Cover Olympic equestrian Caroline Chew on representing Singapore in the dressage sport at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Olympic equestrian Caroline Chew on representing Singapore in the dressage sport at the Paris 2024 Olympics
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Competing in various sports from kitefoiling to fencing, equestrian and rowing, seven athletes, who are among those representing Singapore at the Paris 2024 Olympics, share what it means to perform at the top of their game. Singapore equestrian Caroline Chew shares her hopes for her second Olympics
Olympian Caroline Chew comes from equestrian pedigree. Her mother Melanie did showjumping and dressage, and later helmed the Equestrian Federation of Singapore from 2007 to 2017, and her older sister Catherine, a showjumper, is a Southeast Asian (Sea) Games gold medallist and Asian Games finalist
When Chew and her gelding Tribiani competed in dressage at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, they made history as the first Singaporean duo to participate in an Olympics equestrian event. “To represent a small country [such as Singapore], which is without much of an equestrian heritage, is such a huge privilege,” says Chew. The pair, however, was prematurely eliminated for a technical rule, “which was traumatic and a big shock”, she shares, crushing her Olympic dreams.
Three years on, the 31‑year‑old will again aim for glory after qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics. This time, she has a new stallion, Blue Hors Zatchmo, or Mo for short, a 15‑year‑old Grand Prix veteran.
Read more: Paris Olympics 2024: Meet the 19 Singaporean athletes who will be competing this year
Chew has an almost decade‑old bond with the now 20‑year‑old Tribiani, whom she calls Joey (after the character from hit TV series Friends), and over the past two years, she has been working on building a similar partnership with Mo. “He’s extremely talented, much more powerful and stronger than Joey, and also very intelligent,” she shares.
Above Equestrian
Caroline Chew and her horse Tribiani
Equestrian Caroline Chew and her horse Tribiani
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“Part of the challenge is improving our communication so we can perform at a high standard and place well. It’s a learning process, but what I love about the sport is that it’s about how two living beings communicate and work together. Horses can’t talk, so you have to find other ways to understand them.”
In January last year, the duo participated in their first international competition. This was the start of the Paris 2024 qualification year, during which Chew competed with both horses. “Joey had a fantastic start to the season, we hit multiple personal bests and qualified for the World Cup Final,” she describes. “With Mo, we worked on the basics, trying to understand how he behaves in a competition environment. In the second half of the year, he took over the mantle [in the efforts] to improve our qualification ranking, which we managed to do by the last competition in December.”
While Chew and her team are preparing both horses as if they will go to Paris, at the time of writing, she had until the end of June to decide which one to compete with, with the other as a reserve—“but the plan is for Mo to go to Paris”.
Training for the Olympics is a rigorous process, but doing so with a full‑time job is a different ballgame. Chew is a lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, one of the Magic Circle law firms headquartered in London, where she has divided her time between the city and the stables in Gloucester since 2017. “Juggling the two is very challenging, but also very fulfilling,” she says.
Above Chew is representing Singapore in dressage sport at the Olympics for the second time
Chew is representing Singapore in dressage sport at the Olympics for the second time
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“I have good mentorship and teammates who support not just my legal development, but also the fact that I have this outside commitment. The key is to communicate openly with my team.”
In fact, the mental resilience she developed as a lawyer has helped her stay focused and motivated amid the pressure of competition. “[At work], you’re in high‑pressure situations, which are often outside of your control. In a crisis situation, you have to focus on problem‑solving, rather than fixating on what has gone wrong,” says Chew.
She continues: “Part of growing as a dressage rider is acknowledging that on some days, the performance just wasn’t there, but that’s not a reflection of you or your horse. Obviously, the better a rider you are, the [better] you can cope with these variables and still deliver good performances. But sometimes, you’ve got to take what you can get on a given day and then move on, staying motivated and focused on the next thing.”
This is the mindset that Chew takes with her to Paris: “My first goal is for everyone to complete our task and come home safely. The dressage sport is challenging: 60 athletes start in the technical round and only 18 get through to the final. So the odds are firmly stacked against us,” she says. “I’m aiming for a personal best and if that gets us somewhere within the top half [among the competitors], it’ll be a big achievement for a Singaporean in dressage sport—and a good finish.”
Credits
Images: Justine Sole and Lily Forado
As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
