Dubai to lose Mushrif Equestrian Club over contract issues

The contract will convert a horse riding club into a kind of circus attraction, say a group of riders and students at the Mushrif Equestrian Club, a private horse riding club located in Mushrif Park Dubai.

The contract they refer to is a new rental one from the landowner – the Dubai Municipality in this case – which outlines what they can do with the premises. The members of the private commercial enterprise feel it restricts their club.

“We are taking it to the public,” says Martin Kraeter, a rider who has taken up the role of spokesperson of a campaign aiming to reverse the new restrictions.

Dubai Municipality, when approached by Emirates 24|7, declined to comment.

Mushrif Equestrian Club (MEC) is a privately-owned horse riding club that was founded in 2001. With its currently 41 available horses, the club provides training courses to 720 students and organises park rides for approximately 1,800 riders a year.

“The club has been told that the only allowed activity will be fun riding,” tells Martin. “Fun riding is when a groom puts a kid on a horse or pony and guides it to make two or three circles with a diameter of 10 meters or so.”

He said the club spends some Dh100,000 in expenses a month. “Considering the only allowed activity will be the Dh10 fun ride, we would need to sell 46 of those rides per hour to sustain those costs based on winter timings. In summer this would be 80 per hour,” explains Martin, doubting the future sustainability of the enterprise.

Club members and parents whose children have taken up horse riding courses, have decided to start a petition called ‘Save our Stables’, which will be delivered to Dubai Municipality once it is signed by 1,500 people or more. This week the number of signatures reached 287.

Aref al Suwaidi, owner of the horse riding club, said: “There have been minor issues with municipality before that may have led to the restrictions. We have had some issues, but we apologized and showed willingness to do whatever was expected from us.”

One of the advantages of MEC is its location. Stuck away in the forest of the popular weekend destination, the club finds itself on the edge of what is called the outback of the park; a vast area of untouched and mainly unvisited semi-desert. “It is here where we do the horse rides, full moon rides, treasure hunts and other activities,” explains Martin.

“Horse riding in the park is now restricted to horse riding along the fence only,” he continues. “This is extremely dangerous, because this area is at only 5-15 meters from the parking lot, where people drive their cars and have their weekend picnics. A distracted horse will definitely run off at a point in time, and this is likely to lead to injuries for the horse, horse riders or car users.”

Other directives of the new contract state that the existing stock of 41 horses needs to be reduced to 30, and topped up with 5 camels and 5 ponies. The residence of personnel will be restricted to two people and an administrative hall and praying facility must be built.

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