At a green oasis in the desert outside Riyadh, a dazzling array of Arabian horses with colors ranging from dark gray, coffee bean black and warm honey have competed all week in an extravaganza designed to celebrate Arabian horses. The second Al-Khalediah Arabian Horse Festival features a beauty show, races and an auction. The popular animal is intrinsic to this region's culture. The event, which began last Sunday and ended Friday, was hosted by Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, the son of Crown Prince Sultan, at his Al-Khalediah Farm which has more than 900 Arabian horses. More than 400 horses from 18 countries took part in this year's festival. “This is one of the biggest such gatherings in the world,” Prince Khaled said of the festival. Prince Khaled, who is also Deputy Minister of Defense and Aviation, has for the past two decades been buying Arabians from the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, and bringing them to the land where many Saudis believe the horses belong. The prince regularly competes in international and smaller competitions and has won scores of prizes: 22 championships in 2006, 26 in 2007 and 36 in 2008. In December 2007, his Layan Al-Khalediah won the title World Champion Filly at the Salon du Cheval World Arabian Championships in Paris, becoming the first horse bred in the Kingdom to win an international prize. The event in Saudi Arabia was an opportunity for him to showcase his own horses, housed in stables at Al-Khalediah. The prince's sprawling, 1,680 hectares (4,200 acre) farm on the edge of Tebrak, 70 miles (110 km) west of Riyadh, includes an equine hospital and a wildlife reserve. Prince Khaled sold 32 of his horses at an auction held Sunday that fetched SR5.2 million ($1.4 million). A Saudi businessman paid SR3 million ($800,000) for one of the horses – a white-gray mare called Anasta Nile Pearl. “The festival is extremely professional. It's a wonderful addition to the international horse community,” said Scott Benjamin, a Canadian animal scientist and one of the judges. “The quality of the horses is world class.”
