BENGALURU: Over the last three years, Fouaad Mirza has had a few ups and downs. “Challenges” in his words. As one of India’s most decorated riders he had to face a number of hardships including losing his primary sponsorship on the cusp of qualifying for the Paris Olympics. To keep himself going he had to take on students, re-school difficult horses and train and produce young horses thereby using time which could have been better spent had he been able to compete.
But he was rewarded for his resilience, graft and patience. He welcomed new funding from Surge Stables, while his business associate Finland’s Johanna Pohjonen allowed him to ride two of her horses Mokatoo and Camouflage 38 since he lost the horses of the sponsor. The Asian Games will be his biggest tournament yet
"He has stepped up in a time of need," Mirza tells this daily while talking about his new horse. "It's my business associate's horse. She has given it to me to ride and represent my country. The partnership I have had with Camouflage 38 has been good, going on for three years. Some good results and some not so good. He's only 10. He's shaping up to be quite smart for future Championships."
There was a time when the rider had felt that the moment had come and gone. It was the time when the bills had kept piling up and he was staring into an uncertain future. "To be based out here," the Olympian tells this daily, "looking after horses is so expensive. The travel, shows, transport, maintenance of the horses... a lot of things (how tough is it to continue being a rider without sponsorship?) To have a rider based abroad, it's a lot of expenses involved, especially at the level we are aiming to participate at. Training, equipment, horsepower... When you lose sponsorship, it's always a big concern. I had to teach, give lessons and find other ways to fund this whole thing. Very kind of Raju to step in and help," the double medallist from the 2018 edition in Indonesia says.
10-day pre-quarantine from September 4
As required, Camouflage 38 and the other Indian horses picked for the Asian Games will enter into a mandatory pre-quarantine for about 10 days in Aachen in Germany, the country Mirza has called home for the last many years. That pre-quarantine time will also serve as a kind of auxiliary pre-tournament camp for India's equestrian team. Once that is completed, they will all fly to Japan around September 14.
"It's his first long overseas travel but he takes everything in his stride," the Arjuna Awardee says. "There's a good team around him and plenty of familiar faces around him which should help him. There will be dressage and other team members during the pre-quarantine camp. Once we complete that, we will leave for Japan."
Since the Olympics in Tokyo, when Mirza was lauded by the experts for his routine, he has slowly faded away from the limelight because of external factors. This is now an opportunity to get back into the limelight.
