The original 4x4

• Last Updated: October 24. 2009 9:08PM UAE / October 24. 2009 5:08PM GMT

The relationship between man and horse began in this part of the world. The horse-driven chariots of the Hyksos flummoxed and conquered the Egyptians until they worked out how to use them for themselves. Sumerian etchings of horses pulling war wagons are some of the first of man harnessing the majesty and power of the beasts.

And as we report today, in Ras al Khaimah’s Al Awafi desert, on the edge of the Hagar Mountains, horse mounted police still patrol. “Their weapon is their silence,” Lt Col Khaled Hamad al Merri says. The rugged terrain on the eastern edge of Ras al Khaimah has been popular with smugglers who believe the police won’t find them there. The horses are “our eyes in the desert and the villages where sometimes people take liberties when they think no one is watching”, Col al Merri says.

As much as mankind has advanced in the six millennia since horses were first tamed, there are still untamed corners of the world and of this country where only the horse can take us. No, these horses aren’t just for show; their combination of grace, simplicity and effectiveness is something we should all aspire to.