EN’s 2016 Video Countdown #5: Why We <3 Ruy Fonseca

As we near the end of 2016 we're revisiting EN's most popular video posts of the year. Here's #5, originally posted on Aug. 9 and clocking in at 9,408 views!

Nobody had a bigger bummer of an Olympic equestrian finale than Brazilian eventer Ruy Fonseca. In a near-repeat of their show jumping round at Rolex in 2014, Tom Bombadill Too was going really well …

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… until Tommy pushed the ejector seat button on his rider, resulting in elimination.

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Ruy is the kind of guy who’s easy to root for — a lovely, kind, humble human being who clearly adores his horse come good days and bad. He and the 16-year-old Holsteiner gelding have been roaming the world together since 2009 and have shared in many more successes than defeats.

They have represented Brazil well and proudly at the past two World Equestrian Games, and most recently they finished third at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. It’s clear that Ruy is driven by his passion for the sport and his love of his horse in equal parts, and that’s something we can all respect.

After Ruy’s accidental front handspring on the Olympic show jumping course today — if only it had been a pommel horse rather than a real horse, Ruy, you would have scored straight 10s! — Ruy demonstrated his absolute class by helping to set back up the jump he’d just knocked down. Who even does that?

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Ruy Fonseca does.

You can watch the full (sadly unembeddable) video replay on the NBC YouTube channel here.

Go Eventing.