Contact Syed Omar

Syed Omar – Riding History

My father introduced horse riding to us as a family hobby. He is a keen horseman and has been riding since he was young. I started riding at the age of 12.

I have always been keen on sports. My biggest passion was football and was even selected for the Junior KL Team at the age of 12. Unfortunately an ankle injury forced me out of a serious football career but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Weekend riding lessons started to turn into daily routines especially since my father purchased cheap ex-race horses for us to ride. With some dedication and persistence I trained these horses to do dressage and showjumping, competing with a lot of success in the lower levels of competition.

My aim was to be one of the top ranking riders in Malaysia. My first break came when I was offered to ride a school horse from the Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Club, and subsequently won the Young Riders title at the age of 17. In the same year, I won the International Samsung Showjumping competition on another riding school horse.

My dressage career started in 1997, when the national dressage coach spotted me competing in one of the smaller dressage events and told me to start training with the national team. My father was able to lease one of Wan Zaleha Radzi’s good dressage horses and my training for the 1998 Asian Games began. I started winning national championships almost immediately, giving a positive boost to my riding career.

The 1998 Asian Games in Thailand proved to be a challenging time for me. Our team’s horses suffered some unexpected injuries while we were in Thailand. We had to reshuffle the three horses we had left, to use the spare horse. I gave up my horse for one of the other team members, Quzandria Nur, and had to ride the spare horse. I had five days to get accustomed to this horse. To make matters more challenging, my horse had an unfortunate injury which put even more pressure on me.

With God’s grace I was able to anchor the team to a historic silver medal. In the process proving to myself that nothing is impossible if I put my mind, heart and soul into it.

After the games, I decided to concentrate on my passion – showjumping. En Razak Latiff was the first owner to let me ride his horse, Gonzo. After only two weeks of working together, we won the Merdeka Grand Prix.

The second big win came when En Azar Ismail offered me one of his son’s horses, Warren. With only 5 days of working together, we won two World Cup events and the Grand Prix at the same competition.

Following those wins, my father decided to invest in a young horse called O’Canthus. This horse has been fantastic, giving me so many wins over the last two years. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the cut for the recent 2001 SEA Games due to quarantine problems. He arrived back from Europe too late and missed out on all the qualifiers.

However we made up for it in the recent 2002 Asian Games in Busan by anchoring the team to a bronze medal despite a bad heel injury. This was the first bronze medal for Malaysia’s showjumping team in Asian Games.

I graduated from University of Birmingham with a B.Sc in economics. Instead of coming back home to a steady job, I have decided to take the plunge and to try to ride on the professional circuit in Europe.

While I was at University I was doing some training with Nick Skelton. Before that I was with Robert Smith’s for one year, riding his young horses. 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. After graduation I decided to base myself on the continent rather than in UK. I have been based in Belgium, stabling and training with Marc van Dycke since 2002.

My Horses:

I have 6 horses with me in Europe. They are:

• Maloubet. He’s a 14 year old Belgian warmblood gelding by Skippy II. He’s my main horse that I ride in Grand Prix classes in Europe.
• Malibero is a 9 year old, KWPN (Dutch) mare by Libero H.
• O’Canthus is now 9 years old. He’s a Holstein stallion by Canthus.
• Lui11 yrear old Bavarian gelding by Locato.
• Lambada 13 year old Holsteiner mare by L'ami.
• Cora is an Oldenburger bred mare born in 1995.

Horse Power and Sponsors:

To do any of this I need more horsepower, and for that I need more sponsors. The only obstacle now is the horse power; I need to buy more top class horses. So I shall be actively seeking sponsorship as part of my objectives. I have one current sponsor but as part of the agreement I am not to disclose who they are. They have done tremendous things for my riding career because they support my expenses here. 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 has supported me. In fact we own the horses ourselves. I cannot do it on sponsorship alone.