Twenty-nine-year old equestrian, Noor Slaoui, is gearing up for the Olympic Games which get underway in Paris next Friday.
She is about to become the first Moroccan female rider ever to take part in the Eventing discipline.
This is when a single horse and rider compete against others in dressage, cross-country, and show jumping.
She is also the only Arab athlete to have qualified to ride in the discipline and the first Moroccan rider to compete internationally in the sport.
“I’m just super happy and super honoured to be representing Morocco, Africa and the Arab countries in the Olympics, it is just a dream that comes true for me,” she says.
Noor developed her passion for horses as a very young girl. She says her family were big on hiking, and would take her trekking on mules in the High Atlas mountains.
“I started riding very early as early as 4 years old, but then I really started competitions when I was 19,” she says.
Noor says it was very hard at the beginning as she had very little exposure to the sport and knew nothing about it.
“I had to read through the rule book and just give it a go. I quickly realised it was a lot harder than I thought. So I started riding and training with other competition riders that are the top level to see how they do how they work.”
She shares a very special bond with her horse, Cash in Hand, who will accompany her to Paris. The pair started riding together when Noor was still learning the competition ropes.
Although she has quite a few plans for Cash, but says she is not going to change things too much as things have worked for them so far.
“I need to get a qualifying result as do all of the people taking part of the Olympics need to, and then I have two other preparations that I need to do.”
With the Olympics her first senior championships, she sees the competition as a stepping stone to a future in the sport.
“I’m hoping to get a lot of exposure and to just learn a lot from this experience to build on it in the future,” she says.
