I REMEMBER writing a comment piece after the 2018 Dublin Horse Show which started with the line: “Every once and while in this job a little bit of magic happens and you just want to keep writing, tweeting and talking about it.”

Two years later and we are still talking about the Mexican victory in the Aga Khan. The press conference afterwards provided pure magic. The emotion was felt by everyone when the Mexican team and supporters sang Olé Olé Olé.

Team member Federico Fernandez had tears in his eyes when he spoke about what it meant. Catching up with Federico and his wife, Spanish-born Paola Amilibia who has recently switched to ride for Mexico, last week via a Zoom call to mark the Dublin Horse Show, he still shares the same feeling about that magnificent day.

“To be totally honest, it was one of the big highlights of my life,” he said with his usual infectious positivity and passion. “Not only in equestrian sports but in my life in total. It was just so amazing. Every time I remember it, a big smile comes onto my face and a lot of hope comes into my heart. It was so special.

“In many ways, that victory changed the Mexican situation in the sport. It put us on the world map. Inside Mexico, it created such a big sense of hope and progress. It really was an event that changed the history of Mexican equestrian life.”

Having survived one of the one of the worst plane crashes on record in 1987 when the horse transporter plane he was travelling on came down on a motorway in Mexico City, killing 23 horses and up to 50 people including his best friend, Ruben Rodrigues, Federico takes nothing for granted.

“When something like that happens to you, you have to give yourself a little time and then you find out that it was really for the best. In my case, I think I have learned to appreciate life in a much better way.

“I have learned to really enjoy every day; and try to get out of bed with passion and to try to live happy, which I think is the main reason why we are all here in the world. And especially not to be worried about things that I cannot change and try to make the best out of what I can change. I am very grateful because it made me be a happier man.”

Alongside doing the sport at the highest level – Federico has been at three Olympic Games and six FEI World Equestrian Games and won an individual silver medal at the 2004 Pan American Games – he is a successful businessman, running a company in Mexico that helps other businesses thrive.

How does it juggle the two high-pressured jobs? “I am a very lucky man because, and I always say this to Paola, that the days I enjoy least in my life are the vacation days because, actually, my everyday life is what makes me the most happy.

“I am very lucky because we have a business that has been very good to us. It creates employment in my country, which I love, and makes me feel very good. The balance between my family, my horses and my business, really keeps me focused and happy and passionate. I believe it is so important that we try to live in colours, not in grey. I really try very hard to live in colours,” he said.

A fan of Irish horses, Federico explained: “The best horse I ever had in my life, Bohemia, was Irish,” he said of the Judith McGinn-bred gelding who, aged 28, is enjoying his retirement. “I went with him to the WEG in Jerez in 2002 and to the Olympic Games in Athens and I was silver medallist at the Pan American Games. He was a fighter.”

Paola Amilibia with a tricolour in her hair during the Puissance competition at the 2018 Dublin Horse Show \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Viva Mexico

Towards the end of 2019, Paola decided to join her husband in riding for Team Mexico. Born in Barcelona, she had a successful underage career and went on to represent Spain at the 2007 European Championships and the 2014 World Equestrian Games [WEG] in Normandy. There was some bad feelings when she was selected as fifth man for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and subsequently withdrew on her owner’s request.

Speaking about her decision to switch flags, Paola said: “I had a feeling that I had a better opportunity in Mexico, even if it is a tougher place to get on the team. There is a moment in your life when you don’t just want to participate anymore, you want to try to be successful. When you are young, you will go to any championships in whatever circumstance but there comes a chance that you really want to go to a championship or a Nations Cup with a possibility to win and that is the thing that really pushes me.

“The people in Mexico really stick together and when they want to fight for something, they really fight forward in the same direction. They have a super chef d’equipe, the president of the federation is always supportive and always tries to do what is best for the sport. Those are things I couldn’t find in my own country and that is what pushed me to change the flag,” she explained.

Ironically, she made her debut in a Mexican jacket in her home town, at the Nations Cup final in Barcelona last September. “It was funny actually. My flag just changed and I was not meant to be in Barcelona. The day before the vet check, the chef d’equipe called and said one horse was injured and did I want to come as the fifth man.

“I was very very happy to hop in the truck and get there as fast as possible. It was unexpected but I was very happy and honoured to represent Mexico, in my own town! Everyone was like ‘ohh you have your husband’s jacket on!’”

While Federico had a conventional entry into the sport through his family’s passion – his uncle, Fernando Senderos, won individual gold and team silver at the Pan American Games in 1975 – Paola had no background at all in the sport, and in fact, her father was worried about her dedicating her life to horses.

“What happened was I was at tennis camp and I started riding and it was my grandfather that supported me. As a junior I went to the Europeans but when I got access to nicer horses and started being more competitive was when I was a young rider,” she explained.

A man’s world

Despite the fact that equestrian sport is one of the most equal in the world in terms of men and woman competing on a level playing field, Paola feels men have it easier. “Even if it is a fair sport between men and women, I think the men have it a little bit easier. They are stronger, they can ride a bigger variety of horses.

“For women, in a way, thinking about having babies and a family also puts you a little bit out of the sport, which is very demanding. And the man always has the support of a woman which also helps! I am very lucky that I have my husband involved and he supports me.

“My father said to me when I was getting involved in this, he said ‘I don’t know who you are going to be with because it is going to be very difficult to marry you with the passion and dedication you give to the horses!’ So I guess those factors make it a little bit more difficult.”

Although Paola isn’t a mum herself – Federico has three children, Juan Pablo, Eduardo and Federica, from his previous relationship – she feels the ‘maternity leave’ or lack thereof in the sport is a big issue. “If you decide to have a baby, you have to start from scratch; not only to get your body back, but it is very difficult to come back to shows because you lose some of your ranking points.”

The couple have now returned to their European base in Belgium after spending the start of the year in Mexico, as usual. “We try to follow the circuit in Mexico. We like to ride outdoors and we like the big rings,” Paola explains. Federico doesn’t ride indoors because the damage to his eyes, which were burned during that horror crash, cannot adjust under the indoor lights.

But that doesn’t hold back this powerful couple who are ready to fight for Mexican show jumping.

Watch the interviews with Federico and Paola on the Dublin Horse Show Facebook page.