Where does your passion for horses and show jumping come from?
It’s a long story… I’ve always liked horses since I was a child, and we had a training centre close to our apartment. I always asked my parents if we could go there but we couldn’t afford it. Then I totally forgot about horses. I started working on my own and when I was 20-years-old, I went on holiday in Ticino for a week, and it poured with rain non-stop and I didn’t know what to do. There was an equestrian centre and it revived some memories and I went for a one-week course. I wanted to learn all about it but the coach said that one week wasn’t enough to learn everything, so from there I started training hard. Unfortunately, I was too old to become a complete rider, but I wanted to compete so in the end I did took part in some regional competitions.
Then I got to know Thomas Fuchs because he was my banker. As a car dealer, I had to do a lot of coming and going to my bank, and by talking we became friends. We lost ourselves a little because I went to Fribourg to train with Beat Grandjean at his stable. I stayed there for 15 years before coming back to Zurich and it’s at that time that I bought a horse from Thomas Fuchs. I continued riding a bit, but I was working and riding at the same time. Thomas is like this, if you buy a horse from him, you train with him!
So that’s when you met Martin Fuchs?
Exactly! One day I was in training with Thomas, and he asked me to do five strides between two obstacles, but I couldn’t do it, so he said that even a child was able to do it. I didn’t believe him, so he brings a kid to show me. Obviously that kid succeeded, so I said, “he might be lucky”, so he tried again and he did it brilliantly. Then he told me “I can do it 10 times if you want”, and that kid was Martin Fuchs. It’s at that exact moment that I said to myself that I need to buy horse not for myself, but for him.
A few days later, Martin was leaving for the Youth Olympic Games in Greece with one of my horses. When he came back, he said to me, “It was fantastic, but you have to buy a horse that is more efficient if we want to be competitive”. From there, we started to do a lot of competitions together. The competitions followed one another, and the purchases of horses followed one another. I bought one more, then another, and so on. This is the start of my collaboration with Martin.
How does the process work with you and the Fuchs family?
The way I see it is that they decide on all things relating to the horse. Sometimes Martin will come to me saying, “There is this show, do you think we should go?”, but he needs to make the decision himself, as I trust him with the horses more than anyone. I really like this process because I can rely on the Fuchs family because they are the best in their domain.
What’s your proudest moment as an owner?
There is not a particular moment. I am lucky enough to have won a medal in almost all championships and Majors, so for that reason it is impossible to choose. I like to say that the last win is always the best win, because it pushes you to get another one. I am always proud to see Martin win, from a regional championship to the top level of our sport. If you force me to choose one, of course I will tend to say the victory in 2019 in the Rolex Grand Prix at CHI Geneva, because of the way it happened: the last line, being in front of the best riders in the world, and the fact that it was a home win.
What does the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping mean to you?
To me, the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping represents the ultimate challenge for a horse, and it cannot get any better than this. It makes me think of Formula One, which brings a very particular type of excitement. The Rolex Grand Slam demands preparation and focus, and that you need to be detail-oriented – all of this transcends the values of Rolex as a company.
Source: Press Release from Rolex Grand Slam
Photo: © Rolex Grand Slam / Ashley Neuhof
Categories: English, Interviews, Jumper News Schweiz
