Riding on towards the world

Once, she fell off a horse and returned to her office on Monday with a bandage on her head.

"My colleagues laughed at me and said: 'Look, the crazy horse maniac is back'."

Equestrian events involve show jumping, dressage and cross-country. They are one of the few sports that involve close cooperation between a human being and an animal.

"You're in a partnership with your horse, which asks for subtle communications, instead of blind force," she says.

The skills are not the most important part. The key is total trust between two different living creatures, she explains.

"This partnership is also indispensable in our relations with other people," she says. "Equestrian sports have helped me to better understand life."

Wang says horses have given her confidence in dealing with complex problems and have taught her tolerance, loyalty, bravery and responsibility.

Her love of horses led her to quit her job at Cosmo fashion magazine in 2001, when she and her husband took over the club.

At first, things didn't go smoothly. Wang didn't know which official channels could help her to procure horses and how to raise funds for show jumping championships.

One particularly difficult moment was in 2003, when the club was forced to shut down because of the SARS epidemic. All employees had to stay indoors and Wang had to drive out to get supplies for them and the horses.

"Keeping my people and horses healthy was all I wished for at that moment," she says.

But Wang and the club pulled through the difficult period. In 2005, Wang got an opportunity to attend China's 10th National Games' equestrian championship.

She was eager to use the event to increase her club's influence in China.

"I immediately went to Europe to look for horses for the championship, despite being three months pregnant," she says.