Text © World of Showjumping

“My highlights would be winning multiple Grand Prix classes around the world with different horses,” Sean Vard – who for the past eight years has been Martin Fuchs’ show groom – tells World of Showjumping about his 2024. “We got to see some new places this year, like the World Equestrian Centre in Ocala, which blew my mind! We got to experience Dublin Horse Show as part of the Rolex-family for the first time ever – which was amazing and incredibly promising for the future. We also experienced a week full of mixed emotions at the Olympic Games in Paris, where the sport was through the roof and the venue was simply outstanding. Although we didn’t come away with our end goal, it was still a great honour to be a part of it.”

It feels like an understatement to say that Team Fuchs had a good year, when their track-record includes winning the CSIO5* 1.60m Grand Prix in Ocala with Leone Jei, the CSIO5* 1.60m Defender Grand Prix of Switzerland in St. Gallen with Commissar Pezi, the CSI5* 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix of Windsor with Leone Jei, the CSIO5* 1.60m RWE Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia at CHIO Aachen with Commissar Pezi, the CSIO5* 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix of Ireland in Dublin with Conner Jei, the CSIO5* Nations Cup in Brussels with Conner Jei, the CSIO5* 1.60m CPKC ‘International’ Grand Prix, presented by Rolex, at Spruce Meadows with Leone Jei, the CSI5*-W 1.60m Grand Prix in Helsinki with L&L Upgrade, the CSI5* 1.60m Trophee de Geneve at CHI Geneva with Conner Jei, the CSI5* 1.55m UBS Challenge at CHI Geneva with Commissar Pezi, and then wrapping up the year by winning the Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final with Leone Jei.

“Something that stands out was winning the Dublin Grand Prix on home soil,” Sean – who is Irish – tells. “It was out of this world for me, especially with the show now being part of the Rolex Series. The Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final was one of the highlights as well – and a career highlight too. Getting in at the last minute and winning, that was something very special! St. Gallen was obviously a cool one too, even though that was a weird one in a sense that we were one of the few that stayed and stuck it out. It paid off, and again we experienced great, exciting sport.”

“We missed some luck during the start of the indoor World Cup-season this year with unlucky rails here and there,” Sean tells. “However, that’s unfortunately the sport – and apart from being a good character-test, it does make the good results that little bit more enjoyable. There were a few long nights behind the wheel driving home, wondering what could have been done better or where we went wrong. Obviously, these moments are long forgotten when we have just come away from the incredible week we had in Geneva. This doesn’t happen often!”

However, for Sean, there are other aspects than winning: “Seeing my horses and the team around me stay healthy with no injuries is a great relief. I personally have been taking a little bit more time to spend with family and friends, which is something that I over the past years have overlooked,” he tells. “I have enjoyed every minute of it. Thankfully, we have such an understanding, hard-working team which allows me to have this freedom.”

“This year, I took more time to travel myself,” Sean reflects on the personal side of 2024. “I could use more holiday time and enjoy life a bit more, and I'm hoping to do more of that as well in 2025. Basically, I want to focus on enjoying life, not just racing from one show to another – I’m unfortunately not getting any younger!”

“I see a lot of change in the last year,” Sean answers when asked what he would want to see improve within the sport from the grooms’ point of view. “I see better facilities offered, better care and more respect. I have experienced a much more welcoming attitude from the show organisers, more opinions been taken on board through various associations. I see just a much greater level of respect given to the grooms.”

“I'm hoping that more shows come on board and offer various incentives to the grooms to make their job a fraction easier and more enjoyable during the busy calendar,” he continues. “We inevitably have a shortage of grooms who choose to make this a career option in our sport and these changes are absolutely helping in the right direction! I just hope that it keeps going in the way it's going and gets better! I’m hoping that the hard working grooms will develop more of a voice and stand up for themselves should a situation arise where they don’t feel 100% comfortable or capable.”

“For 2025, I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing some new places that have been added on to the calendar,” Sean tells about the new year. “Hopefully, I’ll make it to Abu Dhabi for the Longines League of Nations, that would be great. I'm excited for the amazing string of horses that we have, and we've been building up a few of the less experienced ones towards the end of the year. Hopefully they'll all be firing on all cylinders next year. I'm excited for the Europeans in La Coruña; I think this will be a great challenge with a brilliant, already proven facility. I'm looking forward to great sport around the world.”

“I'm just excited for the year of sport in general,” Sean concludes. “When you're as obsessed with this sport as I am, anything will get you excited.”

28.12.2024 No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.