Asselin happy to be back on home turf
Calgarian arrives at Spruce Meadows looking to join sport’s Canadian elite
Ben Asselin’s ascent toward Canadian show-jumping greatness has been well-documented.
He hopes to be among the best of the best, etched in history with Eric Lamaze, Ian Millar, Tiffany Foster, Jill Henselwood, Mario Delauriers — and his trajectory is headed there, barring a stable of capable horses.
But there is no replacement for experience and every year the 23-year-old Calgarian and son of former Olympic show-jumper Jonathan Asselin returns home to Spruce Meadows with an impressive resume.
“I’ve represented Canada on a few different occasions at higherlevel Nations Cup … but it’s a difficult sport,” Asselin said, relaxing in the Spruce Meadows media lounge before a busy week of show jumping at the Spruce Meadows National. “So many things can go wrong — whether if it’s with the horses or yourself. I’m still striving to be a little more consistently on the team. But yeah, I have arrived where I feel I can represent Canada and feel comfortable doing that.
“For sure, you look at the older riders on our team and they’ve been doing it for a long time and have plenty of experience. That’s still something I need to keep trying to get is more experience.”
Asselin maintains he is from Calgary and will always be from Calgary, but the local climate doesn’t lend itself to show jumping year round. So he perfects his craft for three months of the winter in Wellington, Fla., and spent a big chunk of the winter training for his second year with veteran rider Ludger Beerbaum in Reisenbeck, Germany.
“It’s a fantastic system he has there,” he said. “Ludger himself is one of the most decorated riders in the world. Just getting insight from him on a daily routine and how he prepares for competitions has been really beneficial.”
This season, he was on the Nations Cup reserve team in Ocala, Fla., jumped on the Nations Cup team in Wellington and finished fifth in the Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
Last year during the Spruce Meadows Masters, Asselin was a late call-up to the Canadian team following the withdrawal of Keean White of Rockwood, Ont. He wound up competing with Deslauriers, Lamaze and Millar.
Settling in for this week’s National tournament that runs Wednesday through Sunday, Asselin is home for the summer and aiming to gain more experience. With him, he has brought Live Stream, an eight-year-old Hanoverian, Wahrhaftige CR and Chalacorada, while his main mount Cool Feeling is resting after competing in Europe.
“Live Stream is a horse we’ve been training since he was two years old. We bought him and developed him ourselves,” he said. “He’s still green, but he does show ingredients in what you want in a show jumper. He’s a little bit difficult to ride still, it’s still not quite where we want it to be. But he has all the potential to be a very good horse.”
Asselin has a good feeling about this week — especially the way his horses have been performing as of late.
“My young horses are starting to jump really nicely,” Asselin said. “I’m very excited to be back at Spruce Meadows for the summer.
“Spruce Meadows is the best facility in the entire world and I’ll always make my way back for these competitions.”