Usually, crowds don’t cheer much for riders when they’re not doing their best, and not challenging for the lead. But even though he’s not going home with any prizes, Syed Omar Abu Bakar Almohdzar has received the most enthusiastic crowd reception of any other rider in the FEI Show Jumping World Cup Final.
Why? Because he’s from Malaysia, and carries not only his own hopes and expectations on his shoulders, but also the faith and hopes of a nation of fans. Malaysians are thrilled to have Kuala Lumpur chosen as the site of the 2006 World Cup Finals, and they’re even more over the moon about Almohdzar qualifying to compete. He’s been interviewed more times than he can count, photographed more than he cares to think about, and asked for autographs more than he ever thought possible.
Almohdzar is a realist—he claims his goal going into the Final was to secure a placing in the top 15. He had the misfortune to draw first in the order on the first day of the Final, but put in a sold round in the speed leg, with just two rails. But his World Cup Bid fell apart on day two. His horse, Lui, didn’t want to play, and Almohdzar ended the course with 29 faults for seven rails and a time fault.
“He was very tired and not trying hard at all,” Almohdzar said. “I was hearing all the rails fall, and thinking I might retire, but then I thought that would be worse for the crowd, so I just kept going.”
With his World Cup dreams dashed, Almohdzar took on the $49,700 KL Grand Prix tonight, Apr. 29. There was no doubt the crowd wanted him to win, as they cheered him on vociferously throughout the course. But Lui just barely touched a toe to the front rail of the very last oxer, toppling it. The fans’ hearts broke, but Almohdzar didn’t quite know what happened right away.
“When I finished, I was sure I was clear. He’d jumped so well, and the crowd was so loud, I didn’t hear the rail fall. But as I was pulling up, I saw the looks on the faces of my friends at the in-gate, and realized what happened,” he said.
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It was a crushing defeat, but Almohdzar considers his time competing in his first World Cup Final, in his home country, to have been the experience of a lifetime. “It was very, very exciting. It was an amazing feeling to ride into the ring and hear the crowd cheering. It was nice to be recognized,” he said. “Everywhere else, I go in the ring and there’s absolute silence, and they’re just wondering if I’m going to crash,” he added with a wry smile. Almohdzar is a charming individual, with a quick wit and a wonderful air of self-possession.
The “everywhere else” Almohdzar has been competing has been in Europe. He grew up in Malaysia and started riding as a teenager, but he characterized it as just “hobby riding.” But when an ankle injury halted his athletic pursuits in soccer, he took the reins up with a new passion. In 1998, he represented Malaysia on their dressage team for the Bangkok Asian Games, earning a team silver. He then devoted himself to show jumping, and took team bronze at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.
In 2003, after he graduated from Birmingham University in England with a degree in economics, Almohdzar decided to devote himself to show jumping full-time. He moved to Belgium for a year, and then in 2004 moved to Germany to train with Ludger Beerbaum. After six months there, he set out on his own, and is now based in Belgium, with a string of nine horses.
Lui is the star of his string, but the 12-year-old Bavarian-bred isn’t a made schoolmaster. Almohdzar found him a year ago in a farmer’s yard, a green horse with little showing experience. He and Lui progressed up the levels quickly, however. “He’s a wonderful horse, and in a year, he’s going to be even better,” Almohdzar said. The World Cup Final was actually only Lui’s third indoor show. “He wasn’t exactly in his best form, and I haven’t been riding at the top level for very long, so we had a big mountain to climb.”
Regardless of his challenges, Almohdzar seems to have all the talent and style to go all the way and become recognized even out of Malaysia. Some of the riders from more remote World Cup leagues sometimes look very over their head at the Final, but not so with Almohdzar. Although Lui got careless, their rounds weren’t unorganized, and Almohdzar rides with grace, precision, and quiet confidence.
Almohdzar enjoyed riding in front of his home crowd, but there was a downside. “If I didn’t do well in Europe, no one really knew about it. But here, I’m not doing well and I’m in all the papers and everyone knows,” he said. But he handled the pressure with aplomb. Since he’s qualified to compete for Malaysia in the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, this summer, that experience on the world stage will come in handy. Watch for him.
