French legendary dressage rider and trainer Patrick Le Rolland has passed away unexpectedly at his home near Saumur, France. The 71-year old Frenchman died of a heart attack.
Joining the Cadre Noir as an écuyer in 1964, Le Rolland quickly showed his outstanding talent as a rider and subsequently Colonel de Saint-André gave him the Selle Francais gelding Quipos to launch his international career as a dressage rider in the late 1960s.
With the gracious French ex-steeplechaser Cramique xx, a horse priorly trained by Colonel Brau, Le Rolland not only became four times French champion, but also competed successfully at international championships in the early seventies and placed 3rd at Aachen in 1972. He was the sole French dressage rider in the 1972 Olympic Games. Le Rolland and Cramique scored their personal best at the 1974 World Championships in Copenhagen, finishing 7th individually.
On the same horse Patrick Le Rolland, whose elegance in the saddle was unparallelled during his time, managed to obtain a success of its very own, becoming the first rider in the history of FEI dressage to be awarded a 10 for his seat and position.
In 1979 Le Rolland and the Selle Francais gelding Debarras were members of the French dressage team that finished second in the Nations Cup at the CDIO Aachen. The French team at the time consisted of three riders of Cadre Noir's dressage department, until today an unequalled feat in French dressage.
A year after Patrick Le Rolland left the Cadre Noir he became the first official French national coach, a role which he fulfilled until after the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. During that time Margit Otto-Crépin and Dominique d'Esmé did very well on the international stage with French bred horses.
Patrick Le Rolland moved to Belgium, where he trained several Grand Prix riders for quite some time, amongst them multiple Belgian team member Decia de Pauw.
Later he returned to Saumur, but continued to be a much requested clinician.
„Patrick Le Rolland was a very talented rider with whom I got along very well. I am grateful that we could share the great triumph of the French team at Aachen in 1979 together," said Colonel Christian Carde, one of Le Rolland's team mates in the 1970s.
With Patrick Le Rolland's passing the memory of a man who represented the timeless values of dressage -- elegance, harmony and lightness -- will remain.
by Silke Rottermann
Related Links
Cramique xx, A Renaissance of French Elegance in Dressage
Colonel Christian Carde, Classical Dressage as Horsemanship - Part I