From galloping to show jumping, in the saddle on a thoroughbred Arabian, Badr Al-Charari has everything a professional jockey does. But, blind from birth, this Saudi jockey had to make his own way to win the recognition of his peers.
Aged 35, he trained at least three times a week for almost two years before being accepted into this sport so prestigious in the Gulf countries: he recently became the first blind member of the Saudi Equestrian Federation. .
And for the athlete, this rise as a professional jockey counts as much as the path he had to travel to achieve personal autonomy.
“I was introverted. I didn’t leave my house much,” Badr Al-Charari told AFP after an obstacle course with his horse “Star” on a sand track surrounded by palm trees, on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh.
“My relationship with horses has broken this obstacle”, continues the jockey behind his dark glasses, before getting back on his horse in the brown dress, a small white spot between the eyes.
“If I can tame a horse, then I can do anything,” rejoices this enthusiast, who has been blind since birth, like his mother and younger brother.
Badr Al-Charari travels 140 kilometers a day from his home in western Riyadh to the Medhal equestrian center, where he trains with Abu Mahmoud, an Egyptian resident who has seen him progress in show jumping.
“Do you see how he jumps without touching them?” Abou Mahmoud asks during a morning training. “It’s as if he saw.”
– “Integrate” –
As in Qatar or the neighboring United Arab Emirates, horseback riding is both popular and prestigious in Saudi Arabia, which has the largest population of purebred Arabians.
But people with disabilities, who make up around 7% of the wealthy Gulf kingdom’s 34 million people, have long been sidelined.
Riding schools have recently launched programs designed especially for blind or autistic riders to help them develop their motor and sensory skills.
Among them, Abderrahmane Al-Otaïbi, who says he has become more “autonomous” since joining the Medhal center three months ago.
“Today, I consider horses as brothers,” the 31-year-old man, who suffers from severe visual impairment, told AFP.
He too assures that horses and riding have made him “more sociable” and have allowed him to “integrate” more into society.
– “Determined” –
“I made more friends and developed new relationships,” said Abderrahmane Al-Otaïbi.
Having trouble distinguishing the obstacles on the track, he remembers that when he started out, he feared falls. “I was afraid of jumps, but over time I overcame that fear,” he says.
People with visual impairments “are capable, persistent and determined to learn,” Medhal director Machari Al-Dhiyabi told AFP. “But society gives them the impression of being incapable.”
For him, horse riding is the best way “to improve the mental and physical capacities of all riders, whatever their situation.”
After his one-hour morning training, Badr Al-Charari gets off his horse, without assistance, before hugging the horse in his arms and kissing it.
At the end of February, the Saudi Cup will be held, an annual competition totaling rewards of more than 35 million dollars (about 33 million euros), the most expensive horse race in the world, according to the organizers.
For Badr Al-Charari, participating is obviously a “goal”, he assures, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Why not?”
