Equestrian.Com.My’s Peter Abisheganaden and Natasha Mustapha caught up with Syed Omar Almohdzar. This affable young man has concentrated on jumping since graduating from university in England. He’s been placed in 1.60 m Grand Prix in Europe and performed best of the Malaysians with a 4 fault round at the CSIO*****KL Grand Prix in October.

Equestrian.Com.My (ECM): What are your plans now? What goals have you set for yourself?

Syed Omar Almohdzar (SOA): My short term goals for the rest of 2003 are to ride well at the next few CSI***** shows that I am entered in, which are Stuttgart (19 – 23 Nov), Munich (28 Nov – 1 Dec) in Germany and Olympia (18 – 22 Dec) in Great Britain. I aim for a top 5 finish each time I ride in such a Grand Prix.

My longer term goals are to break into the top 100 of the FEI World Rankings in 2004 and to qualify in 2005 for the 2006 World Equestrian Games. To do any of this I need more horsepower, and for that I need more sponsors. So I shall be actively seeking sponsorship as well as part of my objectives.

ECM: What horses do you have now?

SOA: I have Maloubet, which I rode at the CSI***** KL Grand Prix. He’s a 14 year old Belgian warmblood gelding by Skippy II.

Malibero is a 9 year old, KWPN (Dutch) mare by Libero H. Then I still have O’Canthus, who I brought along in Malaysia till 2002. He’s now nine years old. He’s a Holstein stallion by Canthus.

ECM: Where are they?

SOA: I am based in Brussels, Belgium. All my horses are with me at Marc van Dycke’s stables.

ECM: Is that who you train with, and how closely do you work with him?

SOA: Yes, I train with Marc van Dycke. I work very closely with him. It’s personal training really. He watches me everyday as I ride or we ride together. Marc has jumped for the Belgian team for years and years. He’s in his 40’s and is very, very experienced. I’m very happy there.

ECM: There was some concern about your best horse, Maloubet at the KL Grand Prix. How is Maloubet now?

SOA: He’s resting now. It was quite a traumatic trip for him to KL and back. Both his stifles were injured but because it was the KL Grand Prix I just had to try him. In other circumstances I would have rested him. He’ll have a break now then the plan is as I said earlier, Stuttgart, Munich and Olympia.

ECM: There is a bit of “history” to Maloubet. Tell us about it.

SOA:He was sold to the U.S., for under USD$ 1 million. I know he was USD 1 million in a Dutch magazine. He went to Hap Hansen in America, he is one the best riders there. He was there for two years. For the first few months it was going really well, then apparently the horse started stopping and crashing so he was sent back to Europe to be sold.

Qabil was also looking for a horse for Aachen and had a look at Maloubet and decided not to try him. I was under pressure and he didn’t cost crazy money because of what he was doing, so I tried him and he was good enough for me. We purchased him right away.

ECM: Can you tell us how much he cost?

SOA: Actually … no, I’d rather not. There was an element of luck especially for a purchase that was done so quickly.

So I bought Maloubet in early May 2003, just 6 weeks before the Olympic qualifier at Aachen. I only tried him twice before deciding to buy him. Once in the ring then in a full course at home, which wasn’t ideal. Normally you should take them to outside shows but I didn’t have the time.

To prepare for Aachen, I trained on him for a week then went to a CSI-B show at Moorsele (BEL), qualified for the Grand Prix and jumped it with just 2 rails down. I was pretty pleased.

We had another week’s training with Marc to correct everything I was doing wrong. Then we went to CSI-A at Eindhoven to jump the 1.50 m classes. It wasn’t so good on the first day. I was 10th in the 1.50 m class on the 2nd and on the final day we finished 5th in the 1.60 m Grand Prix. That was one of my sweetest moments ever. After that we had a week on the flat, just before Aachen.

ECM: What happened at the Aachen Olympic Games qualifier?

SOA: He was really really sore then because we jumped a lot. At Aachen we had to jump three days, the first and second day he jumped clear in the warm-up classes. In the third day we had two rounds.

In the first round of the qualifier, it was so easy we went clear but with just 1 time fault because I went a bit far to the triple combination where a lot of people were getting eliminated there. Happy enough that he jumped it like nothing. In the second round we jumped round and to the fourth fence, I was thinking too much of the time faults, and I came a bit too sharp to the combination, at a slight angle. Maloubet slipped a little behind and since it was a combination he couldn’t jump the second element. He had a stop and I fell off. So I had one refusal and a fall. I remounted as we are allowed to do that in these Olympic qualifiers. But the rhythm was broken. We had two more fences down and a lot of time faults. We finished on 42 faults.

It was a real mess but worth the shot, one month before and never having jumped a Grand Prix in my life.

ECM: After Aachen, where there any other great results we should mention?

SOA: After Aachen, we were inactive for a while because Maloubet was very sore so we rested him for a month. I was supposed to go home but I didn’t, then I received an invitation for the CSIO Lummen (BEL). We jumped the Grand Prix and had 1 down with 1 time fault so 5 faults. We finished 13th out of 80. It was a really really tough Grand Prix. It was so huge I couldn’t believe it.

I was fourth in and the three before me were eliminated so I thought I was going to die then. But Maloubet was just fantastic, he jumped and jumped and we had a silly fence down, not even part of a related line. It was a fence by itself. You should have seen the water, you couldn’t even see the end of it, it was over 4 meters but he jumped it easily. Everyone else was jumping into it.

He has all the scope in the world, the only problem with him is that he is cold so you need a lot of legs with him. We have to work hard together and then he would want to do it for you.

ECM: Will you be looking for more horses?

SOA:Yes, as soon as some sponsorship comes through. I am looking for sponsorship. Approaches have been made to a select few Malaysian multi-national companies. They are international type companies that have businesses in Europe as well as Malaysia.

ECM: How do you cope financially? Thru your family or sponsors?

SOA:I have one current sponsor but I am not to disclose who they are. That’s part of the agreement. They have done tremendous things for my riding career because they support all my expenses there. I am especially very thankful for them. I really couldn’t ask more from them so I’m looking for other sponsors to help me out. Of course my family have supported me. In fact we own the horses ourselves. I cannot do it on sponsorship alone.

For what I’m doing now the sponsorship is just enough but if I want to do better next year I need more. The only obstacle now is the horsepower, I need to buy more top class horses.

ECM: What kind of money are you looking for?

SOA: Its difficult to say. A top class grand prix horse that’s doing the biggest classes already would at least cost €200,000. Can’t be too old and [must be] sound enough to do the job.

ECM: Will any of your siblings be joining you in training overseas?

SOA: Syed Mohsin just graduated from University of Warwick. If we can find him a little funding then he’ll come to train with me at Marc van Dycke’s stables and if we have enough horses for him to ride, the experience will be invaluable. We are also trying to find him a job and he has a super degree in Computer Systems and Engineering, a double degree.

Syed Zain has two more years to go at the University of Nottingham. Our parents have been really very supportive. My father has invested a lot in our education. We are allowed to do whatever we choose, once we graduate even if it’s out of line to our degrees. As long as we have done what he wants (finishing our education) we are then free to do what we want.

Syed Farouk is busy working in London. He is very very successful, working in event management at Marcus Evan’s Event Management. They organise the F1 Grand Prix in Canada and were also part of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix. He’s not riding at this time but I do have hopes for him for the Doha Games (2006) as a dressage rider, not showjumping. My sisters have exams at the moment but they will both be starting (riding) again.

ECM: You had graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in economics. What did you actually do?

SOA: I’ve graduated from University of Birmingham with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.

I did some riding at the same time that was when I had a fall. I was riding with Nick Skelton at that time. Before that I was with Robert Smith’s for one year, riding his young horses. That was really tough for me; I didn’t have a car and didn’t know how to get around in England because it was my first year. I took a bus to get a train then I had to take a taxi to the stables just to ride two horses everyday, carrying my boots and everything wherever I go. So it was one year at Robert Smith’s then it was one year with Nick Skelton.

Before the Asian Games I rode with Freddie Welch so that was in my final year of university. Freddie Welch trained Peter Charles, Nick Skelton, all the top guys. He is a well-known dealer in Great Britain.

ECM: What’s the hardest part of being based in Europe?

SOA: My only obstacle is the food. Besides that I have no complaints about being there. I like the hectic lifestyle, being on the road, traveling and looking at horses.. it’s a buzz for me. It’s a dream come true.

ECM: Who is your best motivator? Or has influenced you the most in your life?

SOA: My family. They and especially my father has been super supportive. When it comes to motivation though, I am my own best motivator.

ECM: Which international riders do you admire and why?

SOA: I admire Ludger Beerbaum because he is such a winner, and I think he is a real horseman. Another rider is Marcus Ehning because he is so correct on a horse. Equitation wise he is so correct from start to finish.

ECM: And which horses would you like to have should you ever get the chance? If money was no obstacle?

SOA: [Laughs] Well, Baloubet du Rouet, Goldfever, and For Pleasure. This is the horse with the biggest scope in the world.

ECM:What advice would you give to other Malaysian riders who might want to compete internationally? Especially our young riders?

SOA:Work very very very hard and never complain. Always have an open mind and try to give it your very best every single time you are on a horse even when you are hacking, be serious about it. That’s the only way.

Personal facts;

Full name:	Syed Omar Almohdzar
Age:	24
Birthdate:	14 April 1979
Schools:	SM Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Millfield School (UK), Birmingham University (UK).
Favourite past-time:	Fishing, any kind.
Favourite makan:	Nasi Lemak
Favourite drink:	Juices
Favourite music:	R & B
Girlfriend:	No Time!