Eric Lamaze's Rolex Diary: Pre CHIO Aachen

Overall, I’ve had a great year and the highlight was without doubt at the FEI Nations’ Cup™ in Florida in February, where I rode nine-year-old mare, Derly Chin de Muze. She jumped a double clear, and is definitely a candidate for the London Olympics. I wasn’t expecting such a great result, so I’m extremely fortunate to have her as part of the Torrey Pines stables.

A day in the life of Eric Lamaze

I typically spend the winter at my home in Wellington, Florida, where we train young horses and riders, before heading back to Antwerp around mid-April where we now have a stable, which holds over 40 horses. When I’m in Europe, my daily routine consists of going to the gym in Brussels in the morning, before making my way to the stables where I ride my usual horses. I also train the people that work for me and some of the students, and then I move on to look at some horses in the afternoon.

Torrey Pines Stable

My training is going well. I have several new horses, so a lot of time is dedicated to getting used to them and also showing them at new venues. This year is different to previous years, as I’m left with a lot of horses who lack experience, so I want to get used to them and give them some challenges. I also have to decide which horse to pick for which show, so we’re juggling a lot of things that are unknown to us. There are, of course, a lot of surprises, but most of these are very pleasant! We have fantastic staff who are very confident in what they do; they oversee everything, which makes it much easier for me to concentrate on riding.

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Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final

I was very happy with the way the World Cup Final went. I took Coriana van Klapscheut, a horse with very little mileage, who I have only ever ridden at the Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final in Paris; a Grand Prix in Paris; and a Grand Prix in Florida. I mostly use Coriana in speed competitions, but I felt she needed a bigger show before the season started, and the World Cup Final seemed right for her. I didn’t expect to win it, but I thought it would do the horse some good later on in the year, and in the end she performed brilliantly.

Verdi and CHIO Aachen

I took my 10-year-old gelding, Verdi, to the five-star show in Madrid to compete in the Grand Prix, and I was thrilled with his third place result. I plan on taking him to Spruce Meadows, so we shall see how he gets on and go from there. As far as Aachen is concerned, I am still unsure as to which horse I will be taking, so we will aim to use as much of the deadline as we can before we make that decision!

A tight schedule

I am not very involved with the organization of my schedule because I have great staff who does it for me. Marie Fraisse does all of the coordinating in terms of my agenda and getting the horses from one place to another. I just tell Marie in advance where I’m going and everything is arranged for me – I’m a very lucky guy!

Summer 2012 and the Olympic Games

My schedule is basically the same as every year. However, following the CSIO5* Rome, I will be taking a week’s break to play golf in Wellington (USA). I will then be riding in the summer series at Spruce Meadows, which involves four major competitions, and then Aachen is a possibility. Unfortunately, this year Aachen runs at the same time as the final week of Spruce Meadows, but I am going to try to fit in both somehow. The Grand Prix in Calgary is on Saturday July 7th while the Rolex Grand Prix in Aachen is on Sunday July 8th, so it will depend on the horsepower that I have. We then go to San Patrignano in Italy from July 20-22, which will most likely be the last show before the Olympics in London.

Eric Lamaze, Olympic Games gold medal winning show jumper, is a Rolex equestrian sports Testimonee, (from a select group of elite sportsmen who excel in their sport discipline).