New 2012 : the final on the arena of Bordeaux!

A new sensation is coming to Bordeaux as it will be the venue of the vaulting World Cup for the first time. This artistic and equestrian discipline involves talented, young athletes who compete in two rounds of individual freestyle tests on Saturday and Sunday. The six best men and six best women qualified during the five stages of the World Cup season will be meeting in Bordeaux for the finals.

 Interview 

Nicolas Andreani : 

"a multidisciplinary sport involving dance, acrobatics, and horse riding."

Vaulting is still not very well known in France. In contrast, it is very popular in Germany, where some clubs insist on training in vaulting before people learn to ride. It is a good introduction to equitation, as well as a sport where competition starts at a very young age. France currently has a champion vaulter: Nicolas Andreani won the bronze medal at the last world championships in Lexington in 2010 and finished 2nd in the World Cup last April. He initiates us into the secrets of this discipline, which is well worth knowing.

You finished on the podium in the last two international competitions, but did not win: could having the World Cup final on your home turf change that?

Yes, I am especially hopeful as I defended my European Championship title last summer but was beaten due to a big mistake I made. This World Cup final will be a sort of revenge and a final confrontation with the reigning world and European champion, Patrick Looser, from Switzerland (he is retiring after Bordeaux), who beat me in the last two competitions. It is very important for me to have a "home win". 

Your father is a gymnast and your mother is a musician: could you image riding in any other discipline than vaulting?

It came naturally to me from the age of 6. I had the qualities of a gymnast and a love of music, so I came into horse riding via vaulting. It was much more attractive to do gymnastics on a living creature than a fixed apparatus and I loved it from the very start. However, at the outset, I was not drawn to this discipline by a love of horses. For me, a moving horse was simply much more fun than parallel bars and my love of horses developed gradually.

Can you explain this discipline for people who do not know what it is?

Vaulting is a multidisciplinary sport involving dance, acrobatics, and horse riding. You have to be good in all three if you want to be good at vaulting. Training involves physical preparation in gymnastics, dance, and vaulting. It is also a multi-generational sport, with mixed teams of children and adults, as was the case at the WEG in Lexington, where my team included Christopher Robin Krause, the youngest athlete at the World Equestrian Games. There was a huge age difference between this 9 year-year-old child and myself, at 27. It was a great learning experience to spend time in such a varied group.

Each test only lasts one minute: is that not rather a short time to express everything you want to show or is it long enough from a physical standpoint?

I would like another thirty seconds on the freestyle tests. Unfortunately, to obtain a good score out of ten for difficulty, you have to execute a sequence including as many very difficult gymnastic figures as possible in just one minute, to the detriment of the choreography, gestures, and fluidity. Another thirty seconds would enable us to give a more poetic display that would be more exciting for spectators. Both horse and vaulter are physically capable of it and I think it will become indispensable in vaulting in the near future.

Vaulting is still developing and I count very much on this World Cup final in Bordeaux, as well as the WEG in 2014, to promote this discipline, particularly via the media. This would encourage more French people, including more potential champions, to take up vaulting. There are more men in our generation, even if our coaches are starting to train 12 to 16-year-old girls. We are drastically underrepresented compared to our German neighbours, who have over 200,000 registered vaulters, as against approximately 2,000 in France.

How many hours training does it take to become a vaulter: on and off horseback? What sort of floor exercises do you do?

We train about fifteen hours per week, approximately five hours on horseback and ten hours of floor exercises. During the physical preparation, we work on cardio exercises for fitness and endurance. We also have sessions of bodybuilding, gymnastics, and trampoline acrobatics to work on jumping off. 

What are the key characteristics of a vaulting horse? Why are these horses so big?

We choose large horses as they have a longer stride, which is more comfortable for the vaulter and we avoid trotters, as vaulting horses generally canter. A vaulting horse needs a healthy mentality, excellent balance, and, of course, perfect physical condition. We buy them quite young, around 5 years old, to train them and bring them up to international level at around 7, then we try to keep them as long as possible. I hope to keep mine until the next World Equestrian Games, when he will be 18 and I shall be 30.  

In Germany, vaulting is the first discipline for all riders: should this system be adopted in France? What does vaulting bring to a rider's development?

In any case, riding instructors should receive more training in vaulting. It is a very useful discipline for any rider, as it develops better balance, more confidence, and ease in getting out of difficult situations, thanks to all the possible positions you find yourself in. Vaulting also helps riders realise the importance of physical preparation: while riders consider that their horses are high-level athletes, they do not always take enough care of their own physical condition. This is a pity, as they could be even more effective if they paid more attention to their own fitness. There have, however, been some changes in this regard, as the French Federation recently recruited a physical trainer for 3-day event riders.