My work is my passion, and my lifestyle.
When I left school at age 16, in 1987, I had no qualifications. I never really thought about money or having a job to guarantee me a good salary. It was the opposite: horses were my passion, what I wanted for my life.
I was born in Biarritz, in south-western France, and started riding when I was seven or eight. I'm now 38. I don't know where my love of horses came from. No one else in my family rode.
I now work as the senior riding instructor at the Royal Stables in Abu Dhabi, and I manage all the horses there. We have about 100 altogether, including 40 liveried horses that we stable, feed, groom and take care of for a monthly fee.
My father died in a car accident when I was seven, leaving just my mother and me. He had taken out insurance through his work, so we received an income every month until I turned 18. My mother put the money into a savings account for me. It was with this money that I was able to go to riding school near Paris at 16 and pay the monthly fees of about Dh840.
There I learnt everything about horses: grooming, riding, and basic equestrian medicine.
After my studies, I found a job working for a grand prix show jumper, Brice Pozzoli. Mr Pozzoli was famous in France at the time and had won many national competitions.
I was paid ?300 (Dh1,665) a month, and was given room and board in Mr Pozzoli's house. The money was not very much, but it was just pocket change really, as everything else was paid for. I have never had to pay rent or electricity bills, and only a small amount of tax.
I learnt a lot from grooming for Mr Pozzoli and going with him to competitions. He was a very kind employer, and if there was an event at my level at any of the competitions we attended he would load another horse on our truck and pay for me to enter. It wasn't a lot of money, but he didn't have to do it.
We competed nationally and in Europe. After Mr Pozzoli I worked for a year with another famous show jumper, Fabrice Dumartin. He had a huge stable and paid me about Dh4,200 a month. The job was similar to the one I had with Mr Pozzoli.
I've never been very extravagant with money. Weekends I would be competing; otherwise I would be up early, working outside and working hard. When the weekend came, I just wanted to go out for a drink with a friend. I didn't really have opportunities to spend money, so I could save.
Competing was fun, but quite lonely, so I became more interested in teaching.
In 1992, my boyfriend at the time asked me to help him run his father's stables and riding school - which was my first school, in Solers, near Paris. We were very busy. We were teaching and managing the horses and running a livery service, as well as competing in showjumping competitions and three-day events. In addition to the stables, we had a bed and breakfast business, for which I did the cooking, hired out rooms for weddings and held summer camps for children.
I was very involved in the finances of the business, and it was very important to me to be financially independent. Although we were running the business together, I made sure I had a salary.
We didn't enter competitions to win lots of prize money; we did it for fun, and it was a good advertisement for the stables and a great opportunity to sell horses: you would show them competing and then sell them to people who saw them.
Depending on the quality of the horse, the ones we sold cost anywhere from Dh8,400 to Dh84,000. The prize money was not very much, but as long as we could cover our food, petrol, feed for the horses and hotel stays, we were quite happy.
It was a tough decision, but when I was 26 I decided to move on and see the world. I was fortunate to be selected to attend the Haras du Pin, the biggest and oldest stud farm in Normandy. It's a prestigious farrier and riding school, and I rode and broke in young horses.
Approximately seven students are admitted to the school each year, and I was paid a small stipend of about Dh3,000, which was enough because I was given room and board at the school.
I had two horses in Solers. I didn't sell them when I moved to Normandy, partly because I didn't need the money. I decided to take the mare with me; I couldn't keep her where I worked in Normandy, but she was happy in a big field near Mont St Michel, about a two-hour drive from Haras du Pin.
When I moved to Abu Dhabi, in October 1998, I gave her to a friend of mine. She is still with her.
I remember all of my horses - their faces, their names, what it felt like to ride them. A few of them I spent time with are difficult to forget, just as some people are.
While in Normandy, I started investing from time to time in a plan d'epargne logement, a savings scheme intended for people who want to buy a house.
It was a fixed-term deposit of about seven or eight years and the interest rate was good, around 4-5 per cent. After the term you could use the savings for a house deposit, or anything you wanted, really. I didn't save a fixed percentage a month, I just paid into it whenever I could.
It was probably my mother who influenced me to invest in the plan; she was always saying, "Money is important in life. Do this just in case, then you have something to rely on."
At the end of the year in Normandy, a friend called me and said they had received a fax at their stables advertising a job in Abu Dhabi.
At the time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and I thought, "why not?". I had no idea where Abu Dhabi was, but I knew it was quite sunny, and I was fed up with the rain in Normandy. So I sent in my CV.
The job was to teach Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa's children how to ride and train endurance horses at the Al Asayl stables.
I've been very lucky in my life - my mother says I have a lucky star. It turned out that the Sheikh had a stud farm in Normandy, just five minutes from where I worked, so I met with the manager there and soon thereafter accepted the position. The job started three weeks later. I thought I would work in Abu Dhabi for a year, but that was 11 years ago.
My monthly salary started at Dh6,500, but everything else was included, so I started to save more money for my future. The exchange rate at the time was very good. I don't send anything back to France now because the exchange rate is so bad.
I moved to the Royal Stables in 2002. They were Sheikh Zayed's private stables, and were used mostly for breeding, but about three years ago we opened to the public, brought in new ponies and started a pony club, which teaches children how to ride.
They raised my salary, and it is fine, although it's not a lot compared to some other types of jobs.
I am still riding competitively, but the main thing is that I am doing what I want. I have a salary, but I don't feel as if I am working. If tomorrow I wake up and don't enjoy what I do I will have to think about doing something else.
Someone once said this to me: "If you find a job you like, you'll never work again." I'm very happy. I realise how lucky I am to do what I love.
* As told to Jo Wadham
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Results
Final: Iran beat Spain 6-3.
Play-off 3rd: UAE beat Russia 2-1 (in extra time).
Play-off 5th: Japan beat Egypt 7-2.
Play-off 7th: Italy beat Mexico 3-2.
UFC%20FIGHT%20NIGHT%3A%20SAUDI%20ARABIA%20RESULTS
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
Buy farm-fresh food
The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.
In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others.
In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food.
In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra.
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
'The Batman'
Stars:Robert Pattinson
Director:Matt Reeves
Rating: 5/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
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Company%20Profile
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SRI LANKA SQUAD
Upul Tharanga (captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella
Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana
Chamara Kapugedara, Thisara Perera, Seekuge Prasanna
Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera
Vishwa Fernando, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Fernandes pen 2') Tottenham Hotspur 6 (Ndombele 4', Son 7' & 37' Kane (30' & pen 79, Aurier 51')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
'Nope'
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Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
THE SPECS – Honda CR-V Touring AWD
Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder
Power: 184hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 244Nm at 3,900rpm
Transmission: Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT)
0-100kmh in 9.4 seconds
Top speed: 202kmh
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
Price: From Dh122,900
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
