Swiss Spirit on Trial

“It all began because of my friendship with Markus,” said Swiss Chef d’Equipe Rolf Grass, talking about his role as show jumping team manager earlier this week. It’s late in the evening, because he has been busy at work all day, but you can sense that discussing the other great passion in his life is not going to be a problem.

Owner of “three or four” metal fabrication companies, which produce the bodies of vehicles including trains and airplanes, he has a great deal of pressure in his business life, but never so much that he cannot attend to his equestrian duties.

It is a just a few days ahead of the third leg of the 2008 Samsung Super League with FEI series in his home town of St Gallen and his mind is well-focused. The Swiss team has been erratic over the first two legs â€“ producing a poor first round and then a significantly better second one at La Baule three weeks ago, while things didn’t get a lot better in Rome last Friday where his side finished joint-last. Rolf doesn’t sound terribly worried however. He’s got a plan, and everything is going to be fine…..

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His interest in the fortunes of Swiss show jumping began when he first started to travel with Markus Fuchs to shows around the world. “We’ve been friends a long time,” he points out, “and I bought some horses for him and was a sponsor for him for a while,” he explains.

As time went on he established “a good connection” with the Swiss Federation and was asked to work as Chef d’Equipe for teams travelling to smaller events. “I went mainly to places outside Europe and to Poland and Hungary, not to the bigger shows, but I did it three or four times a year for several years and I learned a lot during that time,” he explains. Then, after the World Equestrian Games in Jerez in 2002 he was asked if he would take on the management of the senior squad but he didn’t think he had enough experience. However, the alternative three-way joint-management arrangement put in place wasn’t successful either – “so in the end I said this is not going to work and that I would do it – by now I realised that I had built up a good relationship with the riders,” he says.

That relationship is key to how he operates. “It is essential that everyone agrees to work together, to be open about things and to build up social confidence with one another,” he points out. Team spirit is at the core of what he is looking for, and he won’t settle for anything less. If riders won’t cooperate with each other and with the demands he places on them as team leader, then he really doesn’t want to include them in his squad. It may sound a little uncompromising, but it is based on the belief that greater things can be achieved by pulling together than by pulling apart.

The first two legs of this season’s Samsung Super League with FEI series have been about finding the right mix for this summer’s Olympic Games in Hong Kong. “I wanted to see the level of each rider and how well they would work together,” Rolf explains. He also expects the owners of his chosen Olympic horses to sign an agreement that the animal will not be sold before the end of the Games and that they are happy that their horses will be subject to rigorous checks and tests during the Olympic period. Not everyone has agreed, but that has only helped to crystallise his decision-making and the side he has chosen for this Friday’s all-important nations’ cup looks every inch an Olympic selection. “In St Gallen, Rotterdam and Aachen I will try to make a team with four or five riders who will be sure for the Games,” he explains, and his choice this week includes Christina Liebherr with No Mercy, Niklaus Schurtenberger with Cantus, Pius Schwizer with Noblesse and Steve Guerdat with Jalisca while Daniel Etter is fifth man. He has a pool of 17 riders in total to choose from however, so everyone will need to stay on their toes.

His expectations are high in terms of both the Samsung series and the Olympic Games in 2008. He says the Swiss track record shows “that we have never been worse than fifth in Europeans, World Championships or Olympics in recent years,” but he admits that he is missing having his friend Markus Fuchs to call upon. A nagging back complaint has been keeping the 52 year old who claimed individual bronze at the World Equestrian Games in the Hague in 1994, Olympic team silver in Sydney in 2000, the World Cup title in 2001, and both individual and team silver in the European championships out of the saddle in recent months. “He is visiting the physiotherapist and doctor regularly but the problem is still there and I’m not so sure when he will be coming back,” Rolf points out. However Markus has lent his expertise to the organisation of the St Gallen fixture this week so he is continuing to make a very valuable contribution to Swiss show jumping.

Rolf wants to get the right result in front of his home crowd this week. Both himself and Markus live very close to the St Gallen stadium so there is an extra measure of personal pride involved here. But its not just success on his home turf that the Chef d’Equipe is seeking, he wants to see how the side he sends out on Friday afternoon copes with the pressure of both the competition and of working as a unit. Their willingness to jell as a team will be under the closest scrutiny.

“For me this is the most important thing of all,” he explains. “I understand that with people you sometimes have big differences in their character and sometimes there is a clash of characters, but it is always possible to find a way to work things out if we try. However if riders cannot do that then it is no good for the spirit – and they are no good for the team,” he adds.

So, for the Swiss, this Friday’s Samsung Super League with FEI test will not just be about jumping those fences…..