Rodrigo Pessoa, probably one of the best ranked riders, was born in Paris, France November 29, 1972, he is the son of Nelson Pessoa, a great rider of his time. He was one of the youngest riders to compete in an olympic game at the age of 19. He has over 50 Grand Prix wins which is the highest category, he has won over six million euros in his career as a rider. He won Olympic Bronze Medals in the years 1996 and 2000 in Team Jumping and won gold medal in Athens 2004 in Individual riding. His first Grand Prix competition was in 1988 and since then he has had a career full of succes. In 1998 he competed Giandini Lanos and became the youngest world champion at the age of 26 at the FEI WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES in Rome. He continued this by wining the world cup in Balaubet du Rouet three times in a row and winning second place the fourth time setting a world record. Later on he was named the the world’s best rider and in the Show Jumping Year trophy. In 2007 he won the individual silver medal and team gold in the Panamerica Games of Rio de Janeiro 2007. His largest sponsors are rolex, Sony Ericksonn, AMG, GPA, Embraer, and BIC. Here there is a list of his horses along the years:
Eric Navet, probably one of the best riders in history, and in my opinion the best rider in the present. This rider, along with many others such as Rodrigo Pessoa, I have studied through out many videos of him in Grand Prix competitions posted on You Tube. These way I decided this is my favorite rider and my idol and decided for him to be the first in the biography posts I am going to make of my favorite riders.
Eric Navet was born in Bayeux, France May 9, 1959. He is an Olympic rider, a World Championship rider, and an European Championship rider. Along the years he has collected many championships. In 1990 he won the World Champion title with the horse Quito de Baussy, a year later with the same horse he won the European Champion title. Ten years later in Jerez, Spain at the 2002 World Equestrian Games he led his team and teamates into a very fought gold medal. That year Eric qualified to the “Final Four” competition wich only takes place at these games. The championship consist on the best four qualified riders compete four times, one on their horse and the other three times on horses of the other riders qualified for the test. In this competition Eric won a very difficult silver medal with his horse Dollor Du Murier which he also competed in the olympic games of Athens 2004. Last year was Eric best year he won about 767,000 euros in competitions in Europe and around the world. This year he has won about 20000 euros in one Grand Prix Competition in France and is going to participate in the olympic games.
What I like most about this rider is his calm and flawless style and how he keeps the horse at a same rythym of canter the whole track and how almost never he hits a pole and falls to the ground.
The two last weeks have been pretty intensive for me I only slept one night at home. The first week I went to Guatemala to a very important compeition were many talented riders with great horses participated. It was a wonderful experience because I got to know many new people and I got to see them riding. The level was amazing I had never seen something like that they take the sport very seriously. Even the smallest kids have the best riding gear. I wish that here in Costa Rica people took riding so seriously. Our riders did very well in the competitionon of them won the 1.20 open category and the over all team won second place, just below El Salvador. This was the first time in many years that the team of Guatemala didn’t win or got to be in the first three places. The third team I believe was Honduras. About thirteen Costa Rican riders competed in the one star CSI competition. I hope that next year I have the cance to go and compete and to go see all my friends. While there I got invited to other competitions like this one in El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and another one in Guatemala. Just after I arrived from Guatemala I left for the school trip to Manuel Antonio in Quepos, Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is a national park in Costa Rica that beatiful beaches and a great diversity within the flora and fauna. We saw monkeys bird and other wonderful animals native from this beatiful area of transitional forest. At the beggining of the trip we went to Turubari a park in the road to Manuel Antonio, I had a great time and enjoyed the canopy a lot. The second day we went rafting. It was one of the best things I have done in my life, I really enjoyed the adrenaline and swimming in the river it was very cool. The third day was my favorite, we got to relax and go to the beach, then we went and did some community service inside the park and went for lunch in a restaurant in front of the beach. Then we got to the hotel packed our things and went home. The busses were really nice we even got to see two movies while traveling it all was a great experience! Thank you Ms. Rumford for planing the trip!
