The beauty of purebred Arabian horses transcends divisions in Libya

There are no official statistics on the number of horses in Libya, but their breeding is widespread in the country’s cities.

Horses hold a prominent place in Libyan culture, and Libyans everywhere have been celebrating the equestrian arts for centuries by organizing highly popular races and parades.

Al Arab – To the sounds of music, Libyan horse breeders presented their purebred Arabian horses last weekend before an international jury on the outskirts of the capital, Tripoli, as part of a beauty competition, which is a rare entertainment activity in a country torn by divisions for more than a decade, bringing together participants from its conflicting east and west.

More than 70 brown, chestnut, or gray horses competed in the “National Championship for Purebred Arabian Horses (Al-Khobar Championship),” in the Qasr Bin Ghashir area on the outskirts of Tripoli.

The competition constituted “a great celebration for purebred Arabian horses in Libya,” according to what Ahmed Al-Amami, the owner of Al-Waha Stables in the city of Benghazi in eastern Libya, told AFP.

The breeder, whose six horses won silver and gold medals and who himself received an award, noted that “the level of organization is excellent and the standard of the horses is very wonderful.” He added, “For a long time, for 14 years, we have not seen competitions and festivals in the city of Tripoli.”

Libya has witnessed complete chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, and two governments are competing for power. The first controls the west of the country and is based in Tripoli and is headed by Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba. It was formed following a political dialogue in early 2021, and the other controls the east of the country and is headed by Osama Hammad. It is appointed by the House of Representatives and supported. From Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Al-Amami continued, “Our love for horses made us endure hardships, and our love for them made us express them about ourselves.”

Before handing over prizes to the competitors, the French ambassador to Libya, Mustafa Maharaj, praised “this initiative that heralds that life has begun to return.” He recalled that “the Persians are a symbol of authentic Arab culture, and for us as Frenchmen they are a bridge between French culture and Arab culture in this field.”

International judges, a number of whom belong to the World Arabian Horse Organization (WAHO), were entrusted with judging the appearance and morphological characteristics of each horse, whether in terms of the shape of the head, tail or muzzle.

After the horses ran, led by the breeders, some of whom wore ties and jackets, they stood in front of the jury members in the dirt arena, to closely examine their physical details.

One of the most prominent features of the competition was the remarkable female participation of Sima Othman Boubutina, an 18-year-old Libyan young woman, who competed with 14 mares from a famous horse farm founded by her father, Othman, who recently died and was a prominent figure in the field of equestrianism in Libya.

Sima received a special award as the first and youngest woman to participate in a competition of this kind in Libya. “I started riding horses when I was four years old…,” she told AFP, with her gold medal-winning horse, Amir, next to her. “I used to accompany my father to clubs to learn everything related to horses, and in recent years I fell in love with purebred Arabian horses and paid more attention to them.”

The international referee in the purebred Arabian horse beauty championships and advisor to the National Center for Libyan Horse Development said that Sima “was born on the back of a horse.” On the other hand, he expressed his hope that the competition would help “revive” the culture of purebred Arabian horses in Libya “after 14 years of war.”

There are no official statistics on the number of horses in Libya, but their breeding is widespread in the country’s cities. Some equestrian competitions are very popular and are followed passionately by people who care about and love horses.

Experts in horse breeding say that Libya is the world’s first supplier of purebred Arabian horses from Tunisia, as it buys about 70 percent of Tunisian horses for export annually, and Morocco, France, and the Gulf countries are considered among the countries most eager to buy Tunisian horses.