Huang Zuping in an international show jumping competition in Germany. Photo provided to China Daily

A public servant's passion for horses put him on an unlikely seven-year odyssey that took him to the Olympic Games. Yang Feiyue reports.

Twenty years ago Huang Zuping had his first ride on a horse, and as he celebrates the anniversary of that first shaky equestrian experience this year, he can look back on a day that changed the course of his life.

Just how far Huang, 52, has traveled was there for all to see on Sept 9 when, looking as sparkling as a tack in his riding garb, he won an event at the national championship at Beijing Sports University. Not only that, but the man who has learned so much over the years is now passing on that knowledge to a younger breed of riders, and on Sept 9 he was able to watch two of his proteges win events in their age category.

In 1995 he was a bureaucrat riding nothing more than a desk piled with papers, but then, after 10 years working for the government, he quit to run a business for a couple of years. Finally, smitten by his love for horses, he threw that in his late 30s to devote himself to horses full time.

That dedication took on a sharper focus in 2001 when Beijing was awarded the Olympic Games, and Huang spent the next seven years working on his skills, riding to the peak of his success when he represented China at the Games in 2008.

Huang's first ride on a horse was in the Daxing district of Beijing.

"I felt so imbalanced and awkward on the horseback and I ended up twisting my waist," he says.

However, that rough ride failed to deter him, and he began riding in the suburbs of Beijing once every two or three months.

Riding was not only providing pleasure but also subtly changing him as a person, he says.