Some said Dono Di Maggio Old was too old at 19 years of age. Some others said the horse would show up lame in the Asian Games Dressage competition. Some even hoped that the horse would fail the vet check in Tokyo. In the end, the German bred gelding delivered good tests over three days and earned Hriday Chheda the eighth place – the best finish by an Indian in the competition.
The judges awarded 72.680 per cent score to the combination, its second best score in five Freestyle to Music tests since pairing up for the first time in February last year. The combination delivered a test to music composed by Tom Hunt blending a George Michael track Freedom with Sheppard’s Geronimo.
Three years back, Hriday Chheda had faced a heartbreak in the Asian Games. Having performed well with Chemexpro Emerald in the Prix St. George to help India win a historic team gold and having topped the Intermediate I test with 73.883 per cent, his dreams were shattered when the horse was eliminated for a scratch sustained during the Freestyle with Music test.
While the 28-year-old Hriday Chheda was always confident of a good show in Tokyo, he was arguably proud that a horse that had been declared at risk of being rejected as lame and was all but replaced by the Equestrian Federation of India helped him secure the best finish by an Indian in the individual Dressage competition.
“I wish India had finished on the podium in the team event,” he said, “but I will go back from Tokyo knowing that Dono di Maggio OLD and I gave our best.” India finished fourth in the team event, 2.139 points behind the bronze medal winning team, Japan. Significantly, Hriday Chheda and Dono di Maggio OLD secured a higher score than their average scores earlier this year.
To deliver good tests over three successive days demanded a great effort from the rider and horse, especially after the challenges they had to face during the pre-departure quarantine in Aachen, Germany. Put through multiple vet checks in the span of a few days, Dono di Maggio OLD would have been aware that something was cooking. And Hriday Chheda had to dig his heels in as well.
Barely three weeks before the Games, dark clouds loomed over their campaign. On September 7, the Equestrian Federation of India, acting on the basis of an opinion offered by Dr Grigorios Maleas, sought a late athlete replacement. For Hriday Chheda, it was a race against time – he just could not let his horse be declared unfit to compete in the Asian Games.
When he got wind of the EFI letter to IOA, the thoughts uppermost in Hriday Chheda’s mind was not the possibility of his missing out on the Asian Games competition. Instead, it was more about his horse being unfairly declared unfit. He dug his heels in and presented his case to IOA, even if he had to step up against a section of the Equestrian Federation of India.
Hriday Chheda first got Dr. Mir Ismail Jawad who the Indian team veterinarian at the Asian Equestrian Championships last year, to undertake a clinical examination of his horse. He found not significant functional limitation at the time of the examination and opined that the horse could compete in the Asian Games.
The rider did not stop there and asked Dr. Anna Endrikat, an FEI permitted treating veterinarian based in Aachen, to perform an orthopaedical evaluation of Dono di Maggio OLD. She also examined the horse and wrote that there were no clinical issues compromising the horse’s fitness to compete in the Asian Games in Tokyo.
He then wrote to Indian Olympic Association. After urgent consultations, IOA requested Dr. Patrick Buth to conduct a clinical and orthopaedical examination of Dono di Maggio OLD. And based on Dr. Ruth’s view that the horse was fit to compete in the Asian Games, the IOA President Dr. PT Usha decided that there was no need to replace Hriday Chheda and Dono di Maggio OLD.
Hriday Chheda has no rancour for anyone but is keen that Equestrian Federation of India gets more professional, including engaging a High Performance Manager. He is hoping that well before the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the EFI will draw up selection criteria and not keep changing it for some reason or the other.
Photos: Hriday Chheda and Dono di Maggio (Courtesy Hriday Chheda Instagram page)
The matter needs to be
Investigated and those responsible be held accountable