Crashing Horses & Riding Waves
Local rider leading his horse out of the water.
Fantasia is a traditional cultural equestrian show in Morocco used during cultural festivals. Its spectacle that stems from the Berber war-times that shows off their strength and ability. The riders, generally around 10-20, line up in a row and accelerate down the field in complete unison. After 200 meters the riders fire ‘old style gun powdered’ rifles. The aim is to act as one. That is, to ride at the same speed and fire at the exact same time.
During the month of July over 200 horses and their crews gathered at the small town of Dar Bouazza, about 20 km south of Casablanca. Coincidentally the same town where I surf. In the mornings when I would drive through the town I would see the crews lead their horses into the waves to wash them. These boys grow up with these horses. Dar Bouazza transformed from a sleepy town to circus over run by kids riding bareback all hours of the day. I decided to skip surfing one morning and shoot pictures of the crews with their horses in the waves.
These kids were fearless on these horses. It was impressive to watch them manage these horses as they bucked and charged through the waves.
To tame the horses they would turn the horses and back them up through the waves.
La Bobine in Dar Bouazza
desert night riding – Giza, Egypt
View from Pizza Hut
After a successful Operation Smile medical mission in Cairo, Megan Moran, the country manager, arranged a night horseback ride in the Giza desert. It was truly an incredible experience. Many of the team’s medical volunteers decided to join and chose to ride camels. Not sure if any of you have ridden camels, but once you do you’ll probably not do it again. Especially when you have the choice.
As we all started in caravan, a few of us got antsy and couldn’t wait. As soon as we strutted out of town we kicked our horses and started racing. It was a perfect open night with an almost full moon, the Great Pyramids to our side and nothing but open desert in the horizon. I had forgotten how much fun it is to race horses. After about an hour we came to a sand dune where we had dinner on our horse blankets. If you ever go to Giza to ride horses, rent them at International Stud. Not only a good name but the owner’s got over 130 quality horses. – GSY
Mohammed the model.
The Great Pyramids in the background
