Abu Dhabi // All it takes is a quick once-over for Sheikh Diab Saif Al Nahyan to decide if a camel is a -winner. "I never studied camel breeding," he said. "I just know a good camel when I see one." At the Al Dhafra festival last year the sheikh, 40, entered some of his animals into a camel beauty contest for the first time. Fifteen won prizes, two of them taking second and third places in the main competition. Sheikh Diab has become one of the top camel breeders and caretakers in the emirate. And after more than 20 years in the business, he understands the majestic desert creatures better than most. "Contrary to belief, a camel is a very loyal pet, and has a lot of character," he said. "But you really have to be patient and get to know it." Sheikh Diab has more than 600 camels, half of them in Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi, and half in Saudi Arabia. Some are racing camels, some have been designated for milking and the rest are groomed for the Emirates' various camel beauty contests. "There is a difference in the way we take care of racing camels and the beauty ones," said Sheikh Diab. "We are tougher on the racing ones, and spoil the beauty ones." Camels for beauty contests have their coats trimmed and gelled regularly, while the racers train diligently. Sheikh Diab, who graduated in 1992 from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK and spent 14 years in the army, draws on those experiences by keeping his camels on a strict regime to maintain them in peak form. "We keep them fit and ready for action," he said. Soughan, zebyan, hamloul, and shaheen are the most popular breeds of racing camel, while the black hizami camels from Saudi Arabia are the most attractive and are used in beauty competition. The khowawer are kept for -milking. The beauties are dedicated to his daughter, Sheikha Sheikha, and the racers to his son, Sheikh Mohammed. Hakima (which translates as "ruler"), a black Saudi camel that won second place in the most recent beauty contest, is a family favourite. "My family are her biggest fans," he said. "They spent a lot of time designing her necklace so that she stands out from the rest of the camels." Taking out photograph albums of his family with the camels, he added: "My family is my biggest support, and they love the camels as much as I do." Camels, which can live for up to 35 years, have been popular for sporting and trading purposes in the Gulf countries for hundreds of years. The attention lavished on them makes sense in light of the money involved. A good one can cost up to Dh10 million (US$2.7m). The upkeep of a racing camel costs about Dh2,500 a year, and of a beauty about Dh1,500. Camel beauty comes in many forms, according to Sheikh Diab, and the judging criteria vary with colour and breed. For example, a white camel wins points for bent ears while straighter ears are preferred in the black animals. "The judges see how straight the ears are, how big the lips are, and the state of the coat and how the camel looks overall. "No two camels are the same, and even their milk varies from sweet to salty to sour," he said. Sheikh Diab was preparing for his end-of-season camel race meeting in Qatar this week. Explaining that camels must be transported by land as aircraft make them nervous, he said: "A lot of planning goes into a race, and the psyche of a camel is as important as its physical fitness." As he spoke he approached his champion, Al Yafal ("springs into action"), a nine-year-old female which has already won him two cars. The camel, distressed following a veterinary procedure in which a hot iron rod had been used to cauterise torn muscle, grumbled and nudged him away. Its sister, Bint Jbeil - an embryo transfer camel named after the southern Lebanese town that withstood the Israeli onslaught in 2006 - wandered over, apparently to offer comfort. "Tearing is the biggest problem for a racing camel," said the sheikh. Meanwhile, jockey technology is coming on apace. With the banning of child jockeys over the past four years, the industry has been experimenting with robot riders that weigh a maximum of 3kg but wield a formidable remote-controlled whip. "They fear the whip, and speed up immediately if we turn it on even once," Sheikh Diab said. To demonstrate, he had a robot jockey mounted on a camel, turned the dial on his walkie-talkie controller to position two and spoke to the animal, which responded to his tone. Then, with the dial turned to position one, he was able to control the whip by varying the volume and intensity of his voice. "They hate this part," he said as the camel sprang forward with just one twirl of the whipping arm, which was an adapted drill. "We use the lowest voltage of the drill, as we don't want to hurt our camels." Sheikh Diab expressed his support for the banning of child jockeys: "There were people who were mistreating them, and so it was best to just ban it and come up with a new, more innovative jockey." Originally, Sheikh Diab made his robotic jockeys himself from toy car engines and drills. They worked well, and now his staff do it for him. The robots also provide an opportunity for the different camel racers to be creative. Sheikh Diab's jockey was built to look like a small boy, with a little cap sewn in, decked up in his team colours of purple and white - purple because of the Al Ain football team, for which he once played. Besides needing regular exercise and feeding with a diet of shrubs and milk, the camels must be checked regularly by a vet. The latest worry over the past year has been an outbreak of brucellosis, traced to camels imported from Sudan, which resulted in the slaughtering of infected animals. "Thankfully, none of my camels caught it," said Sheikh Diab. "But we have to be really careful about the kind of camels that get imported into the country." Sheikh Diab is contemplating a set of new ideas to update the industry, such as introducing night racing and standardising the judging criteria in the beauty contest along similar lines to those in the equestrian world. "We are forced to fatten our camels for the beauty contests as there is a belief that a fat camel is a beautiful camel, but that added weight causes a strain on their knees and bones and lowers the chances of reproduction," he said. "There should be a reassessment of the beauty standards." As for the question of whether the camel racing and breeding will fade with time, Sheikh Diab believes the opposite and said that this ancient tradition in both Emirati and the wider Arabian peninsula culture was growing stronger. "It is a thriving business and the various camel competitions are becoming more and more professional. The camel tradition will last for a very long time." rghazal@thenational.ae
