The Longines Qatar Equestrian Tour Hathab will be held this weekend with the second round scheduled at the Qatar Equestrian Federation’s Indoor Arena.
Today, the Small Tour and Medium Tour competitions will take place, with Open Class and Big Tour events set for tomorrow.
In the opening round of the fifth edition, Mohamed Saeed Haidan sprung a surprise claiming the Big Tour class. In fact, Haidan bagged the top two places with Miss Chili and D Saucedo. Mubarak Yousuf Al Rumaihi, astride SIEC Lonnie, came third. Haidan will hope he can carry the winning momentum into second round.
Hathab, the most popular domestic equestrian series, has been extended by two extra rounds from this season taking the total number of legs to 14. Hathab meaning ‘Canter’ in Arabic, is aimed at improving the standard of horse riding among Qatari youths while encouraging the involvement of private stables and individual horse owners to grow awareness of horsemanship as part of Qatar’s history and tradition. The vision for Hathab is to inspire Qatar’s next generation of international champions.
Meanwhile, Ali bin Yousef Al Rumaihi, Tournament Director of Hathab, expressed his happiness with the launch of the championship for the fifth consecutive season amid fruitful cooperation between the Qatar Equestrian Federation and Al Shaqab.
The former rider said the last year’s championship witnessed disruption due to the pandemic but the praised the efforts of the organising committee to finish the competitions.
He said the organisers were keen to keen to launch championship on time for the current season.
“We have added two more rounds this season which makes it total 14 rounds. The increase in the number of rounds is a result of the popularity achieved by the tournament, since its launch in 2017. This is evidenced by the high level of partners and sponsors attracted to the tournament, whom we thank for their support of the equestrian sport in Qatar,” Al Rumaihi said.
He said that the Qatar Equestrian Tours plays a vital role in the equestrian community as a series of leading local competitions in the country, and seeks to inspire new generation of riders in Qatar and encouraging them to become global champions, as well as raising awareness of the importance of equestrianism as part of the history and ancient traditions of Qatar.
