Legendary Horses: Baloubet du Rouet

Legendary Horses: Baloubet du Rouet

In our new series, we will zoom in on a regular basis on one of the most legendary horses in our sport. Baloubet du Rouet (by Galoubet A) is the first in the list. The stallion broke all records with the Brazilian Rodrigo Pessao by winning the World Cup finals no less than three years in a row. In this portrait we take a closer look at the world-famous chestnut stallion! 

Son of his father

Baloubet du Rouet was born in 1989 with French breeder Louis Fardin. His sire is Galoubet A, who at that time was one of the best jumping horses in the world. "He had an impressive way of jumping," say several sources who had the honor of seeing the stallion jump. Galoubet A won the French championship three times under the saddle of Gilles Bertran (in 1977, 1979 and 1982). They also contributed to the gold medal of the French team at the 1982 World Championships. 

Baloubet, by the way, was not the only famous descendant of Galoubet, his other son, Skippy II also scored high in both sport and breeding. 


Love at first sight

Baloubet gained his first competition experience with Rémy Bourdais after being bought by Nicole and Diego Pereira Couthino at the age of 4. "As far as we were concerned, it was love at first sight," they recounted. Bourdais tells "I already felt then that it was going to be an exceptional horse. He literally jumped out with his exceptional jumping qualities. He was also very easy to handle but once in the competition arena he changed. At that moment only one thing counted for him: to leave all the fences in the spoons. He had a strong personality and a lot of blood and temperament. He was easily distracted so you had to keep him focused". At age six, the stallion moved to the Pessoa family's stables.

"What on earth is that?

"With me and Baloubet it was definitely not love at first sight," laughs Rodrigo Pessoa. "When I saw him coming off the truck I thought to myself, 'what on earth is that?' (laughs). Baloubet was lanky and seemed to have no control over his body. We let him loose jump the first few days but not more because he was so green. What was immediately noticeable is that he didn't make the same mistake twice. Every day he jumped better and better and he 'didn't hit the same rock twice,'" Pessoa said. "We were enormously impressed. It seemed like every time he would think all night about what he was doing wrong and the next day he would make it right immediately. He was very intelligent, I like to see that in jumpers". 

The stallion was ridden by Nelson Pessoa until he was nine, after which Rodrigo took over the reins. Nelson was already very successful with the stallion, for example in 1996 they won the French championship for 7-year-old horses, in 1997 they were able to rank in almost every Grand Prix they participated in and in 1998 they were part of the Brazilian team that jumped to fifth place at the World Equestrian Games in Rome. "I also felt then that this would be the ideal horse for Rodrigo," Nelson told me. "I decided to hand him over to my son." 



Beginning of an endless success story

And that was not a bad decision. When Rodrigo took over the reins of the stallion, his success story really began and almost immediately. During their first year together, they already won the World Cup final in Helsinki. They would repeat that feat the next two years in Gothenburg and Las Vegas. An absolute record: no rider would later succeed in taking home the World Cup with the same horse three years in a row. 

They almost did it again: in 2001 they finished in second place, in 2003 they had to accept third place. The duo also managed to win the Top Ten finals twice: in both 2003 and 2005 they crowned themselves ultimate victors in a competition with the best ten riders in the world. 

They also participated in several Olympic Games and championships. 



Well-deserved retirement

In 2006, Baloubet du Rouet went into sports retirement to devote himself entirely to breeding. He is the sire of world-famous horses such as Chaman, Napoly du Ry, VDL Bubablu, Balou du Rouet, Syndey Une Prince, ... He passed away on August 7, 2017 at the age of 28. 

Source: Annuaire Monneron, contre-galop, FEI; Equnews