“We work from championship to championship”
SWISS rider Felix Vogg’s pedigree is crammed full of event riders, from his grandfather Roland Perret who rode at the 1956 Olympics and was later chef d’equipe of the national team, down through aunts, uncles and cousins to Felix, 31, and his brother Ben. But making the case to his parents that Felix could do the sport professionally was another matter.
“Growing up, I had no choice but to ride,” he says. “It was always clear we would go eventing. However, they wanted me to do it alongside working in business, as all my family had done. I don’t think they understood that to be competitive these days you must ride full-time.”
It wasn’t until after the 2016 Rio Games, where both Felix and Ben represented Switzerland, that Felix was able to persuade his family that he could make a career out of eventing. His championship history started back in 2003 at the pony Europeans at Necarne, when he had just turned 13, and encompasses two Olympics, two World Equestrian Games and three senior Europeans so far.
His most eye-catching results, however, are his overall individual victory in the World Cup series in 2012 – and sixth place at Kentucky’s CCI5* in 2019 on Colero.
“The World Cup was really unexpected, so that was a huge thing,” says Felix.
He was based with Michael Jung at the time, and Felix’s current yard is just an hour away from Michael’s, in the south of Germany. He moved to the US for a period, basing himself first in Wellington and then at Boyd Martin’s in Aiken, South Carolina, before tackling Kentucky.
“Eventing in Switzerland isn’t like it is in England; we work from championship to championship and try to save our horses for those events, not necessarily for five-stars,” he explains. “But when I was in the States I could ride and train properly through the winter, so our preparation for Kentucky was good.”
Colero, with whom he finished 19th in Tokyo, will be aimed this year at a top-10 result in Luhmühlen CCI5* “at least”, while the mare Cartania (pictured), eighth at the Europeans in Avenches, will target the World Championships in Pratoni.