Riding the Olympic Wave

Imtiaz Anees is a rare breed. Like the many mighty stallions he has ridden over the years. He is also a lion-hearted man. Guts and glory go hand in hand. Determined, even stubborn he achieved the goal he set for himself when he was a young lad. He became an Olympian!

- Farzana Contractor

He has made India proud. Really proud. At age 30 he etched his name into Indian sporting history by being the first Indian equestrian to complete a three-day event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. No mean task. The event included dressage, cross-country and show jumping. Two decades later he still held the record.

Now, 25 years on, he is making kids do exactly what he did as a toddler; training. And teaching them to dream big, work hard, become top riders. All this at Seahorse Equestrian Training Academy, his very own riding school at the picturesque seaside village of Nargol in Gujarat. Seahorse is actually a charming estate with a beautiful garden, family-owned, built brick by brick and petal by petal, by his talented mum, Rashida Anees, a strong independent woman in her own right, who stood behind her son all through his riding career.

Imtiaz’s love affair with horses started when he was just three years old. When he would accompany his maternal granddad and his mum, both excellent riders, every evening to the race course in Bombay where he would pet the horses and sometimes be hoisted upon one and taken around the ring. By the time he was four he was already taking riding lessons with the legendary Jimmy Bharucha. By six he was winning competitions, (‘Six year old Imtiaz steals the show’ was the headline of a newspaper). At 11, he was a jockey; at his first amateur flat race, riding his beloved Rajesh, a grey stallion, flying past the finishing line, even as all four grandparents, mother and father sat watching him with their hearts in their mouths! “I will never forget that day,” says the Olympian, “I just sat holding the reins tight — I was like a fly on his back!”