Races, which were performed on festive social occasions and celebrated by the local community, included religious feasts, celebrating rainfall, weddings, circumcision, and perhaps the occasional visit of a prominent tribal shaikh. During such festive occasions people displayed their colourful rugs and cloths on tent ropes. These races were basically an ardha, a show, which ran across 300-500 m. One or two men sang loud heroic war songs, and riders exhibited their riding skills while brandishing their swords or old rifles, or stood holding hands while two or three camels ran parallel to each other. When tribesmen visited the villages or camps of their kinsmen during religious Eids, feasts, they usually performed a shortardha race on their mounts before coming in the tent to greet the people and share coffee and dates with them. In the races of festive celebrations there were occasional individual competitions for sport, but the winners received no prizes. Sometimes, however, in wedding celebrations the first, or occasionally the first three winning camels got prizes from the family of the groom. Prizes in those days were small symbolic statements, basically shara (sign) or namous (recognition), represented materially in a dagger, head cloth, or other items of clothing.
In competition races riders were usually arranged for the race a day ahead of time, and the evening before the race they agreed on the starting point. A shara (prize) was usually declared ahead of time. Such competitions were usually arranged as a resu1t of a challenge (wahna) among camel owners, or it could have been triggered by a visit of a leading shaikh who put forward a prize for the race. Sometimes competing riders went and spent the night at the starting point. Each would guard his mount carefully throughout the night to prevent foul play from other competitors. The race usually started early in the morning. Racing distances were relatively short, extending between 3 to 4 km. Unlike today, camels sat down at the starting line, and upon hearing a short cry, they rose up and ran. The owner of a particularly fast camel was usually asked not to participate. Instead he was given a sadda (compensation) in order to give a reasonable chance to other competing camels and to make the race more unpredictable and exciting. Rules governing age categories of competing camels and the ages and weights of riders were almost nonexistent. As recently as the early 1970s, race camels were ridden by their owners, usually the nimble youngsters in the family.
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