When he enters the ring, the audience knows that there will be a spectacle. Wherever in the world, when Chalou jumps, it becomes very quiet. When this Chacco-Blue son (x Baloubet du Rouet) enters the ring, you know that everyone watches and empathizes with the chestnut stallion and his Italian rider, Emanuele Gaudiano. His style can therefore be called 'unique' at the very least, the stallion flies through the air like an accomplished superman and knows how to drag the audience along again and again. But how did his way to the top look? A portrait.
Chalou was born at the end of January 2011 at Gestüt Lewitz in Germany. As a young horse he jumped some regional and national competitions but in 2014 he first appears on the international stage with his Italian rider Giampiero Garofalo. The duo starts in a CSIYH class for five-year-old horses and Chalou, a son of Chacco Blue, immediately wins the final. In March 2015, the duo would travel to Arezzo where they made the step to the classes for 6-year-olds. Here too Chalou is doing very well with a second and an eighth place.
In the same year, Chalou and Garofalo also compete in Lamprechtshausen where they immediately take the victory home. The rest of the year, Chalou can also show himself in the sections for 6-year-old horses. He won in Wiener Neustadt and finished second in Darmstadt-Kranichstein. Then the stallion briefly disappears from the international stage to make his appearance in 2016 in the classes for 7-year-old horses.
Here too the chestnut makes an impression, still with Garofalo in the saddle, he immediately jumps to fourth place in Arezzo. In April the stallion will start for the first time in a CSI3 * 1m40 class where he immediately rides into the top ten. The stallion then travels to Belgium where he jumps top ten classifications in Bonheiden and Lier, among others, in 1m35-1m40 classes.In Knokke the stallion makes his first appearance with Emanuele Gaudiano, the rider with whom he still starts. The duo immediately takes second place on their debut. A few weeks later they travel to Aachen where they again reach second place in the 1m40.
From 2017, the then 8-year-old Chalou will start at the highest level. His first CSI5 * competition is in Basel, the stallion did not get really good results there, but he does prove that he can handle the highest level. In February 2017 he wins his first CSI5 * class in Al Rayyan, a 1m55 class that was driven directly against the clock. Later it will become clear that speed is one of Chalous specialties and that it is almost unbeatable when riding against the clock.
From then on, the victories in CSI5 * classes pile up, the duo wins in Antwerp, Doha, Sopot, Paris and Rome.Gaudiano says the following about Chalou: "Chalou is the best horse I have ever had and perhaps will ever have. He really is that 'once in a lifetime horse'. He is very careful, he is fast and he has all the scope. In short: I think he has all the qualities that a top horse should have. I am very happy to have him in my team".
