Alex aiming to strike gold in Tokyo

He does not want to hide his ambition: Olympic gold.

"Everybody's dream is to be the Olympic champion. Look at the Rio individual show jumping gold medalist, Nick Skelton of Britain. He once broke his neck and had a hip replacement. He nearly won the gold medal three or four times before he finally did it at age 58.

"That is the true definition of the Olympic dream. For me personally, I look forward to a long career. I have a few more Olympics left. If the stars are aligned and somebody up there looks down on me and gives me the opportunity, it would be wonderful to be champion. But if I don't win gold, it won't stop me doing what I love doing."

Hua Tian also cautioned his Chinese teammates that qualifying for Tokyo does not mean the team is guaranteed a spot.

"This is the first step in the process," he said. "We have to achieve something called the Olympic MER, which stands for 'minimum eligibility requirement'. Although MER is not that difficult to achieve at the four-star level, it still means we have to move one step up from the three-star level... and that's a big step."

He's hoping the Chinese Equestrian Association will invest more to help achieve that goal.

"We need to buy more horses and the riders need to know these horses and we need to get our certificate capability of MER by Jan 1. We need to get our individual MER by the middle of next June," he said.

Still, Hua Tian is optimistic about the Chinese team's Olympic debut.

"We stay positive about our opportunities, but at the same time we are realistic about the challenges. We discuss them and share experiences and address them directly. We have done so well up to now. We just need to stay on the course."