Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

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

lbm@xxxxxxxxx

Norris, TN

USA