In Tuesday’s Olympic individual final in Versailles, the Netherlands' Maikel van der Vleuten and Beauville Z (Bustique x Jumpy des Fontaines) repeated their bronze from Tokyo in 2021 – quite an achievement! 

Van der Vleuten posted the second clear round in the final, and went into a jump-off of three for the medals against Christian Kukuk and Checker, as well as Steve Guerdat and Dynamix de Belheme.

Second out in the jump-off, after Kukuk’s clear round, van der Vleuten had no chance but to go for it, but a rail on the oxer at 10b hit the ground, to leave him on four faults and a time of 39.12 seconds – and eventually an another Olympic bronze.  

“All his life, he has been extremely consistent,” van der Vleuten said of Beauville after the two had claimed their second individual Olympic bronze medal. “He is a horse that is extremely careful, but at the same time he always fights for me, and he is brave. When I go into the arena, I know he will give everything for me. But of course, this takes time – a lot of hours, days, years, of practicing. We took a lot of time in the beginning when he was seven and eight to get the confidence in each other. Then I was understanding my horse in and out, and the other way as well. Once I had the feeling the horse believed in me, I think we grew into a great partnership and that brought us already to fantastic memories.”

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