Three weeks ago William Fox-Pitt was competing at the Olympics but this weekend he gets back to basics competing with newcomers to three-day eventing at Blair Castle.

For Team GB’s miracle man, who recovered from having been put into an induced coma after being seriously injured in a fall during a competition in France last year to make it to Rio, partnering a relative novice in French mount Volcan du Barquet is part of what makes his sport special, while spectators – some 40,000 are expected to attend - may also be watching one of the world’s great horsemen embarking on his bid to go to the next Olympics in Tokyo.

“It’s real life, this is what it’s all about, producing young horses, bringing them on and you dream of four years’ time, which is what we’re saying already now, but it goes from one minute you’re in Rio dreaming and the next it’s back to reality,” said the five time Olympian, who is competing in the CC1 event at this weekend’s Equi-Trek International Horse Trials.

He notes that educating an event horse can take eight to 12 years while they are only allowed to start competing at the age of five, so while seven sounds old in racing terms, Volcan is just beginning to learn his trade.

“I think it’s a good thing in our sport. It gives us something to get stuck into, otherwise we’d be flat as pancakes right now, whereas here I am with a nice seven year old starting his career and various dreams for his owners and me that he could go on,” Fox-Pitt observed.

“So we’re looking forward and very excited to be here at Blair. Something that’s great in this sport is that you do have the better riders riding their young horses and you do see horses of the future at the levels as low as one star, so it could be the beginning of a dream.”

By the standards they have set previously the Olympics were a major let-down for the British three-day-eventing team as Fox-Pitt acknowledges.

“It was brilliant that Rio happened, but obviously devastating that it all went wrong. It was very disappointing,” he said.

“Cross country is my best bit, the bit I love the most and it was the one I got wrong, but as they say that’s sod’s law and that’s sport. Sadly in sport sometimes you might win, but you do lose and we have to face that.

“We really hoped we might have been up there in the medals and we just weren’t, but we’ve all got good horses to look forward to and we’re very lucky in our eventing sport that you do have other horses, you have other people and life goes on and it’s great.”

It must also be placed in the context of the horrific experience that threatened more than his Games participation and he felt very lucky to be able to take part, expressing gratitude to all those, particularly his physios and psychologists, who played a part in getting him there.

“All along I thought I was going to Rio, of course I did, but I was quite steady mentally and it took a long time to get me back so a lot of people thought ‘no chance.’ I was very lucky because my rehab went to plan and I can’t take that for granted that it fell into place, I didn’t have any setbacks, so I got right just in time to go to Rio,” he noted.

“In my mind that was always my drive. That got me better, Rio really psyched me up and pushed me forward, but I think a lot of my team thought ‘he’s crazy.’”

Now 47 the five time Olympian also indicated that being in Rio provided renewed inspiration in the form of one of his equestrian team-mates as, at the age of 58, claimed a gold medal in show-jumping.

“That certainly boosted me,” said Fox-Pitt.

“I’m 47 so I’m heading that way rapidly and I thought London would be my last Olympics, so it was amazing I even rode in Rio, let alone tried to do well. So who knows, maybe Tokyo I’ll be hanging in there and I’ve got a very good young horse I think highly of.

“It’s not an ambition at the moment, but certainly Nick Skelton has given us a real lead on this. He’s had physical setbacks, his horse has had time off and he got back and produced his best on the day, the best in the world and at 58 it’s incredible.

“You forget though, we do call ourselves athletes, but it’s the horse rather than the rider. The rider’s the partner, you’ve just got to not get in the way haven’t you?”

The Blair Castle Equi-Trek International Horse Trials got underway yesterday and continue until Sunday afternoon.