RSSMore recently, the Amiri Court's thoroughbred stallion Anchorman won BD56,000 (approx $150,000) over his five year racing career before retiring to stand with the mares in the Amiri Court Stud Farm.
All the drama and passion of the Sport of Kings can be seen to unfold each Friday afternoon of the winter season on the beautiful turf race-course in Sakhir. This modern complex was built in 1980 and boasts two grass tracks and one sand exercise lane surrounding a picturesque lake inhabited by flamingos. The grandstand is reminiscent of a cluster of Arabian desert tents and has a capacity for 15,000 spectators. There is stabling nearby for 600 horses.
The annual racing calendar includes roughly 25 weekly meetings featuring about 145 flat-races for local Arabian horses and imported or home-bred thoroughbreds. There are currently 22 racing trainers, 40 jockeys and 44 owners registered with the EHRC, plus 250 horses "in training".
All other equestrian sports fall under the auspices of the Bahrain Equestrian Association. The BEA's annual season also runs from early October until the end of April and includes show jumping, dressage, long distance endurance riding, Arabian shows and one cross-country event. At present there are no eventing or polo activities.
As well as the flamboyant pure-bred Arabians, their indigenous brethren of less exalted background, and the leggy, elegant thoroughbreds, there are thousands of horses in Bahrain of assorted breeds and backgrounds. Shetland and other British native ponies have been imported, as have Dutch competition horses, Australian stock horses and Irish-bred show jumpers. There is an assortment of almost 400 horses registered with the BEA for competitive purposes, around 600 riders and an indeterminate army of occasional weekend riders.
Many young Bahraini lads compete in all manner of horse sports: one day galloping along the verdant racecourse, the next week picking up a rosette in a show-jumping arena. Whatever, the love of horses has the same inexplicable effect all over the world. It brings people together with a common interest. Race, colour or creed, politics or religion are unimportant to those handling and dealing with horses. Whether their horses are kept in smart, air-conditioned stables supervised by trained professionals or in simple, local farms tended by village boys and wise old men, equines of noble breeding stand in peace and harmony alongside those of modest ancestry.
There are much loved horses everywhere in this kingdom of the horse. A classic poem by Salim Abdulla Haj, written in the late 1860s for the ruler of Bahrain, refers to the Arabian horse as "delicate /exquisite / like a gazelle, alert / The Treasure of Ages".
Thousands of years ago, we captured Equus and harnessed him to our needs and whims. We took away his freedom and over the years silenced the whispers on the winds of their world. Yet despite losing their liberty, horses have never lost their pride.
At least in Bahrain, horses are still revered. The Drinkers of the Wind can truly be known as the Treasures of Ages.
Source: http://bahrainguide.org/BG3/arabianhorses.html
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