“Everything was just so surreal,” Dalma Malhas says excitedly as she continues telling me how events unfolded for her at the 2017 CSIO5* Roma Piazza di Siena, leading up to her qualification for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina. “I qualify for [the Loro Piana Gran Premio Citta di Roma] grand prix. We’d never jumped a five star, not me or my horse. It was amazing. We go in, have one rail, and qualify for the [2018 FEI World Equestrian Games].”

From that point forward, WEG was written in permanent ink on the calendar for Dalma and her horse Toscanini Malpic (Allegreto—Kelemm Des Marins). “I planned like I was going, and [I did] everything I could to go,” Dalma said. “When the grand prix in Rome went well, I said, ‘OK, you know what, I have to take this opportunity because it’s not every day that you have a horse to jump this level. And [it's not every day that you] may qualify for WEG.’”

So, roughly 16 months after jumping in their first CSI5*, (and with only one other class at that level under their belt) Dalma and “Tosca,” arrived in Tryon, North Carolina as the sole athletes representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.