Indian equestrian Fouaad Mirza is yet to decide which one of his two horses will accompany him to the Tokyo Games and said he will pick the one carrying the best form leading up to the time of submitting the entry later this month.
Mirza has time till end of this month to choose between the experienced gelding Seigneur Medicott and the spirited young mare Dajara 4 with whom he had finished second and third respectively to meet his Minimum Eligibility Requirement in the CCI 4*— Long Eventing competition.
“At the moment, I’ve not decided. I’ll leave it late till the time of submitting entry at the end of June. Both are carrying very good form and it’s quite difficult to choose at this stage,” Mirza said.
Mirza, who is currently training in Bergedorf, a village in north-west Germany, is only the third Indian equestrian to secure an individual spot in Eventing at the Olympic Games.
“It would be solely on the horse’s form. I would choose the one carrying the best form leading up to the time of submitting entry,” Mirza, a double Asian Games Silver medalist, said.
It would be a sweet selection headache for Mirza who had ended India’s 36-year-old medal drought at the Asian Games by winning a Silver medal at Jakarta 2018 astride Medicott who later sustained an injury.
“Initially they (vets) were very doubtful about Medicott recovery but he is a fighter and we managed to get him back to good form. He’s in good shape,” Mirza said.
Talking about the young mare Dajara who is five years younger to Medicott, Mirza said: “She’s slightly less experienced but she has far more potential. She’s a real, real exciting horse for the future.
“These two horses are very different from the two that helped India get the slot in 2019. Having said that, they are the two better horses that I’ve.”
For the Olympics, an equestrian can qualify more than one horse but for competition the rider has to choose one.