DUBAI // Donna Bellissima stands and swiftly spins in a perfect pirouette.
But she is not a ballerina. She is a horse, directed to perform some of the toughest equestrian gymnastics by her expert rider, Farah al Khojai.
Mrs al Khojai, 30, a mother of two, has been riding since she was five. She is the only Emirati rider in dressage who will compete at the Asia Games in November.
In such competitions, horse and rider perform tests inside a white rectangle and are scored on a scale from one to 10, except for the pirouette, which is measured on a 20-point scale.
"When I'm inside the rectangle, the whole world is shut off from my mind. Dressage is not something that you can learn through a textbook; it's about the genuine harmony between horse and rider," Mrs al Khojai said.
"When I turned 15, I gave [dressage] up, because there was not much prospect in the UAE then," she added. "Unless you did show jumping, which I don't do, you got nowhere."
But six years ago, she said, she could not stay away from her passion any longer.
"I had just come back from studying at the School of Economics and Political Sciences in London, was married by that time and I took my son to ride a pony, and it all came back to me," she said.
She said she received a lot of support from Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, the wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, when she returned to the sport, and last year qualified for the Asian Games.
Mrs al Khojai started and runs her own business, Arab Land Trading - The Middle East Pet Care Company.
But "for the next months, my priority will be the Asian Games", she said. "I know I'll be making tremendous sacrifices with regards to my family and business, but I've been preparing for this for the past six years, and the time has come.
"So far, I've been dividing my time really well: I wake up early in the morning and go to Bab al Shams resort to rehearse for an hour, then I go to the office. I usually leave by three because it is a family business, so my husband takes over, and then I go home to spend time with my children."
Next week she travels to Germany to begin extensive training.
"When I'm in Germany, I train from 7am until 3pm," she said.
She says her major concern ahead of the games is finding a sponsor.
"Since I'm the only one representing the UAE, I need a lot of support," she said. "I need a crew, help in training and someone to cover the expenses of transferring my horse. If I find a sponsor, I'm sure that will help a lot in keeping up my level during the competition."
@Email:hdajani@thenational.ae
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The biog
Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India
Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The cost of Covid testing around the world
Egypt
Dh514 for citizens; Dh865 for tourists
Information can be found through VFS Global.
Jordan
Dh212
Centres include the Speciality Hospital, which now offers drive-through testing.
Cambodia
Dh478
Travel tests are managed by the Ministry of Health and National Institute of Public Health.
Zanzibar
AED 295
Zanzibar Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, located within the Lumumba Secondary School compound.
Abu Dhabi
Dh85
Abu Dhabi’s Seha has test centres throughout the UAE.
UK
From Dh400
Heathrow Airport now offers drive through and clinic-based testing, starting from Dh400 and up to Dh500 for the PCR test.