Friday Video from SmartPak: Show Jumping Development in Kuwait

Kuwait’s show jumping history is a relatively recent — and inspiring — one. Nadia Al-Mutawa Kuwait, who won the nation’s first show jumping gold at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, recalls her early days of jumping barrels and tree trunks. “When we started it was a new sport here,” she says. “It didn’t exist. They eventually built us some show jumps and it just took off from there.”

Over the years the sport in Kuwait grew and acquired new fans, and participants.

“I wish and I hope that this younger generation gets the opportunity that we did because there’s so much talent here now,” Nadia says. “When we first started our small little competition show jumping classes, there would be maybe eight to 10 riders in the class. Nowadays one class can easily have a hundred riders.”
 In its latest edition of “RIDE,” the FEI heads over to Kuwait to take a look at the development of show jumping over the past years.