Sheikha Latifa bint Ahmed bin Juma Al Maktoum does not remember the first time she got on a horse.
Riding to her is like speaking, or walking – a skill a child picks up without even realising, and just keeps on doing it forever, or for as long as they possibly can.
Earlier this month, Sheikha Latifa, riding her bay coat stallion Cornet XL, helped the UAE secure a silver medal in team jumping at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
It was her fourth career medal won at the Games, and it came 20 years after she clinched her first at Doha 2006.
Making the podium on the continental stage two decades apart is a remarkable feat. Did Sheikha Latifa ever consider that to be a possibility when she claimed her first Asian Games medal 20 years ago?
“I think so. I think it's in our DNA,” the 41-year-old Emirati told The National from her base in Germany following her successful trip to Japan.
“I think for us riders, I don't ever think we'd want to stop. We'd always have something to do with it.”
It takes a special kind of passion, discipline, and skill to be able to compete at the highest level in any sport for so long and Sheikha Latifa does not take that longevity for granted.
“It means a lot,” she says. “The first Asian Games, I did it with an eight-year-old [horse]. An eight-year-old is very young to do a championship like that. I got him as a seven-year-old, the same as Cornet XL, I got him as a seven-year-old, and we built up together.
“So I think now three horses that I've done the Asian Games with, I've had from young horses and built up.
“I don't know how to explain it, but it's just a different feeling when you bring up a horse instead of getting something ready to do it because it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort and you go through a lot of ups and downs building up horses. So that for me is something special.”
The past few weeks have been particularly special for Sheikha Latifa, not just because she made her first Asian Games podium since Guangzhou 2010, where she took individual and team silver medals atop Kalaska de Semilly.
In August, she made her long-awaited return to the World Equestrian Games (WEG), competing at the global stage for the first time since her debut appearance back in 2010.
She got the call just two weeks before the WEG when her compatriot Abdullah Al Marri suffered an injury that ruled him out of the competition, freeing up a spot on the UAE team.
“I was actually preparing for that [a call-up] my whole summer tour because I was on the long list so I was preparing for it,” she said.
“I chose my shows, built up the horse. So when I got the call, I was ready. I think the team wasn't sure just because my horse didn't do as many big classes as they would like, but I have a lot of confidence in him and I really believed that he was made for this from the day I bought him.”
The past few months have given Sheikha Latifa the confidence she needed to tackle her next big goal with Cornet XL, which is to qualify for the Olympics.
She is no stranger to that stage either as she happens to be the first Emirati woman – alongside Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid – to compete at an Olympic Games, having represented the UAE in showjumping in Beijing 2008.
“I think it's every rider's dream. I think the first Olympics I did it was just very foreign to me,” she reflected. “Everything was new and I was very nervous. I had a 10-year-old horse that I brought up, 10-year-olds are considered young at that level. Me being very young at the time it was very new and I think now I know what it takes to be there.
“I know what the horse needs. I have a plan and if I don't believe I could represent the country in the best possible light, I wouldn't even attempt it. But I think I really have a fantastic horse and we're a great combination me and him. We're going to try, Inshallah.”
Sheikha Latifa believes “trusting the process” is the biggest lesson she is taking with her along this upcoming journey towards a possible second Olympics appearance.
“Sometimes like with Cornet XL we went through a lot of ups and downs. He's such a big horse and I'm very little and he's very strong but very sensitive and I really had to find a way that he was happy but I could also still control him because he doesn't like to have me control him completely and he likes to be how he wants to be,” she said.
“But at the level we're jumping, I have to also have a say in what I want in the ring. I have to be able to make a decision and when I make a decision he has to respond, and in the beginning that was very difficult just because he's so big but also so sensitive so I really had to find a way with him and that we both came to an understanding.”
She gives a lot of credit to experienced Saudi rider Ramzy Al Duhami, who won team bronze at the London 2012 Olympics and has been Sheikha Latifa’s coach and mentor for many years.
“He really inspires me in the way he thinks,” she said of Al Duhami.
“What I really like is he's always horse first, so like we never think, oh we want the horse to go this way? No, it’s how do we do best to get the best out of the horse? If I need to change the way I'm riding, if I need to sit more, if I need to be out of the saddle, if I need to have the nose out, if I need to have the nose in, it's all how to get the best out of the horse.
“And for me that's why it never gets boring because every horse is different and every horse likes to go a certain way and that's how I get inspired because it's just never boring.”
Sheikha Latifa was one of five Emirati women to win medals at the recently-concluded Asian Games and she has proudly witnessed the growth of women’s sport in the UAE over the past two decades.
As a pioneer herself, she knows she has played a part in pushing women’s sport forward in the country and it’s a role she takes very seriously.
“It means a lot and I really am also inspired by the other athletes, whether it's male or female, I'm really inspired by them,” she added.
“It's just you always feel when someone is able to raise your flag in a big occasion you feel like you're part of it, so it doesn't matter what sport but anything that raises the UAE flag I always feel like I'm a part of it and I think it goes the same way for all of us, whether it's in athletics, whether it's in judo. I think for us it's just we're all proud of each other.”
