Watch as UAE’s female royalty smash the stereotypes many people hold about women in the Middle East…

The UAE’s royals are keen equestrian fans – and many of them are world class athletes in the field too. A new video showing the daughters of the ruler of Dubai helping out with a ‘horse surfing’ project on a beach near the Burj Al Arab proves just that.

Contrary to many stereotypes about Middle Eastern princesses, the video shows the daughters of the ruler of Dubai H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum getting amongst it and helping out as horses propel surfers along the water, just like a boat would with wakeboarding…

While we can’t see the royals riding the horses that are pulling the surfers in any of the videos, we can see Sheikh Mohammed’s daughters Sheikha Maryam and Sheikha Maitha (pictured above left) riding the horses through the sea, as well as his niece (Sheikha Fatima’s daughter) Sheikha Latifa.

In fact, Sheikh Maitha is the founder of Z7, the horse riding club that pulled this whole feat off. The Taekwando star was the first Emirati woman to bear the UAE flag at the Olympics (Beijing in 2008), and she also brought women’s polo to the Middle East for the first time in 2013.

“When we look at sport we hope to see the athletes as athletes not gender, and to see the talent and hopefully respect it as a sport, rather than say it’s women and men,” Sheikha Maitha told Sport 360 at the time.

Here are the videos shared by H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh Mohammed’s sister (click to play):

 

 

Here’s another view of the horsey feat:

A post shared by Team Z7 (@teamz7) on

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