Imtiaz Anees has always been drawn to horses. Even as a child of four, when he was still too young to ride, he grew close to a powerful grey stallion called Rajesh owned by his maternal grandfather Mohamed Kajiji who was the president of the Amateur Riders’ Club (ARC) in Mumbai. He groomed and hugged Rajesh, confiding all his childish joys and sorrows in the magnificent white-crested animal. “These were massive animals. I was little, not a big or strong boy, I was timid, I would say weak in many ways. But I just felt comfortable [with them] from day one, I could just go into a stable and brush the horse or hug it, and the horse had a rapport with me,” recalls Anees, during a conversation with mid-day. In spite of his many successes and experiences, Anees still regards his very first win on Rajesh as an early milestone in his life. “I remember it so clearly. I was a young boy. I can still see my family at the stands. They were scared. I weighed about 25 kilos and the horses were flying at full gallop. Anything could happen—a slip, a trip, I could even fall. And they allowed me to do it.”

Anees’ new book Riding Free (HarperCollins India), is not simply about his moving Olympian journey, but also, he says, about his relationship with each horse along the way, those bonds crucial even to the formulation of this book. “When trying to recall the events in a chronological manner, I actually remembered my horses, and the stories and competitions around them then came back to me very quickly.”