Our colleagues at Equnews.fr have interviewed Dutch superstar Show Jumper Maikel van der Vleuten. This interview was originally in French and has been translated by equnews.com.
Click on each photo to view them in a higher resolution.
At only 24 years old, Maikel van der Vleuten has already accomplished so much. In 2012 he was apart of the silver medal winning team at the London Olympics with the stallion VDL Groep Verdi TN N.O.P. The son of top rider Eric van der Vleuten hasn't stopped winning since. Last year he won the LGCT Grand Prix in Madrid before taking Team gold at both the World Equestrian Games and the FEI Furusiyya Nations Cup Final, also with Verdi.
First how was 2014 for you and what are you aiming for in 2015 ?
Actually I had a very successful year, I have had some good results and that’s quite important for me and I will try to continue on this way. I tried to bring some new young horses up behind my good ones and that’s what I’m busy with at the moment and I hope the good results can stay for 2015.
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Maikel and VDL Groep Sapphire B[/caption]
At the weg, during the second day of the team competition you knew you were ahead, how did the pressure feel ?
That’s not always so easy but you need to have a bit of confidence in your horse. I mean, I knew my horse was in good shape, I knew we had good riders on the team and we knew that all our horses were jumping good at that moment so then it was important for the us to keep focused on our own thing and try to keep our minds away from the outside. You just focus on your horse and we all knew we could do it in the second round and in the end it paid off.
You won at the WEG, you won in Barcelona, in your opinion how do you think your team compares to other top teams ?
I think our team spirit is a very good thing for us, we were fighting for each other and we all have a very good team behind us who like to fight for each other as well. Also, I think we have a very good chef d’équipe, Rob Ehrens, who gives us the right motivation at the right moment and I think thats a big help for us.
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Maikel and Verdi at the vet check - WEG[/caption]
How did you prepare Verdi for the WEG ?
I did not do anything different actually because during the year there are so many important competitions and events that you want to win. So your horse must be fit all year. But just two months before the championships I stopped Verdi from doing his stallion duties , which he normally has to do a lot of during the season, but we stopped it so he could be in top condition. Other than that we just followed our plan that we had prepared for him, going to the WEG would depend on how he felt and luckily it all worked out good in the end.
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Maikel and Verdi in Paris[/caption]
Can you tell us about verdi, what is he like ?
First of all he’s a very pleasant horse to work with, as a stallion I mean, he’s very nice and he never does anything stupid, he’s just super nice to work with. He loves to go to the shows, he wants to work for me and always tries and that’s very important. Also, he has a very calm mind so it doesn’t matter where I am, if I am at a very big outdoor show or a small indoor show, he’s actually always the same. So you know what you can expect from him.
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Maikel and Verdi after their win in Madrid[/caption]
Your father Eric is a really well-known rider, was it always obvious that you would become a rider ?
He never pushed me as a young kid to be a rider because he always said it was up to me, I really had to like the sport otherwise it was going be to heavy, too much all of a sudden. But when the moment came that I got really interested in the sport and I really liked it then I had my father behind me and he still trys to help me in every way that he can.
If you could ride any other horse, who would it be ?
That’s a difficult question, there are very many good horses at the moment. I will say the best horse from the WEG, that was Cortes C (Beezie Madden's top horse). He looks very rideable, he’s very light off the ground, careful and scopey. I think the feeling you get from riding him must be great.
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Maikel and Sapphire in Paris[/caption]
