Newsletter N°2 : A busy July in store
It’s early July and attention is turning, just as it does every year, to Aachen, which is getting ready to welcome the best in five disciplines, not least world jumping. Nine of the world’s top ten riders will be competing at this legendary CHIO, round two of the 2025 Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping and the final dress rehearsal for the European Championships in A Coruña. Lining up will be Kent Farrington and Ben Maher, who have just respectively moved up to Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, bringing Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann’s 33-month rankings reign to an end. With Dutch Masters winner Simon Delestre sitting out the German leg, there will be no Grand Slam winner this season. That means a new pretender will join the race for the title after Sunday’s Rolex GP, adding a little more spice to an already eagerly awaited event.
Meanwhile, preparations are under way in Geneva, where the 2025 CHIG is beginning to take shape, thanks in no small part to some strong visuals. Designed by Émilie Lacroix (PIM Sportsguide), the poster for the 64th edition boasts some striking graphics, with a horse in mid-air catching the light and the number 64 discretely appearing in the background. Stylish yet dynamic, the poster is available now.
In the second instalment of our series devoted to jumping’s generational handover, we move away a little from direct family ties to focus on an uncle-nephew relationship like no other, namely Marc van Dijck and 26-year-old rising Belgian star Gilles Thomas, who continues to make steady progress under his uncle’s watchful eye.
And while some are making their way up the ranks, others are returning to action. Following herniated disc surgery, Steve Guerdat has been back in the saddle for a few weeks, easing himself back into the competitive arena with some excellent results, including victory at the Derby de La Baule, not that the highly driven Swiss rider expected anything less.
Finally, and as always, the CHI Geneva would simply not possible without the team of people working busily away behind the scenes. In this issue, we speak to the heads of the event’s interior design department, which is staffed by a team of passionate volunteers who express their creative flair in even the smallest of details. Happy reading!
Steve is back !
Sidelined for three long months following an operation on a painful herniated disc, Steve Guerdat returned to action at Gorla Minore and continued his comeback with appearances in Rome, St. Gallen and La Baule. It was at the CSIO in France that your newsletter caught up with the Jura rider – the Olympic silver medallist at Paris 2024 and the reigning European champion – to discuss his return to the arena, his health, and the excellent form of his horses.
Guerdat seemed to be in fine fettle himself during his stay in the Brittany seaside resort, putting together two superb clear rounds in the Nations Cup on Albführen’s Iashin Sitte, then triumphing in style in the legendary Derby with Easy Star de Talma, recording the only clear round of the event.
A Change in the Saddle: Belgium’s Thomas following in Uncle Marc’s footsteps (2/6)
Throughout the season, and just as it does every year, the CHIG newsletter is bringing you a series of articles on a specific theme. The focus for 2025 is jumping’s new generation of riders, the sons and daughters of, who are making it not because of who they are but because of their talent. In this year’s second instalment, we put the spotlight on a slightly different kind of family tie, namely a very close uncle-nephew relationship that has led to the emergence of one of the brightest stars of his generation.
Master and pupil
Let’s wind back to a little less than seven months, to the Rolex Grand Prix jump-off at last year’s CHI Geneva, when rider after rider fell short of the blistering time set by the Netherlands’ Harrie Smolders on Monaco and failed to go clear. There was one, however, who quietly impressed en route to a superb third place on board Ermitage Kalone. His name was Gilles Thomas, a young Belgian rider whose smooth riding, warm smile and Flemish-tinged French earned him the admiration of the crowd.
Meet CHIG’s very own decorating duo
Interior design wizards Anne-Laure Pellanda and Maico Sandiano are the pair responsible for giving the event its magical ambience, thanks to their carefully thought-out décor. Together, they pool all their imagination and know-how to lend a unique atmosphere to Palexpo. From arenas and the VIP boxes to the stables and other areas of the CHI Geneva, they leave nothing to chance.
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