The discovery of oil was really a great blessing to the gulf. Before this important and great discovery, life
was hard.

I remember the hardest two months I ever faced. It was drought season and I had no job, no money and no food to eat. I heard that Kuwait was offering jobs in the oil fields so I decided to travel there.

I knew that the journey would be very long and dangerous, so I prepared my camel, food, water and my gun, and I said goodbye to my wife and my two sons.

The nights in the desert were dark and quiet – the only sound I heard was mine and my camel’s breathing.

One dark night, I wanted my camel to rest so I got down and walked in front. While I was walking, I fell down into a dry well. All of my bones were broken. It was the most pain I had ever felt – I could not move any part of my body.

I stayed in the well for two days, the longest days in my life. At last I heard voices, so I fired my gun to attract the people's attention.

Traders from Kuwait pulled me out of the well and took me to a doctor there who specialised in fixing bones. I stayed with him for two months while he treated me in a very traditional way, staking wooden sticks to my broken bones and wrapping them in cloth with herbs.

When I was finally home and healthy, I borrowed money from my friend and went on a ship to Iraq. The trip was totally strange, an unbelievable experience for a Bedouin like me who had spent his whole life between the desert sands.

We started a trade in Iraq and sometimes bought Arabian horses to bring here – usually princes and
kings would buy them from us, especially princes of Saudi Arabia.

This was the beginning of my passion for Arabian horses and the beginning of my business. With great thanks to God, I now have many great horse stables, but in the early days life was very difficult.

Abdullah Qahtanii, age 78, as told to his granddaughter Sarah Qahtanii at age 13