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[RC] Horse Racing in Arabia (was The Young Black Stallion) - Linda B. Merims

Susan (suvut) said:
 
>However, the race scene at the end was reminiscent of the >"killer" rides they used to have over in Saudi Arabia.
 
This is interesting.
 
Waaaaa...aaay back when this whole Hopkins/Hidalgo
thing started around a year ago when the lady from
Breyer showed up on Ridecamp asking for anybody who
had a photo of Hidalgo to contact her because
Breyer wanted to make an Hidalgo model and
release it to coincide with the movie (thus
kicking off a long search by dozens of people
for primary/contemporary sources (you can't get
any more "primary" than a photograph!) about
Hopkins that ultimately failed to turn up any
evidence than anything Hopkins said ever happened,
thus demonstrating Hopkins' phenomenal talent
for telling extremely believable tall tales)...
 
...the single thing I have missed most is the
absence of any primary (even secondary) 1800's
or pre-1950 sources about the history of horse
racing in the Middle East at any time.  I'd love
to find out anything.  I don't even care if it
is a distance race, just some kind of a horse
race!  Hell, I don't even care if it's about
horse racing:  just so long as it is about
desert horses in the Middle East!
 
What is the basis for the above comment?  Why
do you believe that there used to be "killer rides"
in Saudi Arabia?
 
I promise I won't make any nasty cracks if you
answer. :-)
 
The kind of thing I'm looking for is things like:
 
"Because the book that that guy who found Arabians
for that English lady's famous Arabian stud talks
about them.  See page xx."
 
Or,
 
Because Gertrude Bell talks about them happening
in Syria while she lived there in 1910 in her book...
 
Or,
 
Because such-and-such a Saudi historian wrote
an article about them in such-and-such a magazine...
 
I just want to know what it was that you saw/heard
that caused you to believe that there used to be
any kind of a ride/race in Palestine/Syria or the
greater Arabian peninsula?
 
If your answer is, "Because Deb Bennett said!" well,
that's OK.  All that means is that I've now got to
ask Deb Bennett the same question!
 
Men race their horses.  They always have.  The
Arabs must have as well.  But what can I read that
actually mentions these races and describes them,
first hand?
 
Linda B. Merims
Norris, TN
USA