Text © World of Showjumping

In our series ‘That Special Bond’ we highlight what this sport truly is about; the unique connection between horses and humans. Speaking with some of the top names in the sport, we learn more about the horses that have shaped careers, fulfilled dreams – and sometimes even broken hearts. This time around, we speak with 2012 Olympic Champion Steve Guerdat and discover that the horses closest to his heart all had strong personalities. "I prefer horses that make their own decisions and that tell me what they want," Steve says. 

“I had a lot of great horses, so it is really difficult to pick just one, or even two or three, but for sure one of the most special ones was Jalisca Solier,” Steve begins. “Jalisca was the horse that brought me back into the sport after I had left Stal Tops in Holland and started again from scratch in Switzerland, and she ended up winning a lot for me. Just when I started to miss the top sport – I had nothing to ride but 5- and 6-year-olds around at local shows in Switzerland – Jalisca happened.”

With Jalisca Solier (Alligator Fontaine x Jalisco B, born 1997), Guerdat won team gold at the 2009 FEI European Championships at Windsor, as well as team bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, won the 2006 FEI World Cup™ Jumping in Geneva, the 2007 FEI World Cup™ Jumping in Vigo, the 2010 Credit Suisse Grand Prix in Geneva, the 2010 Rolex IJRC Top Final in Geneva, as well as taking big victories in Aachen, Ascona, Cannes, Dublin, Donaueschingen, Humlikon, Lyon and St. Gallen. Jalisca was retired from the sport in 2013, during CHI Geneva, and sadly passed away in 2014.

“Jalisca came to me by pure coincidence,” Steve continues. “My father had missed his flight home after the show in Monaco, and the next morning at the airport, he met Mr. Piaget. They met while ordering coffee, had a talk and Mr. Piaget asked my father what I was doing – to which my dad replied that I was trying to do my own thing. Mr. Piaget said to my father that I should come and see him, and although I did not know him at the time, I went. Mr. Piaget told me that he was willing to buy me a horse if I could find one, so I started asking around. That’s when Hubert Bourdy told me about Jalisca.”

“Actually, it turned out that I knew her – I had ridden her when I was working at Stal Tops; she was there for a selection for an auction that Hubert and Jan were doing during the show in Valkenswaard. However, she did not get selected, and Hubert took her back. At the time, Hubert was with Virginie Coupérie so she bought half of Jalisca and started to ride her. By the time I met Mr. Piaget, Hubert and Virginie had sold Jalsica to Gian-Battista Lutta so I went to him to try her. During the trial, I had a fantastic feeling, but we could not agree on the price, so we did not move on to buy her. Three or four weeks later I was in Aachen to watch the World Championships, and I got a call from Lutta who told me I could get the ride on her because she was being a bit funny with him. That weekend, she was at a national show in Switzerland, so I drove back all night to arrive just for the class – a 1.35m. I jumped her in the 1.35m, then later in a 1.45m – and she won. The next day, I jumped her in a national Grand Prix and she won that too. That gave her headlines in a big Swiss newspaper, that Alban Poudret was writing for at the time. On the following Tuesday, Mr. Piaget called me and asked: ‘Is she that good?’, ‘yes,’ I said, ‘she is.’ So, we managed to agree on a price with Lutta, and Mr. Piaget bought her. That was the start of my career.” 

Jalisca did everything with her heart

“Jalisca did everything with her heart, she was probably not a horse that was supposed to do all those classes she ended up doing,” Steve tells. “She never disappointed us, never had a rail down without a reason, she won a lot and had an unbelievable character. For Heidi [Editor’s note: Heidi Mulari, Guerdat’s former groom] and me, she was really a part of our lives.”

“Jalisca had a lot of personality, but a really nice one,” Steve tells. “She did not like other horses though, and she preferred to be alone but if you went to her, she was always very kind. To ride, she was not the nicest – but she had so much fighting spirit, she was just an unbelievable animal. That being said, the feeling on her was very different than what it looked like. I’m not a big fan of watching too many videos, or asking around – if I like a horse, I like it, and if you have to be convinced by other people, then it’s probably not right anyway, so I like to go by my feeling – and in Jalisca’s case this was probably good. At the time, I was never filming when I was riding, it was not ClipMyHorse like today, so if I had seen videos I would probably not have been that sure to buy her.”

She had so much fighting spirit, she was just an unbelievable animal

“When Jalisca passed away in January 2014, it was very difficult,” Steve tells. “After everything she gave us, I said that we were going to retire her when she was still fit. So, when she was 16, we retired her – she got a beautiful farewell ceremony during CHI Geneva. We took her back home at first, we did not want to send her to France straight away, because she was not used to be with other horses. We wanted to do it gradually, adjust her to retirement – and still ride her bit. She was ridden every other day and went to the field. The weekend she passed away, I was in Zurich at the show, and when I left home on Sunday morning, Jalisca was out in the field so I walked to her to give her a carrot and then I got into my car. I jumped the morning class, and when I walked out of the ring I could see on the faces of my father, my groom and Thomas Fuchs that something was not right. I got off, and they told me that Jalisca had broken her leg while in the field – maybe two hours after I had left her. I went straight back to the stable. When I arrived she was still alive so I could see her before she went and say goodbye to her. It was so sad; she gave us everything and we wanted to give her something back. I’m sure she would have been an amazing mum; I would have loved to see her in the field in France, but we never got that far.”

“Then there is Nino des Buissonnets,” Steve says. “Nino changed my life; when you are Olympic Champion, nothing is the same after.”

“It was Thomas Fuchs who told me about Nino, that at the time was at Manfred Marschall’s – Tim Hoster was riding him back then. Nino had quite a story behind him, but I did not know it at the time I tried him... Guillaume Foutrier had been riding him, winning a lot at 1.35m level. At one point, there were clients to try Nino – they did not buy him, but Lutta was there at the same time, offered money and bought him. Actually, my best friend Alain Jufer rode Nino at one show, was eliminated in a 1.35m – but luckily, I did not know this back then. At that same show that Alain was eliminated, Marschall bought Nino from Lutta and gave him to his son to ride. That did not work out though, so Tim took over. I think Tim did five shows with Nino and won two or three national Grand Prix classes in a short period of time. Like I said, I did not know all of this – if I like a horse, I don’t ask too much because otherwise you always find something negative. Again, probably it was for the better.”

With Nino des Buissonnets (Kannan x Narcos II, born 2001), Guerdat became Olympic Champion in London in 2012, and was twice Vice Champion at the FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final – in 2012 and 2013. The two competed at the 2013 FEI European Championships in Herning, the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games in Caen and at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio where they finished fourth individually. They won the 2015 Rolex Grand Prix in Geneva, the 2014 FEI World Cup™ Jumping in Helsinki, the 2013 Rolex Grand Prix in Geneva, the 2012 Grand Prix in Rio – as well as finishing on the podium in numerous prestigious competitions world-wide. Nino was retired from the sport in 2016, during CHI Geneva where he finished off with a clear in the first round of the Rolex Grand Prix. Today, Nino enjoys his retirement.

“I was a bit reluctant to try Nino, but Thomas convinced me to just sit on him as we anyhow were going to be at the same show in Donaueschingen,” Steve tells. “So just to please Thomas, I agreed to try Nino. I did five jumps, and said to Thomas: ‘I love the horse’. Then I had to find someone who could buy him for me, so I went to Mr. Schwartzenbach and asked if he would be interested. Mr. Schwartzenbach said that if Nino was as good as I said, we could go and try him again. The feeling Nino gave me was amazing, we vetted him and Mr. Schwartzenbach bought him for me to ride.”

Nino always seemed to be a bit in his own world

“The first show I did with Nino was in Amsterdam in January 2011,” Steve tells. “I came to the first fence in the 1.40m class, and was eliminated. This was the Friday afternoon of the show, around 3 PM I would say. The next class I could jump him in was late-night on Saturday, a 1.45m speed class – that was a long wait… I remember sitting there waiting, all depressed, when Christian Ahlmann said to me, jokingly, ‘At least, next time you are going in the ring, you are going to improve’. And I promise you, nearly to the very end with Nino, every time I got to the first fence I was thinking of Christian,” Steve laughs. 

Still today, I don’t know whether he is happy to see me or not

“Nino always seemed to be a bit in his own world, it was like his mind was somewhere else,” Steve tells. “He loved to be taken care of, and needed a lot care too, but still today, I don’t know whether he is happy to see me or not. That’s probably also why I had a stronger relationship with Jalisca and Bianca because I would go to the stable and they would be happy to get a hug. But, Nino, he never showed that he loved anyone. That being said, when I was sitting on him, we had a great connection – but our relationship was through the riding and not from the ground.”

“I also have to mention Bianca. And with these three horses, it’s not just the results, I don’t know exactly what they won, or how much they won, but all three of them were really part of and marked my life in a very special way,” Steve says.

With Bianca (Balou du Rouet x Cardento, born 2006), Guerdat won individual bronze at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, as well as team bronze at the 2015 FEI European Championships in Gothenburg. The pair also represented Switzerland at the European Championships in Rotterdam in 2019, and at two FEI World Cup™ Jumping Finals – in Omaha in 2017 and in Paris in 2018. During their career together, they won the 2018 Rolex Grand Prix at Windsor, and they finished on the podium in five-star Grand Prix and World Cup classes in Brussels, Den Bosch, Geneva, La Baule, Lyon, Spruce Meadows and Stuttgart. Sadly, Bianca passed away in 2021 after suffering from a brain tumour.

“I still remember the first time I saw Bianca,” Steve recalls. “I was in Arezzo, and out flatting in the morning when I saw Nick Channing-Williams on her. I immediately fell in love with her; she was so beautiful. I asked Nick about her, and he told me she was an amazing jumper, really special – and with a problem with anything blue. Nick started cantering her around and did a pole on the ground, and she jumped one meter over it. Later that day, I went to watch her in the 1.35m and as promised she stopped on a blue vertical but for the rest she jumped good. At the time, Nick was riding Bianca for Hannah Mytilineou – who owned her back then – so he took me with for dinner to discuss what we could do. I tried Bianca the next day and the feeling was unreal. We organised so that I could get the ride on her, and she came to me.” 

“As to the blue, I never had a problem with it, and although she could be a bit spooky, she was an unbelievable water jumper,” Steve tells.

All three of them were really part of and marked my life in a very special way

“Bianca was a lovely mare, everyone in the stable fell in love with her – she was just so beautiful and so nice. You just wanted to cuddle with her the moment you saw her,” Steve says. “Unfortunately, my story with Bianca got a very, very, sad end.”

“I think what I really liked with all three of these horses, was that they all had an opinion,” Steve says. “I had a discussion with them on how to do things, it was not me who decided what they had to do. I like this with a horse, and it probably also has to do with my way of riding – I like the horses to think with me, I don’t like to think for them. My rounds are probably not the smoothest, but I like that; I prefer horses that make their own decisions and that tell me what they want. Often, it works better for me with a horse that has a strong personality.”

"The horse that has taken me the most work, not just in the ring, but with everything is Venard de Cerisy,” Steve tells. “Venard has been difficult in many ways. He has been very difficult to get on – we had a few accidents at home getting on him – and for a long time it was impossible to jump two fences in a row with him. I also did not see a super-star in him straight away, so I was a bit disappointed. Probably, if it was not for the fact that he belonged to Sabina Cartossi – a fantastic owner for me – I would have given up before. But, because I wanted to please Sabina, I kept on trying.”

With Venard de Cerisy (Open Up de Semilly x Jalsico du Guet, born 2009), Guerdat won the 2019 Pan American Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows, the 2019 Grand Prix in St. Gallen and the 2021 CP International presented by Rolex at Spruce Meadows – a class the pair went on to finish second in the year after. The two also have big wins from Helsinki, Geneva, St. Tropez and Stuttgart to look back at, and represented Switzerland at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo as well as at the 2022 FEI World Championships in Herning.

“Venard is not a horse you can do quickly; he requires a lot of time and he needs to trust the people around him. It took a long time for him to trust me, and I also saw how fast he can lose the trust in those around him,” Steve continues.

“The day I jumped Venard a derby fence, everything changed,” Steve tells. “I just could not jump him at home, but the day I started to jump him the natural fences, he changed completely. He changed his mind, and his way of jumping. I decided to enter him in the derby in La Baule; the first day he jumped the small class – he was nothing special, then he jumped the derby and loved it, and the next day I put him in a 1.45m and he jumped unbelievable. That was the first time he jumped really, really good in the ring. After this, I did all the derbies I could with him, and at home I only jumped natural fences, and it completely changed him. In the end, Venard became the horse that probably has won me the most money – and of course the CP International.” 

The day I jumped Venard a derby fence, everything changed

“I always considered the Grand Prix of Calgary the most difficult class to win for me, because it was not really in my comfort zone with these big, heavy jumps,” Steve tells. “I normally like careful horses, that maybe don’t have the last scope, whereas in Calgary you need a big, brave and scopey horse – so I always thought ‘am I ever going to be able to win that Grand Prix?’ However, Venard made that dream come true!”

“Dynamix de Belheme has also been very difficult for me to understand,” Steve tells about the 10-year-old mare that recently finished fourth in the Rolex Grand Prix at The Dutch Masters and looks set to become his next super-star.

With Dynamix de Belheme (Snaike de Blondel x Cornet Obolensky, born 2013), Guerdat recently won the Horseware Grand Prix at the Sunshine Tour and finished fourth in the Rolex Grand Prix at The Dutch Masters. Last year, the two ended second in the FEI World Cup™ Jumping in Stuttgart.

“It’s funny because Dynamix is actually very easy, but maybe too easy for me in terms of not having enough character,” Steve tells. “We bought her as a 5-year-old, and in the beginning it was great. After half-a-year with me, I thought I have to do something not right; she was always very good in the ring, but she felt a bit empty. We took a bunch of tests, but everything came back good, so I thought she maybe was a bit tired and I decided to put her in the field for two months. When we took her back in, it was the same thing. I thought something must be wrong, but still she was always very good in the ring.”

“However, there was just something I did not understand with her and this kept on bothering me the whole year that she was seven. I was missing something, something I could not understand,” Steve says. “As we were on the way to Oliva in 2021, the EHV-1 outbreak happened. We had stopped in Béziers with the horses, and as we heard they closed the facilities in Oliva we decided to stay one more day at the stop-over until the situation was clarified. Fanny and I were in Montpellier with Fanny’s mother and her husband Gerard Marragou, so we went together to ride the horses in Béziers. I asked Gerard to ride a few for me, as we had plenty of horses and the weather was really bad. Gerard is unbelievable at lunging, and he asked if he could take Dynamix for a lunge. He is incredible at it; he needs two, three, days to get his code to the horses, and then they do whatever he asks just by his voice. I’m not a big fan of lunging, I’d rather not lunge than lunge bad – so we normally don’t lunge the horses at all. But, despite not being on the lunge while she had been with me, it did not even take Dynamix two minutes to do everything Gerard was asking. Gerard said to me: ‘I have never seen that before; she is a genius’. That changed the way I saw her.”

You get in the ring with her and she is a machine

“Probably, Dynamix can do everything, and what I had asked of her was so easy for her that she was just bored. The only place she gave me what I wanted was in the ring. So, from that moment, I stopped training things with her – now I only keep her happy,” Steve tells. “When you see her in the warm-up, you think she has a small stride, no blood and no scope – and then you get in the ring with her and she is a machine. So, I convinced myself that Dynamix is a genius and the only place that she wants to be is in the ring jumping big jumps. At home, I try to do different things with her every day. She is lunged twice a week, she hacks out a lot, she’s a lot in the field, she needs to move a lot as she is quite stiff – but I will never ride her two days in a row in the same place. In the winter it is difficult though as we have a lot of snow, and this is why it is really good for her to come to a place like the Sunshine Tour where she can hack out every day in the woods next to competing.”

“I don’t know what my horses won, but I think Venard probably has earned the most after being first and second in the CP International at Calgary,” Steve says about the gelding that has banked 1.700.000 Euro in prize money since 2017. 

“For a long time, it was probably Tresor though – a horse I think no one really remembers,” he continues. “This was also a crazy story… At the time, I really had nothing to ride and my dad told me about Tresor: ‘It’s this horse that belongs to a Spanish young rider, and he’s going to study and wants to sell it…’. As my dad really liked Tresor, I flew to Barcelona to try him. I think I jumped twenty jumps, and although he did not knock them all down he touched seventeen of them,” Steve laughs. “I said to my dad; ‘I’d rather not go to a show than to go with this horse…’ Two weeks later, my dad called me again and said: ‘You know, you can just get the ride on him, you don’t need to buy him’ and I told him I did not want the horse at all. Two days later, my dad called again and told me Tresor was on the truck – on the way to me. I was so mad with him!” 

With Tresor V (Papillon Rouge x Laudanum, born 1996), Guerdat won the 2008 Grand Prix in Lyon, the 2009 Grand Prix in Rotterdam, the 2010 FEI World Cup™ Jumping in Zurich, as well as big classes in Geneva and Monaco, and was on the podium on several occasions in five-star Grand Prix and World Cup competitions. The two also competed twice at the FEI World Cup™ Jumping Finals – in 2009 and 2010, as well as at the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

“After he arrived, I jumped him at home, and he knocked everything down. I then jumped him at a national show, and I had four and six fences down in the 1.40m classes,” Steve laughs. “Then my dad said to me: ‘Ride him in the Grand Prix’, and so I did. He was clear in the first round, but in the jump-off, he had four fences down again. I have no idea how, but from there on Tresor started changing. Although he jumped clear in a lot of Grand Prix classes, as soon as I went fast in the jump-off he would knock fences down.”

“I then remember getting an invitation for the five-star show in Estoril back in 2006, and even though I did not really have the horses for it I decided to go along with Daniel Etter – who took Tresor with on his truck. It was finally one nice show I could do; I had been riding national in Switzerland for six months, so I just decided to go – basically it was more of a holiday,” Steve laughs. “Off I went to Estoril, where Tresor won one class and was second in another – and then had one down in the Grand Prix.”

 I did not want the horse at all

“Tresor ended up being really good, and won a lot of big things – the Grand Prix in Lyon and the World Cup in Zurich, and was even double clear in the Nations Cup in Calgary. I did not even want to ride him, and he ended up being one of my best horses!”

“The one horse I would have loved to make a career with was Tepic La Silla, but I knew from the beginning I would only have him until the 2003 European Championships in Donaueschingen where we ended up winning team bronze and finished 6th individually,” Steve tells. “I only did five or six shows with him – but he won nearly everything. Tepic was the best horse I have ever ridden, and he would probably have been the best horse in the history of showjumping if he had been with a professional rider his whole career. It was really hard to give him back.”

With Tepic La Silla (Akteur x Irak, born 1988), Guerdat won team bronze at the 2003 FEI European Championships in Donaueschingen where the two also finished 6th individually, and won Grand Prix classes in Neuendorf and Metz. 

“But, in general, I don’t feel like any horse got away. Sometimes you have people say ‘oh you had that horse, why did you give it away?’, but if I think about it, I believe in things happening for a reason,” Steve says. “As an example, I had Cayman Jolly Jumper at my place, and I have had so many people ask me why I let him go that even I started to question my own decision. But the reason I let him go was that I had no connection with him, so I was also not supposed to end up with him. And, maybe, if I had kept on with Cayman, I would not have had Dynamix as she is now, so I don’t feel like the horse got way because it happened for a reason. Had I kept him, things would have turned out different than they are now, so it was for the better.”

“I can’t ask for any more than I have had in my career, so if something happened, it happened, and for the best,” Steve says. “And what did not work for me, worked for someone else and that’s also the great thing about our sport – there are so many different ways and methods to do it. I had more than I could have ever wished for when it comes to horses, so it would be unfair to say that one got away.”

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