There is Life After Racing

After the excitement of Super Saturday at the Meydan Racecourse, we turned it down a notch on the following Monday evening with a trip to the Emirates Equestrian Centre (EEC) for a rather interesting event, that I was really looking forward to attending.

This long established venue, which has grown in stature since my last visit, was a hub of activity, especially being right beside Endurance City which hosted the 120km HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum endurance rides for Ladies and private stables on Sunday and Monday.

This event was just winding up when we arrived and the long line of horse boxes leaving bore testament to the vast number of competitors at these events.

The purpose of my trip to the EEC was to judge the Life After Racing [LAR] retired race horse showing classes, a concept new to the UAE and introduced by Debbie Armaly, co-founder of the LAR.

Following a trip to the UK last summer, she witnessed the outstanding success of our ROR [Retraining of Racehorses] organisation, which holds various types of showing classes at major horse shows across the country, culminating in a Championship event at the end of the season.

LAR is essentially a League with points awarded for placings in its different categories of, Showing, X-Country or Arena eventing, Dressage and Show Jumping, for both thoroughbred and Arabian horses registered with the LAR.

The evening was well-attended and it is a real pleasure to see the love and care given to the horses who all looked in great shape and have adapted well to their new roles in life.

The Author is a Derby-winning trainer and the mother of world-renowned jockeys, James and Sophie Doyle.