Lin Fei has its own innovative IT (Intelligent Technology) company with more than 500 employees. Lin Fei arranges ultra-high-intensity strength training, aerobic exercise and yoga every week, and his bent legs can pull up 140 kilograms of weight, and the flat support can last for 1 hour. Lin Fei likes to drive, especially enjoying the feeling of wandering and transcending in the vast traffic. Lin Fei has competed in the Bird's Nest Masters 1.35M level, and he hopes to go to the 1.50M level in two years through scientific training.
Lin Fei is 60 years old this year. With him, I couldn't feel the breath that the elders brought me. He is full of vitality, like a soft sponge, absorbing your ideas and spitting out fresher ideas.
Since 2007, Lin Fei has been fascinated by the equestrianism that was then known as the "noble sport". Spending every weekend at the racecourse, he hopes he can be a better rider. Lin Fei said bluntly: "Because I was a hurdler in the 110m hurdles in my early years, I have always cared a lot about speed, height and honor. Steeplechase is a competitive sport and my goal has always been to hit the 1.50M class. ”
Lin Fei's dedication and love for horseback riding began with the men's yearning for chivalry in that era. Riding Mongolian horses in the grasslands of Bashang and riding thoroughbred horses at the Beiti Grand Equestrian Training Base, the lines depicting equestrianism in that era were very rough, and the riding concept left in Lin Fei's mind was the same as most people. At that time, the equestrian skills in his heart were stubbornness and conquest.
In 2011, Lin Fei entered his fourth year on horseback. He tried riding an eight-year-old green horse. "I was immediately shocked by the thunder of the warm-blooded horse. I know it will help me become a better rider. I bought it. It was called 'Rarity' and it was my first horse. This year, Lin Fei turned 50 years old.
Partnering with "Rare" has allowed Lin Fei to improve rapidly, and the height of the obstacles and the difficulty of the route are constantly breaking through. In 2013, Lin Fei bought the "general" for the coach. Sadly, it was operated on in less than a month for an intestinal obstruction. In December, Beijing was freezing cold, and I did open surgery in the cold land, in the sand and dust raised by the cold wind. Due to the failed surgery, I had a second surgery that night under the illumination of three headlights, and a third surgery a few months later, but it survived tenaciously, so I gave it a new name, 'Miracle'. Lin Fei talked about this experience, and the corners of his eyes were filled with tears. This entrepreneur who went to the sea in 1993 to start a business and experienced the ups and downs of the business sea, this man who has insisted on fitness for more than ten years, talking about the pain of the horse makes people can't bear to look at him.
From 2007 to 2011, the period of horseback riding was defined by Lin Fei as the "ignorant stage". From 2011 to 2020, Lin Fei has been training equestrian with Coach Hongquan at the Yassa Garden Equestrian Club. In 2017, Lin Fei played in the 1.35M class at the Bird's Nest Masters. This stage is defined by Lin Fei as the "basic stage". In this decade, in addition to "Rare" and "General", Lin Fei also had three other horses. In 2015, he bought the super powerful "Tengyun". "Tengyun" is particularly capable of jumping, jumping over 1.95M brick walls in the French Super High. He won the China Equestrian Tour Great Wall Race with a brick wall jumping height of 1.90M. In 2017, Lin Fei had a new partner "Qingyun". Lin Fei partnered with the horse to complete two rounds in the Bird's Nest Masters 1.35M class. The following year, he invited the elf-like light "flying clouds" back to The country in Belgium.
With so many blessings from a good horse, can one become a good rider? Not necessarily. "I bought a lot of horses, but those horses were all above my level at the time. The result? First of all, 'Tengyun', because I simply do not have the ability to control him, after being 'destroyed' repeatedly, it always fights me with refusal to jump, and it does not belong to me after all. 'Qingyun' is now my main horse, from the courage to go forward when I first had it, to the repeated 'setbacks' later, Qingyun enabled me to finally face the 'ugliness' of my riding skills, so I made up my mind to start from the beginning. Speaking of 'Feiyun', after a year of owning it, its legs swelled, and it could no longer complete a large-level competition, and could only endure the pain of cutting love. I heard that after going to the south, I partnered with a small rider, and the race results were good, which was a good home. Lin Fei used his bitter lesson to tell us that when a horse owner buys a horse, he must consider his true riding level and do not buy a horse that exceeds his ability.
Speaking about this topic, Lin Fei acted very seriously, "The harsh reality made me understand how horses are destroyed." When your ability is not enough to dance in harmony with the horse, be sure not to ride a horse that does not match your ability. Buying a horse may not be difficult, but without good riding skills, no matter how much you love horses in your heart, it is inevitable that you will cause serious harm to innocent horses. If you really love horses, start with the basics. Respect and love should be implemented in every lesson of equestrian training. Lin Fei thought bitterly, and finally, "In order to achieve my goal in the field obstacle course, I decided to leave the club that had accompanied me for nine years to find a new coach." ”
From November 1, 2020 to the following year, Lin Fei entered the reshaping phase. Break the previous cognition, abandon the false achievements of the past, and start over. For a year, Lin Fei has been doing flat practice in a down-to-earth manner, and has hardly carried out obstacle course training. "This year, I trained at the Westwood Country Equestrian Club. The equestrian atmosphere in Westwood is very pure, and I am deeply touched by Mr. Luan Shu's love for equestrian sports and his personal practice of promoting the development of China's equestrian industry. Hada Tie is a very experienced coach who set guidelines for me to start from scratch in basic training. Throughout the year, I reinvented my equestrian system and learned the meaning of respect, equality and patience in equestrianism. ”
"Coach Ha is usually very busy at work, training, coaching horses, racing, teaching occupies almost all of his energy, especially in the year of the whole luck, there is no way to take care of my training." In order to follow the higher goal in my heart, I decided to go to Philip Equestrian Academy. At the Philip Equestrian Academy, Lin Fei met Ukrainian coach Konstantin. Speaking of this coach, Lin Fei seemed excited. Constantine comes from an equestrian family and is a very respectable and lovely person. His teaching methods are very moral, rigorous and scientific. Lin Fei said: "He has a very good professional spirit, every second of the lecture pays attention to the details of my movements, and is ready to correct. It was as if he had a treasure chest in his belly, and he would always conjure up countless training tricks. When demonstrating the line, he will imitate the horse and give you a small run. When training, if a piece of content is not done well, he will concentrate on helping us solve this problem until the action is perfect, otherwise it will never carry out new content. Once done perfectly, it will be received when it is good, and both people and horses will leave good memories. If you do a good job, he will dance happily; if you don't do well, he will be annoyed as if he had made a mistake. From horse racing to Jump-Off skills, he taught them all. After studying under Lao Kang for half a year, I saw hope for the future. He once said to me with infinite sincerity when he was drunk and warm, 'I know your dream, I will help you'. I believe that if there is any shortcut to equestrianism, it is to find a responsible and good coach. "A good coach can tell you, and dare to tell you the methodology of things and the worldview behind them." "Can" is his professional quality, while "dare" is professional ethics. If the instructor is like the craftsmen of the old era, always want to have some reservations, or get by, it will delay the future of the trainees and harm themselves.
"Small six steps and big five steps, how to get out?" Old Kang taught me to adjust with the center of gravity, which was very good. After jumping over the obstacles, the general coach will say 'sit back', so do you have to come back? How much to come back? It depends on factors such as the state of the horse after landing and the distance of the next obstacle. Lao Kang made all this clear. Lin Fei added.
With constantine's help, Lin Fei is more confident in his future competitive state. Previously rented a horse for training at the PhilipPe Equestrian Academy, on November 1 this year, Lin Fei and his beloved horse were officially transferred to Philip. "Although life is a long journey, there is always an end. Especially for competitive competitions such as venue obstacles, it has certain age restrictions. I hope that from 60 to 70, by 70, I will not necessarily be able to guarantee the best competitive form. I had to realize my dream before I turned 70 and hit the height of 1.50M. So, the decade after 2021 will be the sprint stage of my equestrian career. ”
Horse owners should have been a respectable player in the equestrian world, as horse owners can provide financial, resources and intellectual support for the sport. But from Lin Fei's experience, the experience of being a horse owner is mixed. Lin Fei told me, "We horse owners all want the Chinese equestrian industry to be good. We invest a lot of time, emotion and money to bring dynamism and motivation to the industry. There are more and more youth races now, but the attention paid to horse owners is much less than before. In the past, there would be a horse race, points were set, and the owner could get some honors. Some club practitioners regard horse owners as purely profitable tools, using the asymmetry of knowledge and information to maximize their own interests by any means. What the owner of the horse gains is disappointment, and what is lost is dignity. Such short-sighted behavior is fatal to the development of China's equestrian industry and the club itself. Now, in addition to the parents who buy horses for teenagers, I find that most of the horse owners like us are old horse owners who were already in the horse pen ten years ago, and there are very few new horse owners in recent years. We horse owners love horses and equestrianism from the bottom of our hearts, and have deep social experience, rich spiritual connotations and relatively sufficient funds. If China has more horse owners like us, it will form a more powerful driving force for development. We sincerely hope that associations, organizations and clubs and coaches at all levels will give us a little more care and respect, and we are willing to do our best to make greater contributions to the development of China's equestrian cause. ”
In the past few decades, even if it has not been smooth, Lin Fei still dreams of embarking on the 1.50M level, "I have reached the age of flower armor, but 60 years old is the new starting point of my equestrian career as defined." I plan to hit the 1.50M level in two years and dream of participating in a National Games. After the age of seventy, you may change to dance steps, after the age of eighty, you want to become a coach, and then publish a book on equestrianism, using my science thinking to explain the essence of equestrian riding from different perspectives. Since I'm pretty much the oldest rider on the steeplechase, let's be a flag that doesn't fall! Flutter as far as you can on the field. Life must have a dream, not a dream, a dream after a dream. And the pursuit of dreams in your heart makes you never stop moving forward.
Text/Wanfulin Photo / Courtesy of Respondents
Article from the December 2021 issue of Equestrian Magazine