"It's not easy being a trailblazer. No one's done this before, I wanted to be able to put Qatar on the map."
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00:00 the first clear of the season.
00:02 [speaking in foreign language]
00:04 - Dressage is the equestrian ballet.
00:07 It is about performing a series of movements
00:10 together with your dance partner, your horse.
00:12 You have your pirouettes, your piaf and passage.
00:17 It's graceful, it's beautiful, but it is demanding.
00:22 You have to have faith that you can do
00:24 all of these movements 'cause your horse
00:26 also has that knowledge and experience.
00:28 [classical music]
00:30 It's a very lovely, rhythmic kind of motion.
00:33 You hear the horse's feet on the ground.
00:35 Clip, clop, clip, clop.
00:37 I love it, it's a great feeling.
00:39 My name is Wijdan Majid-Elmalki
00:41 and I am Qatar's only female international
00:44 Grand Prix dressage rider.
00:46 [classical music]
00:57 [upbeat music]
00:59 As a child, my dream was to do anything
01:03 that involved working with animals and horses.
01:05 My brothers, my sisters and I, we all started riding
01:10 about four or five years old.
01:12 I was already jumping by the time I was eight.
01:15 Riding as a profession was definitely not a viable option.
01:19 It was not culturally acceptable.
01:21 As a Qatari woman, I wasn't officially allowed to compete.
01:26 That of course changed with the coming of the Asian Games
01:28 and Qatar hosting the Games in 2006.
01:31 The whole country was behind us,
01:33 very actively recruiting and supporting
01:36 Qatari women and athletes to come into that competitive zone
01:40 and start representing Qatar.
01:43 Getting that little taste of the Asian Games
01:45 just wasn't enough.
01:46 Now that we have that opportunity,
01:48 I would like to seize it with both hands.
01:49 I want to go all the way.
01:51 I want to go to the Olympics.
01:52 [upbeat music]
01:55 [upbeat music]
01:57 There were doubts that any rider,
01:59 let alone a woman, female, Qatari rider could do it.
02:03 We have never had a rider at the Olympic level
02:06 or even the five-star international scene.
02:08 I also learned that if I was gonna make it,
02:10 I had to be European.
02:12 There's just so much more available,
02:15 more international shows, more people to compete against
02:17 that are very, very good.
02:20 I needed to move to Europe to gain the recognition,
02:23 exposure, and to be immersed in top quality sports
02:28 amongst athletes that will challenge you.
02:31 [upbeat music]
02:33 It's tough to wake up in the morning in winter
02:38 when it's minus seven outside, cold where you train.
02:41 Pretty much six days a week, if there's no competition.
02:46 If there's a competition, guess what?
02:48 Seven days a week.
02:51 It is incredibly challenging coming
02:54 into that international arena.
02:56 You have to earn your place in the international scene.
03:00 I've made it to Grand Prix.
03:02 That is the highest level of dressage.
03:03 This year, with my second five-star competition,
03:08 we got an Olympic world ranking.
03:09 [crowd applauding]
03:12 So to be able to have done that, to come back here now,
03:15 everyone looks at me differently.
03:17 It is now actually, wow, okay, she's an athlete.
03:21 [upbeat music]
03:23 The dream of having Qatar represented
03:26 in the dressage discipline at the Olympics
03:30 is now so much closer to coming true.
03:32 Riding is definitely a challenging sport.
03:41 It's not just your physical fitness.
03:44 It's also your mental strength.
03:46 It's not just you as an athlete.
03:48 It's also your horse.
03:50 [upbeat music]
03:53 Horses at this competitive level are incredibly sensitive.
03:56 So if I'm feeling a little tense
03:59 and my breathing starts to become erratic,
04:01 then my body will become a bit tense.
04:03 My horse will feel it straight away.
04:05 I spend about 30 minutes to an hour in advance
04:09 just closing my eyes, breathing, preparing myself,
04:13 writing the tests in my head before I get on my horse.
04:18 Dressage continues to teach me patience, determination.
04:23 You really have to be so precise.
04:27 The quality of every step.
04:29 It's not easy being a trailblazer.
04:31 No one's done this before.
04:34 I wanted to be able to put Qatar on the map.
04:37 For a Qatari woman like me,
04:38 having someone like Ujdan El-Malki
04:41 is something that's very inspiring.
04:43 Ujdan has really taught us
04:44 to achieve greater heights in sports
04:47 because of her focus and determination.
04:50 It takes a lot of courage and hours
04:53 to go into the international stage.
04:55 My dream one day is to have a dressage academy
05:01 and produce Qatar's next generation
05:04 of competitive dressage riders.
05:05 I have competed at this level.
05:09 Because I've done that,
05:11 I can help you get to that level as well.
05:17 Having Ujdan teach is something
05:19 that Qatari women could really look up to
05:23 and be able to see what is the highest level of the sport
05:27 and be able to embrace that.
05:29 The whole purpose of becoming the absolute best
05:34 I can be in this sport
05:36 is so that I can come back home here to Qatar.
05:39 To give back to people here, to the riders,
05:43 to give back to women especially,
05:46 to show them that if you have this dream
05:48 of becoming a competitive rider, it's doable.
05:51 (upbeat music)
05:53 (upbeat music)
05:56 (upbeat music)
05:58 [Music]