The horse whisperer

Imitiaz Anees’s memoir is an ode to his horses and mentors, and a call to arms for the dreamer

- REUBEN JOE JOSEPH

Riding Free: My Olympic Journey

By Imtiaz Anees

Published by HarperCollins

You don’t tell a horse. You ask a horse.” With these words, Brit-ish equestrian Diana Wilson changed the outlook of a gritty, impatient teenager. Imtiaz Anees would learn to build a deep connection with the horses he rode, and would talk to them gently even in the tensest situations. It was something he learnt at 14, and would prove invaluable to him at 30, when he became only the second Indian to participate in equestrian events at the Olympics, in Sydney 2000.

In Riding Free, Anees’s memoir, two things stand out from cover to cover—his bond with horses and his recognition of how the mentorship of a few key people in his life moulded him into an achiever.

Be it Rajesh, Arizona, Baggy or Kevin—horses he partnered at different stages in his young career— they were his best friends. He would spend long hours in the stables and on walks, pouring his heart out to his four-legged pals. Only horses listened to him patiently and sympathetically, he writes.

“They were all so special to me,” Anees told THE WEEK. “It’s like going to school. Every teacher is different. Every year, a new teacher takes you to the next level. I had horses and mentors playing those roles. I had support from both.”