But is this poem true? I’m asking myself this question when at 5:30 am the alarm is ringing and I’m getting ready to meet my friend to go riding. Meeting point is LULU Hypermarket at 6:00am, and we arrive before 7:00am at the Equestrian Centre at Endurance City close to Bab Al Shams Hotel. 45 minutes drive with the car is ahead of us.
It’s no problem because the time is flying by if you have company in the car and can exchange the latest news. We pass the Polo Club and a couple of construction sites which are now ‘on hold’.
At 7:00 am we finally arrive (it took us a bit more time than expected, as usual). Unlike many others in the stables we are preparing our horses by ourselves. Every horse over here has his own designated Groom who is also responsible for 3 further horses. He’s feeding, cleaning and saddling the horses as well as cleaning out the stables. If required he will also lunge the horse or control the leading device. I enjoy cleaning and saddling my horse by myself. So we have some bonding time before we go for a ride.
Not even 20 minutes later we finally leave. The Equestrian Club is located directly in the desert next to Bab Al Shams Hotel – so really deep in the desert. In the morning it is luckily not to hot but we still you feel the heat stuck under our helmet and leather chaps.
We decide to take the Sheikh Zayed Road’ with direction to the water-tower to ride back behind the feeding place of the camels and Oryx, to return to the stables, It’s my favorite route. We named most tracks in this area (e.g. one track is called Sheikh Zayed Road) in case of any emergency it is easier to orientate and describe your location. Many of the tracks are training routes of the Endurance Rider and they all are leading back to their origin. Oh well… almost all of them!
We ride relaxed over the parking direction‚ Sheikh Zayed Road’. Our horses are also not really awake, it’s still early. We are not the earliest people around; a lot of people are already awake at 5am on the back of their horses.
After we pass in our relaxed mood to the ‘Sheikh Zayed Road’ we continue in trot heading to the big dunes and up to the water-tower. To trot and gallop with a horse through the soft sand is a completely different feeling to the arena. It gives you a bit of the feeling of a cowboy, but in the desert. After some rounds in trot and gallop, we reach the peak and look in the endless stretch of the desert… amazing; it’s what I say to myself every time. No construction sites, no sky scrapers, simply nothing except desert and the endless widths…
On our left a wide track with solid ground is diverting (unnamed till now), this track should lead to Abu Dhabi. We take a left turn and directly left again. We don’t want to go to Abu Dhabi, we want to see the Oryx and then return back.
Lost in the conversation with my friend we first did not recognize the Oryx in the dunes. Our two horses are alerted but relaxed. They already know it. Soon we reach the feeding place. Here you have the best chance to see old and young Oryx or donkeys and camels. Some people told me that they saw wild horses but I wasn’t lucky so far.
Now we reach one more track to trot and a bit of a gallop for the end of the ride and then it is going slowing back to the stables. After about 1 and a half hours riding, we return back thirsty but happy. We now take care of the horses first and then of the riders. After the horses are satisfied and return back to their stables, my friend and I go to have some apple juice in the café. Sometime we get carried away and have some fries for breakfast.
Happy and satisfied we are driving back to Dubai. And we both agree – No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle!
Links:
www.poloclubdubai.com
www.dubaiendurancecity.com