Janneke Boonzaaijer and ASCI Champ de Tailleur. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Riding for The Netherlands, for all intents and purposes a nation in the process of redeveloping its eventing high performance team with an eye to future podium success, Janneke Boonzaaijer had her hopes high coming into her Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021. The debut wouldn’t be the fairytale she’d have been hoping for, finding herself technically eliminated on a cross country course whose lettering made for multiple riders getting turned around on which elements were jumpable and which were not.
On that occasion, Janneke – only 25 at that point – was competing as an individual for her country. It is testament to her tenacity and the ever increasing strength of the Dutch team that when she made her second Olympic appearance in Paris last week, it was as part of a team. While the team ultimately did not finish on the podium – they were 10th eventually – Janneke still got her fairytale ending, finishing on her dressage score in ninth position, and putting the nightmare of Tokyo far behind her.
It was her Tokyo ride ACSI Champ de Tailleur that she brought forward in Paris too, making their redemption all the more sweet, for this is a partnership that has been together for quite some time now, and are more than deserving of such a result.
“I’ve been riding him for seven years now, so we have a really good partnership, and it feels like when we are going out on the cross country that I know exactly what he is going to do, and he knows exactly what I want,” she said. “So that’s such a nice feeling, that you are growing together and now I can really trust him and really go fast and say, yes, we can do it!”
And do it they did, coming home within the time cross country despite her initial reservations about Pierre de Goupil’s track – “I think the time will be hard.”
In doing so, they made history, as the first Dutch combination to come home clear and within the time. Her reaction is perhaps befitting of one still so young: “Really, really cool!” she said, following her round. But it was to get even more cool on the final day, when she and the 17 year old Quidam de Revel gelding jumped not one but two clear rounds. So cool in fact, that Janneke initially struggled to get her head around it – “I don’t even believe that I went inside the time yesterday, so to think about two clear rounds today, it’s like ‘whoa! How did I do that?’ ” she laughed, following the showjumping.
But how she did that is testament to her own hard work, rebuilding after that ill fated trip to Tokyo, and working with a national training system that she whole heartedly believes in – and rightly so, as their result last week shows. “I’m really proud of the system, which I always believe really works. You really try to keep going, and to keep believing in what you are doing and then at the end when it works, then you’re like ‘yeah – see what I’ve just done?’” she said, of the consistency which has earnt them this result.
Janneke Boonzaaijer and ACSI Champ de Tailleur. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It wasn’t just her riding ability that landed her that top 10 finish though, but also an incredibly strong mindset – something that she has had to work just as hard on: “I am really good in my head,” she revealed after her final show jumping round. “I’m really strong with pressure, because I was not really nervous, I just felt that I could do it. I am really proud that I achieved that [self-belief] because I really have to grow in that as well, so I think that that is also a really big achievement.
17th – and best of the Dutch once again – at the European championships last year, Janneke and Champs have been a mainstay of the Dutch team ever since the Tokyo Olympics, and although her horse may be in the twilight of his career, surely Janneke will remain part of the team for many years to come, following this result.
Certainly, that is what she is hoping for, with the goal of another Championships firmly in her sights: “I ride full time, my stables are at home, and I try to produce horses to be consistent at the top. That is really my goal, to be here more often – not just once, but to keep doing this,” she explained. But it doesn’t end there; she is also actively involved in training other people’s young horses, and young riders too, hopefully adding to the ever-growing pool of young Dutch talent, that may see them become increasingly competitive as a nation, too.
Janneke Boonzaaijer and ASCI Champ de Tailleur en route to two clear jumping rounds in Paris. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
While Tokyo may not have worked out in quite the way that Janneke had hoped it would, perhaps that result has provided the driving force behind she and Champs’ success at this Olympics. Indeed, she all but confirmed this to be the case when discussing her triumph in Paris last week; “Keep going, keep believing. At the end, you will get it. Maybe not now, maybe not next year, but at the end, you will come. That’s what I want to give to everybody, just don’t look on the short term, but keep believing and keep going – because in three years [from Tokyo] we are standing here totally different. Then I was crying because I did something stupid wrong, now I am crying because I am so happy!”
Janneke Boonzaiijer at the European Championships. Photo by Tilly Berendt
Sage advice from one still not yet thirty, but who is herself the only proof needed that even when it seems that nothing is going right, never give up and keep on believing, because one day, that self-belief and hard work will come to fruition, and provide a fairytale ending that is, in the words of Janneke herself, “a dream come true.”
