Harry Garland: British falconer with an Emirati spirit
Meet Harry Garland, a Dubai-based British expat who moved to the city of life in 2015 to pursue a career in Falconry.
Since Falconry is deeply entrenched in UAE heritage, Harry managed to blend in with the Emirati culture with complete ease, amazingly sharing customs and traditions of its people.
Introduced to the sport by his father who works on a Dubai falcon project, Harry's interest in falcons soon became a profession.
Harry explains that the biggest challenge with falcons lies in the nature of communicating with them in the early days, as they do not fully understand what you may want from them. However, after a while, communication becomes easier as the falconer gets to learn the personality of the bird.
When Harry first started training with his young falcon, hunting posed a great challenge as the falcon was not obedient and kind to him at first.
After training his falcon with Houbara dolls for a week, they succeeded in catching the first Houbara in a 1-kilometer hunt.
Wearing the Emirati national dress the “Kandora” to the Falconry Championship in Dubai was important for Harry to fully live the experience. According to Harry, falcons feel much more comfortable when their owner wears the Kandora as they are accustomed to seeing this color instead of seeing different colors of clothes.
Harry continues to practice his passion for falcons, which has become a profession in which he works in many projects between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
He also participates in various falconry competitions in the country, the last of which was in the Sharjah Falconers Championship in December 2019. There he managed to win the title of “Distinguished Falconer” on the first day, and finished ninth in the tournament that involved the participation of 175 falcons.