Alex Hua Tian, 34, is making the final preparations for his fourth Olympic Games at Pinfold Stables near Manchester Airport. Chocs, Chicko, and Stig have all been qualified for the Games, and he finally made the hard decision to choose one as his first choice.
"I'm really, really excited to say that Chocs is my first choice," said the Hangzhou Asian Games champion. "He's a horse that I've been partners with for seven years now since 2017. He is supremely talented. He's probably the best horse I've ever sat on in my life. And if we can keep him fit and healthy between now and Paris, I'm really, really excited. He's the type of horse that, as a rider, you dream to have at Olympic Games."
Hua was the youngest eventing rider to compete at the Olympics when he competed at the Beijing Games in 2008. He missed the London Games but made appearances at both the Rio and Tokyo Games.
"It's a big difference actually because this is my first Olympic Games that is in the Continent of Europe," said Hua. "I'm based in Europe, I compete in Europe. And so normally, before the Olympics, we are quite used to quarantining the horses, all of the paperwork and logistics and health requirements, flying the horses, all of the stress and distraction that brings. And this time it's quite different. We're just driving the horses across to Paris, which is something we do a lot all the time."
"I think this is in some ways much easier, the logistics is less of a distraction, and we can really concentrate on the preparation and the performance," he said.
Meanwhile, Hua felt that it's his first Olympics where his sport is really feeling at home. "The French are really strong, very passionate equestrians and also very, very passionate about eventing."
"I think the venue will be iconic for being surrounded by all of the history of Versailles. And I think the audience will be very, very educated and very passionate about equestrians. So that's something I'm really looking forward to too," he added.
Hua admitted that as a soon-to-be four-time Olympian, he started to feel that he'd like to be quite competitive. "But then you have to manage your own expectations. You're dealing with horses, so you can't have everything your own way most of the time."
Xinhua
