Photo provided to China Daily

"I used to be so obedient, always following the instructions of superiors to the letter. But as I got in touch with horses I gradually came out of my shell and became a lot more straightforward, wanting more control of my life."

The business Huang set up with friends when he left government in 1995 was involved in international trade, and as that grew, so did his love of horses and a desire to gain more professional skills.

So from 1998, he took up equestrian training, specializing in show jumping, at Beijing Sports University.

About three years of training under his belt he was 13th at the quadrennial National Games in 2001, the same year that Beijing won the bid for the Olympics.

The fact that China had never competed in equestrian events at an Olympics before fueled Huang's desire to make what may have seemed like an impossible dream come true.

"I knew I only had this one opportunity to realize the dream of a lifetime," he says, which in turn drove his decision to give up his business.

In 2003 he packed his things and flew to Germany to begin training. The place he opted to go to was Osnabrueck, Lower Saxony, which is reputed for its equestrian prowess.

When he arrived, he was put in touch with a stud that would give him daily riding opportunities, but that proved to be unsatisfactory.

"They only had young horses that were there for only a short time before being sent away, and in any event the skills I was looking to build up could not be attained there."

Fortunately a friend of Huang put him in touch with Ludger Beerbaum, a multiple Olympic gold medal winner for Germany in show jumping, and Huang began to train with him in Muenster, 65 kilometers away.

However, things did not go smoothly there either.