Italian Grand Prix Rider Laure Clementine Simonnet Passed Away

Dressage

Italian

Italian Grand Prix rider Laure Clementine Simonnet has passed away unexpectedly after a short illness. She was 46 years old.

She initially competed for her birth country France but as of 2014 rode for Italy.

French Start

Born and raised with a love for horses, Laure Clementine inherited the passion for riding from her father. She spent her childhood in Paris but was instructed at the National Equestrian Centre in Saumur. After going to college she decided that a life with horses was hers. She became a certified trainer in 2000.

Initially she competed both in dressage and show jumping, but after she moved to Italy twenty years ago, she first focused more in show jumping before she fully commited to dressage.

Move to Italy

Laure Clementine ran Collina Dressage, located in the hills of Piacenza, Italy.

She competed two horses at international dressage level. Her first was the Oldenburg gelding Danny Wild RR (by Danny Wilde x Warkant), with whom she made her CDI debut in Vidauban, France, in February 2012. They stayed in the small tour for five years until they did their first and only Grand Prix level CDI in Nice in October 2018.

Her second international horse was the Brandenburger mare Donna Argentina (by Diamond Hit x Argentinus), with whom she made her medium tour debut in June 2017 in Pompadour and her Grand Prix debut in October 2018 in Nice. The pair showed in Cascais, Camarma de Esteruelas, Crozet, and Ornago until August 2021.

She last competed Donna Argentina at the national show in San Giovanni in Marignano at the beginning of February 2022.

Untimely Passing

After a short period of illness, Laure Clementine sadly passed in her sleep on 27 March 2022.

"Clementine was a rarity in the world of dressage, a combination of a truly great coach and an amazingly genuine and humble person. She will be missed greatly," a close friend of hers told Eurodressage.

Laure Clementine leaves behind a daughter. In June 2020, Laure Clementine lost her father Roger Simonnet, the organizer of the CDI Pompadour.