We are delighted to be welcoming Al Shira’aa to Bolesworth as the title sponsor of the Al Shira’aa Bolesworth Young Horse Championships for the third consecutive year. With such an interesting story and a lot of incredible horses, we wanted to share a little bit more about this global operation, and also encourage you to keep an eye out for the 29 horses from Al Shira’aa competing at Bolesworth over the next few days.
Al Shira’aa has bases all over the world. The main headquarters is in Abu Dhabi where there are around 60 stables, but there’s an additional base in Sharjah where a lot of the training and coaching happens. In the UK, Surrey in the South of England is home to Al Shira’aa’s UK base that focuses on breeding and the pre training of young horses for the future, from foals and brood mares all the way through to Grand Prix horses and stallions. From a showjumping point of view, there’s one further facility over in Munster, Germany, that provides the team with a great base for European shows and also allows training to happen at the stunning venue.
Al Shira’aa was founded by Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to support horsemanship across all disciplines. In addition to showjumpers, Sheikha is passionate about Arabian Showing and has a facility in Majorca for this, and also breeds flat racehorses in Ireland. These horses then race in France and America.
“One of the reasons Al Shira’aa works with, competes at, and sponsors Bolesworth is because Sheikha and Nina share so many similar traits and share a vision for horse sport, young horses and breeding in the UK,” said Sami Kettle from Al Shira’aa. “They’re both independent, business like and driven women who want to promote the sport. It’s a partnership we really enjoy. Al Shira’aa don’t do things by halves, and neither does Bolesworth, so it’s a great match and we’re delighted to be sponsoring our third consecutive Young Horse Championships in 2022.”
As the Al Shira’aa team competes at Bolesworth’s shows too, the riders experience Bolesworth as competitors as well. “The facilities are just incredible here,” said Sami. “The footing and the stabling is fantastic and we find the Bolesworth team are flexible and accommodating, which we really appreciate.”
Al Shira’aa’s team have also enjoyed many successes across the years on Bolesworth turf, whether at previous Young Horse Championships or the Dodson & Horrell Bolesworth International Horse Show. One of Al Shira’aa’s stallions and notable showjumper, Chacco Bay, won the Al Shira’aa Bolesworth Young Horse 6yo Championship in 2020 with William Funnell.
“One of our 5yo homebreds, SS Minilita, the half brother to Bolesworth 2020 best British Bred SS Pegasus, is competing at this year’s Al Shira’aa Bolesworth Young Horse Championships,” said Sami. “Sheikha bred her herself. We’re all very excited to see how she does and to see the fruits of the breeding programme we have here and across the world really starting to come through. She has black type breeding on both her sire and dam side and we have high hopes for her. Sheikha will be watching on the livestream as seeing her young horses compete in really important to her. Her goal is to breed a champion and to put the British bred horses firmly on the map and seen in the same light as other great stud books across the world.”
To find out more about Al Shira’aa, see the website https://www.alshiraastables.com/