When Erryn Ballard entered the Olympic showjumping arena at Paris 2024, she stopped, savouring the enormity of that moment.
“There are so many emotions,” said the Canadian rider, 43. “I walk in on all my horses and always stop to pat them. It’s like a moment where I say ‘thank you and good luck’, and I also took a moment for myself as I stood there. They hadn’t given me the bell, and I looked around and said, ‘holy cow this is amazing, this is what we’ve been waiting for all our lives’. That first moment is one I’ll never have again.”
Erryn’s Olympic debut is the more remarkable as she has only been riding Nikka VD Bisschop, an 11-year-old mare by Emerol NOP, since April.
“Everyone’s path in horses is different,” she says. “This is my fifth 1.60m class on Nikka. We had three chances to get our qualification and we did it in three classes. We won and were second in a five-star, so our path has fast-tracked, but still, out there, we are doing things together that we have never seen together before.”
The mare was previously ridden by Eric Lamaze and Beth Underhill, while Erryn has competed at two world championships on different horses.
“She’s seen things like this and I’ve seen them but this is a brand new partnership,” Erryn said. “What an animal to go out there and believe in me and everything I’m telling her to do.
“She jumped the water too high – we’ve never jumped a water on sand before and she lost her balance a little when she landed and so did I. So I had to compromise, as a rider you have to in the moment. You dig deep and you come home over what is the hardest line of the course. She jumped the last line as well as she jumped the first part of the course.
“Those 79 seconds were the coolest seconds of my entire life. Unless you’re out there feeling it, it’s really hard to put into words just out cool it is, it’s exceptional. And on a horse that gave me everything. She did it because she wants to.”
Erryn is the granddaughter of Bob Ballard, who was captain of the Canadian equestrian team in the 1940s and 50s. Erryn’s parents, David and Sandi – watching on proudly from the stands – have both worked as trainers, and their daughter has built up a reputation as being able to get a tune out of new rides quickly.
“It’s been said in magazines that I’m the best catch rider in the world, but this is definitely not a catch riding situation, it’s a partnership situation,” she said. “However, I grew up riding ponies for people, equitation horses, essentially catch riding at finals, so I am comfortable with it.
“But this horse, from the first day I’ve ridden her she never has bad days. We all have bad days when we’re a little grumpy or tired or hyper, but she doesn’t. Every day is a good day. So I thrive with that as her personality – she wants to be an Olympic horse and that’s why she’s here.”
Erryn performed best of the Canadian trio, with just the four faults. However it was not enough to lift the team into the final, finishing 14th of the 20 nations competing.
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