Martin Fuchs so nearly made it to the jump-off for medals at the Olympic showjumping individual final in Paris 2024. Riding the 12-year-old Leone Jei, the Swiss had qualified for the final in fine style. Thanks to their fast clear, they were fifth-last to jump in the final, putting them among the favourites for a medal.
Leone Jei started brilliantly over this tough course, which had fences up to 1.65m and with 1.90m spreads. In fact, the grey gelding was giving the fences so much air that he overjumped fence 5b, a parallel in the first combination.
“Leone was incredible, jumping fantastically,” said Martin, the 2019 European champion. “He even jumped me out of the saddle in the combination, where he gave an extra effort and I lost my stirrup.”
Undaunted, Martin carried on with his left stirrup flapping, showing impressive balance and strength to negotiate these colossal obstacles without impeding the horse.
“It was really, really hard to jump the track with only stirrup,” he said. “I had no chance to get the stirrup back, as it was really high. I tried twice through the turn, but it was at the height of my knee so I couldn’t reach it up there.”
Somehow, he managed to leave all the poles standing, until the final fence – a pink and yellow parallel with LA28 wings – which came down.
“Already at the last fence, I wasn’t sure which risk to take,” he explained. “Should I take the inside line and go for it, or the outside? Before I entered the ring I decided to take the inside line and keep going, then when I had no stirrup I didn’t dare to take my normal line so I took a bit of extra time through the turn, and I didn’t execute this well enough.
“If I had gone further out and taken a better line I am sure he would have jumped it, or if I had done my original plan and kept going even with only one stirrup I am also sure he would have jumped it. It’s really, really disappointing. I would have loved to jump off for the medal. It’s been such a great event. It’s the nicest Olympic Games I have ever competed at, and I’m very sad.”
Martin, 32, does in fact have good form without a stirrup. He lost both his rein and stirrup, again on the extravagant Leone Jei, en route to winning the Spruce Meadows grand prix last autumn, but that time he managed to retrieve them, saying afterwards: “It’s something I’ve trained on a lot with my father, he’s always said you need to be able to get your foot back in the stirrup without looking down.”
However, he added that jumping without stirrups isn’t not something they tend to practise: “It only happens about once a year.”
“I actually had different stirrup leathers lately because I thought they would improve this issue and help the stirrup to stay down when I lose it,” he said. “But Leone has such an energetic canter with so much power that it really throws the stirrup so much higher up than on any other horse.”
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