphere is electric, especially during public holidays when major races for considerable prize money are held. There is no admission fee. |
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Bird-Watching The United Arab Emirates has been acknowledged as one of the top four destinations in the whole of the Middle East for bird-watching tours. The fact that it is a meeting point for migration routes means that it is visited by several million birds every year. But even if you are not a Twitcher, with a good pair of binoculars and an information guide, you should be able to identify some of the more common bird species. Green areas such as Al Wathba camel track and the cities parks are particularly good for bird-watching, so too are the numerous lagoons and offshore islands which are host to important seabird colonies. More accessible is Khor Dubai Bird Sanctuary. During the migrating periods (Sept/Oct and March/April) enormous flocks of wading birds can be found at the blind loop at the top of the creek. The flamingos that feed here are always a spectacular sight. Access is restricted to permit holders, but birds can be watched from the car if you park along the creekside graded tracks and use binoculars or a telescope. Several of Dubai’s parks are also good birdwatching sites. |
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Image courtesy www.gfholidays.com/ fr/uae/abu_dhabi/ |
Falconry Falconry, once an important way of supplementing the diet of the UAE’s desert inhabitants, is now enjoyed as a traditional pastime. The most popular hunting birds remain the saqer falcon and the peregrine falcon, which were traditionally trapped along the coast during their autumn migration, trained, used for hunting, and then released in the spring. Once the falconers managed to trap one of the highly prized birds, they had only two to three weeks to train it before the migrating houbara bustards started to arrive. This was done by developing a strong bond of trust between a wild captured bird and its handler, a unique skill which commands the respect of bird handlers worldwide. Ideally, the training of the falcon was completed by the day when the first houbaras arrived and the Bedouin would hunt the bustards with his falcon throughtout the winter months. Although houbara were the favoured quarry, falcons were also used in the past to take stone curlews and hares. They were sometimes used with saluki hunting dogs to take gazelle.
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Other Animal Sports:
Whale and Dolphin Watching
ZOOS AND AQUARIUMS
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