Riders of Arabia

In equestrian-crazed Qatar, Alex Schechter gets carried away by the allure of purebred horses.

- Alex Schechter

I WAS AN HOUR outside Doha when my Uber dropped me at the unmarked gates of Khor Aladed Riding School (instagram.com/khoraladed). The modest stable sits smack in the middle of the Mesaieed Desert, where the sand seems to stretch endlessly into the horizon and blurs into a whitish haze. Before he pulled away, the driver told me to WhatsApp him when I was ready to be picked up. "Otherwise, nobody will find you out here," he warned.

Khor Aladed is home to 20 purebred Arabian endurance racers, finely tuned horses as synonymous with the desert as the rolling dunes. Bedouins-the nomadic people who live in the region-began breeding the first Arabians more than 4,500 years ago, and their incredible stamina (not to mention exquisite bone structure) made them legendary across the Arabian Peninsula. No other animal is as well suited to racing across miles and miles of desert.

Beyond the gates of the school, Elena Gonzalez, a 28-year-old endurance rider from Asturias, Spain, greeted me in a small courtyard where six Arabians were waiting to be harnessed. The animals were trim, compact, and, despite the shamal the gusts of wind blowing up sand that afternoon-surprisingly calm. This was due to the level of familiarity they have with Gonzalez, who averages eight hours in the saddle during a race. Prolonged contact with the animal is what first drew her to the sport. "Endurance is more intimate than show jumping or dressage," Gonzalez said, wrapping her arms around Aneesah, a snow-colored mare with a silky, windblown mane. "You get to know the horse more deeply."