In the beginning
Christophe:
“I ended up in equestrian mostly thanks to my father and his family. My dad was an eventer at local competitions in Belgium, my mom tagt along to help out. Almost every weekend you could find the pair - with us - at local events. I had my first pony when I was six years old until I grew into the horses at age sixteen.”
In his ponytime, Christophe competed at three European Championships finishing second in one of them. Further the young athlete - in his day - claimed twice the Belgium Championship title with the ponies. Until his 16-years old he was one of the major pony jumpers and continued his force with the horses afterwards.
"At my 21-year-old age I claimed my first international Grand Prix victory, I still remember this until today. It was at the CSI3* competition in Palermo, Italy."
Now Christophe is running the family stable, one of Brussels' most famous boarding and competition facility. “The sport remains our major source of income, but our costumers, events and the trading in horses are a close second. We're also working on expanding our breeding stables, that is why the last six years we’ve been working with embryo’s. We breed mares that have proved themselves in the sport.” The first of these horses are on their way to compete for the very first time.
How to compete against family
In Sankt-Gallen, Switzerland Christophe competed in the FEI CSIO5* Nations Cup alongside his brother, Yves. Both Christophe and Yves enjoyed competing together. "It was a nice extra for me, my brother's first CSIO5* Nations Cup experience was alongside myself."
Yves says: “In my first experience at this level I finished with a real positive feeling. For my horse Jeunesse it was the first time on such a big event on the grass. We had to wait and see if she would be impressed by everything happening around her, but she was doing great!”
“The fact that my brother was competing in the same course was very special. Espacially for my parents who worked all their lives for this moment. We are lucky we can benefit from their experiences.”
We asked them how they handled the rivalry between them. Christophe reacted that outside the ring they are brothers but inside the ring they really are competitors and the rivalry is on! “When I make a mistake I want Yves to win, but if we both end up in the jump-off I'm going for the win!” laughs Christophe.
Both of them would like to keep competing at the highest level of showjumping. We worked hard for this and making the A-Team for Belgium feels really good. We want to remain at this level that’s one of our dreams.
Looking back at this last year with Christophe he reacts: “When competing at this level it’s all about your horse. The horses I ride now I would’ve liked to have ridden ten years ago. But seeing the growth and evolution I’ve been making I'm really happy with how things are going these days”.