The Success of the Belgian Dressage Team Explained by Carmen De Bondt and Jeroen Devroe

-- Jumping Mechelen press release, text by Kris van Loo, edited by Eurodressage
Photos © Dirk Caremans - Astrid Appels

The European Championships in Riesenbeck were a pleasant surprise, the Olympic Games in Paris a convincing confirmation. At the European Championships in 2023 and the Olympic Games in 2024, Belgian dressage set a new milestone. The underdog has become a full-fledged player in the dressage landscape.

Two of the architects are Carmen De Bondt and Jeroen Devroe, trainers of three of the four team members (Domien Michiels, Flore de Winne, and reserve Charlotte Defalque). How do they explain the success? It is not one key element, it is a series of many links. The mindset of the riders, the openness of the trainers, the facilities of the federation. These are just a few ingredients. 

Did you have heated discussions and pillow fights in the bedroom in the run-up to the Olympics about your students being competitors?  

Carmen: Not at all, because we always have an honest and objective assessment of our students.

Jeroen: We strengthen each other as trainers. Carmen makes constructive comments about my students and vice versa. We appreciate that from each other, fortunately. That is the only way to improve.

Don't coaches advocate for their students when it comes to selections?

Carmen: You train to get better and the better you get, the bigger the chance of being selected. That is something completely different than pleading or lobbying for a selection. A trainer is not a lobbyist.

Jeroen: In Paris Carmen coached Domien and Flore. I was there with Charlotte and we can tell each other what we see, which is very important. As a trainer you sometimes don't see everything after a while. After a while there is a risk that you become blind in your own business. Then it is important that someone points out certain points of interest.

Every rider and/or trainer wants to promote himself, right?

Carmen: The advantage of dressage is that the percentages are an objective parameter. If someone rides 71% all the time and someone else rides 69% all the time, isn't it clear?

At the beginning of this year it was pretty much clear that Larissa Pauluis and Flore De Winne were going to Paris. For third and reserve place it was between Domien Michiels and Charlotte Defalque. And they were evenly matched?

Carmen: Yes, and that has been clearly demonstrated. Domien's results were more consistent in the period just before the Games. As a result, he became the logical third man.

Jeroen: and Charlotte did not ride better at the last observation competitions and was then the logical reserve. Charlotte was inconsistent after the Games and Domien was consistent. At the beginning of 2024  we thought he would be the reserve. Charlotte was better...until March. In the last months before Paris the roles were reversed. Third and fourth places proved themselves. In terms of quality, Botticelli's passage and piaffe are better than Intermezzo's, who in turn has a better canter. They train for that and the result is shown in the ring. It turned out that Domien and Intermezzo scored 70%+ more consistently. That was an objective observation.

To what extent does the excitement and experience of the Olympic Games differ from a European or World Championship?

Jeroen: The big difference is that there are many more restrictions at the Olympic Games.

Carmen: For me it was the first time and there is not much difference with other championships. The EC last year, where we had to enforce our Olympic ticket, was as exciting.

Jeroen: What you do feel is that your sport is suddenly being watched by the whole world at the Olympic Games. At a European Championship or World Championship, you are only followed by your own little world. At the Olympic Games, that is a bit different. It is a platform where your sport is exhibited to the universe.

Carmen: That only sinks in afterwards. It is also a fact that we did not experience the Games intensely. We stayed in a hotel near Versailles, far away from the Olympic village. We only had contact with the cyclists.

Jeroen: the outfit unites. You are recognizable and are addressed by complete strangers, as if you are a representative of your country. Your sport is followed by everyone once every four years. A fifth place at the Games means more than a medal at a European Championship. The latter is only known to the inner circle, a fifth place is known to the whole of Belgium.

Carmen: It's not us but the outside world that reacts differently, in a more positive and enthusiastic way. After the Games, I was approached by people who had bought a package of tickets. They didn't know what they were getting and there were tickets for dressage. It was their first introduction and they were very enthusiastic about it. That's what the Olympic Games do to people.

Does that trickle down into the riders' minds?

Carmen: also afterwards. At that moment they were very focused in their bubble. Which you can deduce from their results. Our last competition was Rotterdam and there the team already achieved its best team score ever. Then there was a final training camp and you could feel that the hunger was great. The riders were really ready for it. Then there were 10 days before the kick-off and those were the hardest. Everyone was rearing to go and yet no one went into overdrive, on the contrary. Everyone remained calm and radiated self-confidence.

Where does this change come from? For decades our dressage riders scored 2% below their average at championships. Since Riesenbeck and now Paris they have achieved their best result?

Carmen: We have 4 riders who ride their test in a controlled and focused manner and who are not distracted by stress or environmental factors. This allows them to show what they are worth at championships. In other words, Belgium has a stress-free team or at least a team where stress has no influence on their test.

In addition, thanks to the facilities of Paardensport Vlaanderen, we have benefit greatly from the team training in Ternat. Stable Vanderhasselt is a blessing for our sport. We regularly brought the team together and everyone showed who they are. Constructive criticism was tolerated among each other, by riders and trainers. In this way, the team strengthened the individual. We also regularly invited international judge Maarten van der Heijden to train the test riding. 

Why wasn't this thought of earlier?

Carmen: I have been training that way for a long time, especially with my youth riders. The big difference is that in the past everyone stayed on their own island. Riders preferred to train alone. Jeroen and I have been strengthening each other for years because we are open to comments and see things in each other that we may not see ourselves after a while. That line was extended to everyone involved. That cross-pollination has a strengthening effect. The team has opened itself up to that and that was not the case in the past.

Jeroen: the quality of the horses is also better. The new approach to collective training brings out the quality.

Carmen: What you also notice is that the Belgian dressage combinations are receiving more and more appreciation and respect from the judges.

Is Belgium's 'natural' approach also gaining more appreciation?

Carmen: You hear that from foreign judges. Nice riding, that's what they say. The image that our riders have been showing for years looks self-evident and natural and that vision is increasingly being pushed forward.

Jeroen: You can't point to the secret of success with one finger. There are many ingredients that contribute to that. The federation is also a lot richer in experience and anticipates the needs better. That was also an evolutionary process.

In that respect, look at Domien and Intermezzo. They rode their first Grand Prix together. How did that go in the past? Domien was already happy with the small tour. I pushed him to ride Grand Prix. Which he did little by little. Although that did not seem a must. Look where he is now! Also an evolutionary process.

Because there was too little faith in one's own abilities?

Carmen: If Domien had Intermezzo now, he would have ridden Grand Prix three years earlier.

Jeroen: When I used to ride nationally, three or four riders would start in the Grand Prix. Today, there are thirteen or fourteen, because our dressage riders stayed in the small tour for too long.

Fear of cold feet?

Jeroen: That had a lot to do with a generation of trainers who didn't want to make their students too smart too quickly. If a student rode Grand Prix like his teacher and scored higher, he feared for his job. So the student wasn't allowed to improve. I don't want to generalize that, although that was the case with many coaches.

Carmen: That is indeed a big difference from the past. Today, no one is afraid to ask questions. In the past, students were shielded by their trainers. Now we are open and transparent. Do you know what my starting point is? Don't make someone else bad, make yourself better.

What stands out on the timeline: there was a period with national coaches. A few have passed by. Without success?

Carmen: (dryly) that is a fair statement.

Jeroen: and yet some still have the idea that a foreign coach is better by definition. What I do believe in is that we can strengthen our collective training with a sporadic foreign top trainer who sees even more and can correct small details, which is what happens between Carmen and I and by extension with all trainers of the Belgian riders, because you simply learn from everyone and top trainers often provide new insights.

Carmen: You learn every day, just like you train yourself permanently. Every day you get new questions from your students and you take today's solutions with you to tomorrow. That's how you get better every day and that's the starting point. Domien is the perfect example in that respect. You don't want to know how much criticism he got behind his back in the past. "How can he keep riding that horse," was the tone. Look where he is now! Through training, perseverance and perseverance. You can only have the greatest respect for his career.

And now the future. Jeroen, are you going to Los Angeles in 2028 as a rider or as a trainer?

Jeroen: as a rider!? And maybe also as a trainer. As a rider with Lestor, who is now 8, or with Jackpot, 10 years. We have 4 more years.

You have already participated in all championships, except the Olympic Games. Is that an ambition?

Jeroen:….

Carmen: Just say yes!?

Jeroen: Yes, I want to go to the Games. However, when I think about it, I mainly have a bitter aftertaste. I have been in the starting blocks a few times and just as many times I have not gone in the end. Then you think that the Games are cursed. Are the Olympic Games really meant for me? That scares me a bit because of my experience.

Carmen: I think we have the potential to achieve a good result in Los Angeles. I see a lot of good young horses and we have the structure and mindset. The foundation has been laid to make a fist in the future. The EC in Riesenbeck and the OG in Paris were no coincidence. We have a new standard that is now also recognized abroad.

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