Neretnieks has already secured participation in this year’s Olympic Games. Although the biggest sports event of the four years is almost around the corner, Neretnieka’s preparation schedule also has a place for the visit of his first coach Daiņš Ozola.
Kristaps grew up in the countryside near Salaca, in the north of Vidzeme. Mom had a little experience with riding, and it was from Dainas Ozola that she bought her first horse – the mare Formula. Mom’s effort to ride the horse was amusing.
“I put the saddle on, and she didn’t go forward. She only went backwards. She didn’t throw on the ground, didn’t do anything bad. She only went backwards. I remember – she walked from one corner of the meadow to the other,” Neretnieks remembers.
Latvia’s leading showjumper agrees that the first steps of his career on the way to the Olympic Games were taken directly at coach Ozol’s farm.
“The most difficult part started here. The first difficult trainings, let’s say so. The first three summers in such a serious training process. This is the area where I have spent a lot of time. I rode a lot, jumped a lot, and fell a lot,” said the athlete.
Kristaps tries to come to “Annām” Lielvārde at least a couple of times a year to visit his first coach, Daini Ozola. As always – talks about horses, the owner shows what he has built, how Ozols prepares black oak, and, of course, there are also hunters’ stories.
Little Oak – that’s what someone once called Kristaps in a competition. And quite logically, because students do copy teachers. Both are united by stubbornness in working with horses.
“Dainis was definitely one of the best riders in Latvia at that time, and it is clear that he was an authority. And, of course, you had to try to learn as much as possible from him. I can only describe Dainis – he is such a stubborn person by nature. It can be both good meanings and not so good ones. But maybe that’s where some perseverance comes from to achieve your goal, which you want to achieve,” said Neretnieks about the work in Ozola’s career.
Ozols also shared a story about his student’s stubbornness in working with horses.
“Well, the same as he is now – when he has imagined something, he does it. As long as he hasn’t done it… His character hasn’t changed at all. Once you had to go to catch a horse, he could sit down for lunch. Wait by the barrel when those horses can be caught.
He says: “If you want to drink, you will come.” I already went to see where he was. No, he’s waiting for those horses to come. He had to bring one. And he also came with a horse,” said his first trainer about Neretnieks’ intransigence.
There are 40 to 50 horses on the Ozola farm. The exact number could not be named at all. Dainis admits that he tries very hard to learn and understand the mutual communication between horses. And the biggest gamble is to teach or get something out of disobedient and stubborn horses. After some competitions, he was once offered 700 thousand euros for the horse Guidon, Dainis refused the deal.
“I don’t sell my wife and children. But my wife left herself. No, I don’t regret at any moment that I didn’t sell. Because spending money is not an art. But as much as he has taught me, I would hardly have learned anywhere, Ozols is confident in its decision not to sell Guidon.
Horses jump, not papers – that’s how Dainis comments on the business side of equestrian sports, because there are horses in the world that are bought for as much as 50 to 60 million euros. He compares sports horses to any other world-class athletes.
“That’s why they pay a lot of money, because those people have money, and they want to buy a horse with papers. But if he hasn’t asked the athlete if that horse is a sports horse, then he wants from him just because he has papers… No, it’s not. Because we have Porzingis. It wouldn’t be enough for him to play well, that’s why he’s worth it can be done. Not about the papers. No one asks who Mom is, Dad,” Ozols said about the sport horse business.
Coming to Porzingis and his height, one cannot fail to mention what Ozol has achieved – he is the Latvian record holder in the high jump. He was able to jump a height of 2.15 meters with a horse, so Porzingis with his head slightly bent. In one show, Neretnieks managed to overcome a height of 2.20 meters, but it was not an official competition, so Ozols is still the record holder.
At the 2021 Summer Olympic Games, Neretnieks won 23rd place in the competition of 73 participants with his horse “Valour”. In these Olympic Games, he will compete with the horse “Palladium”.
The road to Paris was much smoother than before Tokyo. The 34-year-old athlete believes that this is just the beginning of his athletic career. Dainis Ozols, who has not given up hope of participating in the Olympic Games himself, reminds that Briton Nick Skelton became the Olympic champion in Brazil, winning gold at the age of 58. Therefore, the term “too old” in equestrian sports can hardly be an excuse.
Typo?
Highlight the text and press Ctrl+Enter to send the corrected text fragment to the editor!
Highlight the text and press the Report an error button to send the corrected text fragment to the editor!
Report a bug
2024-06-12 11:17:52
#beginning #Olympic #road #Latvian #eventer #Neretnieks #remembers #steps #equestrian #sports #Article
