Usman’s horse Eden Du Veret makes historic Asian Games landing

Pakistan’s star eventer Usman Khan and his horse Eden Du Veret have landed in Narita, Japan, safely to feature in the 20th Asian Games eventing event.

This is the fourth successive time that Usman has qualified for the quadrennial event. However on previous three occasions he could not proceed due to financial issues.

“Yes, we have safely landed and will begin our journey on September 20,” Usman told this correspondent.

Usman and his horse underwent a 70-day quarantine, 60 days in France and last ten-day pre-export mandatory quarantine in Germany before they flew to Japan.

Eden Du Veret is the FEI name of Usman’s horse while his EFP name is Mirage, the horse which had also been used in the 2024 Paris Olympics Qualifiers.

Mirage was transported via Lufthansa flight while Usman proceeded through Etihad Airways. The 200 kilogramme of equipment was loaded separately on Qatar Airways.
Besides this a 100kg of feed had been taken on a flight a week earlier.

However some equipment of National Federations have not yet reached Japan. The agents, handling such matter, have updated the national federations about the situation.

The federations have been told that not all horse equipment and veterinary kits were delivered to the venue last night.
An additional 4,900 kilogramme over and above the quantities originally booked by national federations (NFs) was delivered to Liège. However, agents said, that due to payload restrictions, they were unable to accommodate all the cargo on the flight.

“Once delivered to Liège, all the equipment formed part of one consolidated consignment. We therefore had no option to identify and unload the equipment of individual NFs whose quantities exceeded their original bookings.”

“We immediately began exploring every possible solution to expedite the shipment of the equipment from Europe to Japan, and arrangements were made for it to arrive in Narita this evening.”

“However, I have just been advised that QR806 departed Doha with only 19 pieces on board. The remaining pieces are now scheduled to travel on QR806 tomorrow,”

Usman has also asked the agents about his equipment, adding if the NOC equipment arrives tonight, they can arrange a training session later this evening.

Usman told the agent if it does not arrive until tomorrow then it would be a big issue for Pakistan in the crucial lead-up to the Games.

It would be a testing time for Usman to deliver at the continental stage. He has a massive experience of playing at the highest level.

Usman’s eventing journey is too long, having spent around two decades in this field, first by backing himself in Australia and now doing his best in France, his new abode.
Usman specifically had moved to France from Australia in order to prepare for the Paris Olympics qualifiers at a zone hardly at 45 kilometre drive from the Paris Olympics playing zone.

He qualified but could not maintain his ranking after missing a few events especially the one in South Africa which dropped him to the reserves list. He still could compete provided a rider would drop but he decided not to opt for that as his horse was too young and inexperienced.

Usman, who basically belongs to Lahore, had qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but his horse Azad Kashmir died. He then revised his qualification process and when he was near the finish line in the qualifiers in Australia his horse Kasheer fell and died on the spot. Usman was left critically injured. Following a few months of top treatment in Australia Usman recovered and took a big time before deciding to return to the international circuit.