Martin Fuchs, the 29-year-old winner of the recent World Cup in Leipzig, has one. The two young Brits Harry Charles, 21, and Jack Whitaker, 20, also have one. And the 29-year-old Gerrit Nieberg also has a father with a big name, who paved the way for his son into show jumping.
Fox is one step further. When the name Thomas Fuchs, coach of the Swiss show jumpers, is mentioned today, the experts tend to think of the son’s successes rather than the father’s, after all three European Championship titles with the team and three national championship titles. And when you see the chubby Harry Charles, you think of the 2012 team Olympic champion, Peter Charles. With Jack Whitaker, on the other hand, several names come to mind. John, Michael or another Whitaker brother? In any case, he is the cousin of Robert, Louise, William, Ellen and a handful of other Whitakers. The show jumping dynasty from Yorkshire is ever present when there are obstacles somewhere.
Jack Whitaker was fourth, his uncle John twelfth and anyway, half the extended family jumps over obstacles
Jack’s father – it’s Michael – was a pillar of the British team for decades, finding his World Cup horse Valmy de la Lande for Jack and training him with him. He stood in Leipzig on the warm-up arena and set up the test jumps, also for his brother John Whitaker, who is already at the age when you automatically become a legend if you don’t fall out of the saddle. The 66-year-old now finished a respectable twelfth in his 22nd World Cup final and was full of praise for his nephew. He, in turn, remained modest. Asked about the difference between him and his uncle, he said “the age, the hair, and that he was a much better rider”. John’s barely a hair on his head, but his courses are still world class.
In no other sport can several generations compete seriously against each other. “That’s the nice thing,” said Sweden’s Jens Fredricsen, third in the World Cup in Leipzig, who apparently followed the advice of his younger brother, world number one Peder Fredricsen, “even at 55 you can still improve, in the 100 meter you get worse every day.”
Children of successful riders have it easier, not only because the first pony is already ready before they can walk and horses are already being talked about at the breakfast table. Those who do not have to save have a clear advantage. But there are many things that cannot be bought, such as expertise and the daily role model in the saddle. Children from these families also know early on that horses are not only there to be petted, but sometimes have to be sold to keep the cash register in the stable. “Wendy” romance has no place in this environment.
Rider children learn early on to recognize a horse, to assess its qualities and possibilities before it costs six and seven-figure sums. An invaluable advantage when aiming for a professional career. Anyone who does not have this “horse sense” – and it does not always go hand in hand with equestrian talent – is dependent on the advice of experts for the rest of their lives. This could get expensive. Adjusting quickly to new, even difficult horses, always finding the right connection to different four-legged friends, rider children also have this experience ahead of competitors of the same age who, with the help of their parents’ wallet, have one or two expensive horses under the saddle.
Gerrit Nieberg, son of Olympic champion Lars, fell back to 13th place after three downs
For Jack Whitaker, although he has long fancied football and is a fervent Manchester United fan, the only option was a professional career. “In any case, I would have done something with sport,” he says. Jack won his first car when he was 15. He didn’t have a driver’s license yet, but he still got behind the wheel for the lap of honor and stalled the engine twice. With fourth and fifth place, Harry Charles and Jack Whitaker set a milestone in their young careers in Leipzig.
29-year-old Gerrit Nieberg is still working on that. After all, he was fifth and the best German in the last classification, but fell back to 13th place after his horse Ben had three knockdowns. Up until then, the signs were pointing straight up. “We want to go to Herning,” said father Lars Nieberg, himself European team champion and Olympic champion, today manager of the Snoek tournament stables at Gut Berl near Münster.
The World Championships will be held in Herning, Denmark, in August. Now the videos of the Leipzig Ritten have to be evaluated to see what can be done better. The analysis after the ride is part of it for Nieberg, even if it is only a young horse test in the country. The tournament schedule and the distribution of the horses are determined together. Not everyone always agrees. “Then people talk plainly, but nobody here holds grudges,” says Lars Nieberg.
As a child, Gerrit was also more interested in football than horses, and at the age of 13 he switched to the stables. Before completing an apprenticeship as a rider at the association’s headquarters in Warendorf, Gerrit trained as a tax clerk. “If it hadn’t worked out with the cavalry.” It looks like he now only needs this know-how for his own tax return.