In the quiet, sandy arena, Tariq Al Muhairi stands a little away from a horse, watching it silently and intently. His eyes narrow in concentration and he appears to be thinking deeply. Seconds later, the horse comes trotting and stands next to him. Tariq pats her neck gently and whispers a few words in Arabic. The horse pauses for a moment as if registering his words before lying down in the sand.
There is no whip, no hitting, no shouting, no actions to make the horse fearful. Not even treats are offered as rewards. It is just mutual respect and understanding between man and horse at what Tariq would describe as ‘the spiritual level’.
Soft-spoken, weighing his words, proud of his roots, Tariq is a portrait of the 21st century Bedouin. He may have won several honours in horse racing, jumping and endurance competitions at home and abroad, but what he is better known for is being the Emirati ‘horse whisperer’.
Tariq has some two dozen cups and trophies that he bagged from the UAE, UK, Germany and Italy for his horse-riding skills now displayed in his majlis.
Just outside the glass wall of the majlis, a few horses are walking by. It is late afternoon, time for a little strolling exercise.
‘I live here now,’ says Tariq. ‘I moved here from Abu Dhabi in late 2012 to be closer to my horses.’
‘Here’ is Yah Stables, which Tariq built on a piece of farmland his father gave him in Al Ajban, Abu Dhabi. There is a small house for his use, and a majlis to receive guests or for him to do his office work. Although he lives here by himself, Tariq is rarely alone; family and friends visit him daily. During cooler winter months, they often get a fire going, bring out the oud and spend the night under the stars with music, chatter and lots of karak tea. Two caretakers groom and feed the stables’ 20 horses, and prepare them for riding sessions.
Next to the house’s grass-and-palm tree garden is the arena where Tariq trains horses using natural horsemanship methods – based on developing a relationship with horses, gaining their trust and cooperation, and rejecting any abusive training techniques – that he picked up over the years.
Natural horsemanship or horse whispering techniques, based on the principle of developing a personal rapport with the horse, became popular in the 1980s, although they have been known for a lot longer. The first documentation about it comes from Xenophon’s treaty On Horsemanship, written around 430-354 BC.
The ‘traditional’ methods of dressage employing force are said to give much faster results – at odds with ‘naturalists’. The former, however, accuse the latter of being commercially focused, even romanticising themselves by using terms such as ‘horse whisperer’, which is some circles is now considered derogatory. The term dates from the 19th century, when Daniel ‘Horse-Whisperer’ Sullivan, an Irish horseman, became famous for rehabilitating horses suffering from abuse and accidental trauma. The term became globally recognised in the 1990s thanks to Nicholas Evans’ book The Horse Whisperer and the 1998 Robert Redford movie of the same name.
Like the so-called naturalists from the west, Tariq has a deep, passionate love for horses. People with problem horses arrive at Yah Stables seeking his advice and help. Movie productions needing horse stunts reach out to him. French researchers approach him to conduct experiments on the emotional communication between man and horse.
But Yah Stables is only the latest chapter in Tariq’s equestrian adventure that started when he was just a boy. Starting to ride in 1986, aged 12, by the time Tariq took a break from riding in 2000, he had fulfilled all his equestrian dreams.
‘My dream was to hear people say ‘Tariq, the rider’, and I did,’ he says. ‘Then I dreamt of hearing people call me ‘Coach Tariq’, and they did.’
By the mid-1990s, he began to be recognised for not just his riding skills but also his talent for training horses.
‘My first teacher was a mare’
‘My uncle, Mubarak Hoshaima Al Moreihi, was a rider, but his kids don’t ride, so he sent his two horses to my father, in Abu Dhabi. One of them was a mare, Sheema. I quickly fell in love with horses and my brother, Eissa Al Muhairi, who enjoyed riding, and my father taught me to care for horses, what and when to feed them, how to walk and wash them...’
It was Tariq’s job to walk the horses every day on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. One day, however, feeling tired after walking the animals for over four kilometres, Tariq climbed on one, laying on its back and resting. ‘It was my first time on a horse,’ he says. ‘When I told her to stop, she stopped. When I told her to move, she moved. I did this several times, until one day I found myself riding the horse. I was riding it without a bridle, without a saddle...’
Pleasantly surprised, he began ‘talking’ to the horse, observing her, giving simple commands and riding her daily at full gallop.
For a while, nobody knew about it until one day, his brother Eissa spotted him on a horse. ‘He asked me how I could ride a horse without a saddle and to prove to him that I could ride well, asked me to make a circle around him. I did and he was impressed. ‘That’s good,’ he said.’
The next day Eissa took Tariq to an equestrian club in Abu Dhabi. Here he continued practicing his Bedouin-style (sans saddle) riding, until one day he and a few other students were invited to join the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.
A few months later some of the club’s students were selected to participate in a horse riding competition in London. Although it was Tariq’s first time abroad and first competition, he won first place. A year later, in 1989, the story repeated itself in Germany.
‘Meanwhile, Sheema one day fell ill with colic. Since there were no vets available at the time, we – my father, brothers and some friends – all tried to help her.’ But it was of no use. A distraught Tariq stayed with her all night, even taking her into his room to try to make her as comfortable as he could.
‘She lay down, resting her head on my knees while I comforted her. Then at seven in the morning, she looked at me one last time and passed away,’ he says. ‘I felt really sad because she was the one who trained me, but I promised myself I will be someone in the equestrian world. And I’ve never forgotten her. To those who ask me who my trainer was, I say it’s Sheema. She taught me to ride, to approach horses, to communicate with them. I learnt horsemanship from her.’
Unlike many professional riders, Tariq never took riding or training classes. It was Sheema who showed him the ropes, he says. In his early days of working with the family horses, Tariq used to wake up at 5am, feed the horses, go to school, return home at lunch time, feed the horses again and later prepare their evening meal.
Tariq’s passion for horses is as strong today as it was back when he met Sheema. When he joined the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club, he learnt what he calls ‘riding tricks’ from the club’s trainers, such as how to sit on the horse when jumping over an obstacle and how to ride in competitions. But they didn’t teach him how to communicate with horses. ‘That came from within me, from my passion and love for horses,’ he says.
His ability to use his inner energy and his emotions to connect with horses and get them to do what he wants has led to ever more clients requesting help to train their horses.
Initially, Tariq’s training methods were unheard of in Abu Dhabi. Hitting a horse in training often gives quicker results. Natural horsemanship professionals – a major movement in the equestrian world – claim that taking time to understand the horse, showing compassion and creating an emotional bond are better ways to getting a horse do what you want it to.
‘Horses, like human beings, may also have psychological problems. If they were treated badly, beaten or caged for a long time, they would be afraid or dislike people, so they won’t allow anyone to train or even ride them,’ says Tariq.
‘If the horse is broken psychologically, people send it to me. I can feel the horse and the horse can feel me,’ he says.
The break-up
During the early noughties, Tariq was a regular performer in traditional Emirati folk groups. He also had a day job in the UAE Army and was married with four young children. He started writing his autobiography that he has just completed.
‘I was busy all day. Then one day my now ex–wife asked me to stop [horse riding] and spend more time with the family, so I stopped everything,’ he says. Selling his horses and turning his back on the equestrian world was the hardest thing he ever did and even talking about it makes him well up. ‘For seven years I just went to work and returned home to the family,’ he says.
Then around 2007, his wife showed Tariq a newspaper clipping of her brother, who had won a horse jumping competition. Talk turned to championships but the conversation ended with a rather hurtful joke. ‘‘‘You are not talented”, she joked, but I took it seriously,’ says Tariq.
He went to the Al Ain Equestrian Club and requested a trainer there to loan him a horse for a week so he could hone his riding skills again and participate in a competition. Three days later Tariq won a local riding contest.
‘I returned home straight from the course - with my boots on, the riding dress, dust in my face, the horse smell on my clothes and my mum saw me [and] started crying. ‘‘Oh, this is my Tariq. This is how we know you!” she said.’
There was no turning back after that point.
Following his divorce, in 2007, Tariq returned to his passion and began working with horses, first at the Al Ain club, and then in Abu Dhabi’s Al Wathba club. While he did compete occasionally, this second chapter in his career was dedicated to horse training and horse shows. He’s done over 25 shows for UAE National Day and for other events and festivals, he says.
In 2012, the Equestrian Association of Sicily invited Tariq to give a talk on – and demonstrate the art of – horse whispering during their annual equestrian championship.
As a challenge they asked him to pick a horse from a herd of six and train her for an arena show in just one hour.
‘I knew it was tough and prayed a lot, then chose a horse named Fatima. The first thing I did was to ride her without a saddle, without bridles, nothing. They were shocked because many trainers had tried and had failed. The reason I could was because I didn’t push the horse; I didn’t use a whip or any force. I just let her come to me. I let her play freely in the arena for a while, watching her, then she stopped and came to me by herself,’ says Tariq. ‘It was about using natural horsemanship methods.’
Body language is paramount, he says; a horse is able to feel a rider’s confidence and act accordingly. If the rider fears his horse will fail a certain challenge, the horse will fail. Natural horsemanship trainers work by distracting the horse’s mind from the problem and treating it with love and gentleness. That’s what worked well with Fatima, says Tariq.
Back home, a bigger surprise was awaiting him. His father had decided to give him part of his farmland, in Ajban, to build his own stables. With help from his father and brothers, Tariq opened Yah Stables before the end of the year. Here, he trains children, professional riders and other trainers. ‘People come from Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, from Belgium even. I train all kind of horses. If the horse has behavioural problems, I fix it. Sometimes a horse requires just a few days to come around and allow people to ride it, other horses may need weeks.’
Tariq’s training techniques eventually led to an unusual scientific experience. Three years ago, researchers from a French university came to his stables to study the emotional involvement between man and horse and how the two use feelings, or the energy field, to communicate to each other. ‘They attached some sensors on my head and a few on my horse’s head,’ says Tariq. He was then asked to demonstrate natural horsemanship. Keeping his back to the horse, Tariq thought deeply about his horse and seconds later, the horse walked up to him. ‘The researchers said the computer recorded some strong signals indicating powerful feelings,’ he says. They did several other similar experiments. ‘I’m awaiting the detailed results of the experiments,’ he says.
His dream ride
More recently, Tariq began participating in film productions with his horses, including in Tiger Zinda Hai, the Bollywood sequel starring Salman Khan that was filmed in Abu Dhabi this summer. The film shoot required four horses, which came from Yah Stables.
Tariq is now working on a project called ‘The Knight Travelling to Mecca’. ‘It’s a film I want to do based on me travelling to Mecca. I’ve already made a plan. I want to ride a horse from Abu Dhabi to Mecca, around 2,000 kilometres. It would take two months. Just my horse and me. For sure, I would have my filming crew with supplies, but I would not use any vehicle; only walking and riding,’ says Tariq.
He is awaiting an official approval of patronage. This film would be an umrah gift for the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. ‘He gave us everything we needed, so I want to give something back for him,’ says Tariq.
