“It’s a dream come true,” says 30-year-old Noor Slaoui, who is making her five-star debut at the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials this week. “I’ve always wanted to do a five-star and to do it on this horse is very special for me.”
The horse in question is the 12-year-old grey gelding Cash In Hand, who Noor owns alongside Moulay Hafid El Alamy. Noor, who hails from Morocco, purchased Cash as a six-year-old from Jodie Amos, with the Olympics in mind. Indeed, they accomplished this Olympic dream when finishing 44th individually at the Paris Games last summer.
“Cash and I have grown up together and to compete at five-star is another big tick off the bucket list,” says Noor, who is based in Wiltshire and rides full-time. “I’m trying to let it all sink in – it’s a great opportunity to be here and I just want to make the most of it, to learn and progress and to hopefully compete at more five-stars in the future.”
Noor grew up in Morocco and lived there until she was 18 and caught the riding bug from going hiking into the mountains with mules.
“I fell in love with animals and the countryside,” she says.
Noor Slaoui: a breakthrough with Cash
A fairly recent discovery for Noor has been that applying plastic shoes to Cash has transformed his performance.
“My farrier, Phillip Martin, swapped Cash into plastic shoes about six weeks before the Olympics and it has made him so much more comfortable,” explains Noor. “He struggled with nailed shoes and I had to keep him on a surface as much as possible, but the plastic shoes have been a game changer.”
Noor says that Cash’s genuine nature is what drew her to him originally.
“He has a very good brain and is really straight,” she says. “He has been perfect for me to learn on and has been so forgiving of any mistakes I’ve made.
“I’m not going to lie though, we did try to sell him about three years ago, but the client and her coach didn’t think he was good enough – but that’s turned out to be lucky for us!”
Noor says that Cash is “very relaxed”.
“His character never changes – he doesn’t need to do any arena familiarisation because he’s almost a bit too cool,” explains Noor, who sits in 35th after the first phase at Luhmühlen. “I want to have a safe round across country and learn a lot experience-wise. Cash still struggles with the showjumping on the final day, but I don’t have any goals of winning – hopefully that’s for the future.”
No matter what, Noor is hoping to put a stressful journey en-route to this event behind her and to enjoy the event to its fullest.
“We broke down two-and-a-half hours away from here on the motorway,” she says. “We managed to get Cash here on a transporter and the lorry is still at the garage – hopefully it’s fixed by Sunday when we have to go home!”
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