REPPING CANADA IN LANGLEY

Jumpers feel confident on home turf

Show jumper Tiffany Foster's desire to ride a winner deepens when she is competing at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley.

The internationally recognized equestrian facility, also known as tbird, is a special place for the professional equestrian because it's where she honed foundational skills over more than two decades that have led her to represent Canada in 40 international events and earned her spots on two Olympic teams (London 2012 and Rio 2016).

On June 5, North Vancouver native Foster will be adding another international competition to her CV as she and fellow Canadian Show Jumping Team members Beth Underhill from Mulmer, Ont., Bromont, Que.'s Mario Deslauriers, Jacqueline Steffens of Harriston, Ont., and Victoria's Ali Ramsay will face off against top national show jumping teams from Ireland, Mexico, USA, Israel and Australia at the $400,000 Longines FEI Nations Cup event at tbird. Canada won the Longines FEI Nations Cup that was held pre-pandemic at Thunderbird in 2019.

The reserve Canadian rider was not known at press time.

“I'm always excited to return to compete at Thunderbird, this is my home show, so I always look forward to it,” the 37-year-old Foster said during a break from competing in Europe. “I think most riders get a boost from the crowd and I personally love to compete in front of a large crowd, especially when that crowd is full of my friends and family!”

In the Nations Cup, Foster will be riding Hamilton, her 11-yearold Holsteiner gelding. This will be Hamilton's second Nations Cup. His first was back in March in Mexico where the Canadian team finished second to the host Mexican team.

“Hamilton has competed in 2020 and 2021 at Thunderbird and has been clear in all of his Grand Prix appearances so far at tbird,” said Foster who is ranked 40th in the world.

Having a home turf advantage is great for competitors and it's great for local fans of the sport including those young riders who dream of one day donning the red coat of the Canadian Show Jumping Team themselves.

“Tiffany's roots are here, so it's coming full circle,” said Chris Pack, the president and operations manager of tbird.

“Tiffany really is a role model for every rider growing up in B.C. To see you can go from being a working student to the top of the sport is amazing, encouraging. It is the ultimate story.”

It's that working student background combined with a hands-on approach to all facets of her career and business that Foster is always proud to talk about — and point to as a route to success, even in a sport that is home to the very wealthy.

“I think that my role is to serve as a reminder that anything is possible in this sport if you want it badly enough and are willing to work for it,” said Foster. “I try to keep my standards high so I can be a good role model for anyone coming up the ranks.”

Leading the Canadian team on the ground will be chef d'équipe and four-time Olympian Eric Lamaze. For the Olympic gold, silver and bronze medal winner, there is only one result that will do when it comes to the Langley event.

“The riders want to win there,” Lamaze said by phone from Belgium, where he was with the Canadian team. “I'm excited to bring this team home to Canada and I want everyone to see what we have accomplished. I fully intend to win that Nations Cup; we're not losing it.”

Lamaze and the team are coming off a successful tour of Europe with podium finishes in Nations Cups. Lamaze, the twice world No. 1 rider, who has been battling brain cancer since 2017, officially announced he was retiring from show jumping competition at the end of March and soon after he was appointed to the position of technical adviser, jumping, which includes acting as chef d'équipe for the Canadian Show Jumping Team, by Equestrian Canada, the national federation for equestrian sport.

“Eric brings a whole new level of enthusiasm to the team and his energy is infectious. His health has forced an early retirement for his riding, but I think we are all benefiting from him immersing himself in his new role,” said Foster.

Lamaze comes to the new role not long after his last competitive turn where he anchored the Canadian Show Jumping Team to victory in the Nations Cup on Sept. 11, 2021, at Spruce Meadows in Calgary.

“I'm current with the sport. I have a lot to give back,” said the Montreal native, who won individual gold and team silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics riding Hickstead, plus individual bronze at the Rio Games abroad Fine Lady 5. “I think I can really make a difference. I am good at motivating people, and I think I know what I am talking about when it comes to training people and getting horses ready for championships.

“At the end of it I bring my excitement and my way of doing things. I am not a person that takes things lightly. I give 100 per cent when I commit to something. I don't give them options to lose. For me, the No. 1 rule is to be a team.”

In the Nations Cup, each team's four horse-rider combinations jumps a course of 12 obstacles that reach a maximum height of 1.6 metres and a maximum width of two metres. The plan is to jump clean — to not knock down or refuse any of the obstacles and do so within the set time allowed. A team can drop one score from their overall average.

Cowichan Bay's Peter Holmes is designing the course for the Thunderbird event.

“I like to set a course that is challenging while also within the abilities of the horses. I enjoy watching horses succeed. It is important that horses are not over-faced and hopefully come out of the competition with a sense of accomplishment,” said Holmes, who has been designing jumping courses professionally since the late 1980s.

The Nations Cup, which wraps two weeks of top equestrian competition at tbird, is part of the North and Central America and Caribbean division of the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup. Top points earners from that group will advance to the Nations Cup final in Barcelona at the end of September.

Longines, which has decades of experience supporting equestrian sports, has been working with Thunderbird since 2016.

“Stunning location and worldclass facilities are only half the equation,” Longines CEO Matthias Breschan said in an email. “If there's one thing that sets Thunderbird Show Park apart, it's their service. The Tidball family (tbird owners) has their roots in the hospitality industry and it's a mindset they've brought to the Thunderbird Show Park for the past 49 years.

“For competitors, Thunderbird Show Park feels like home.”

It is also a place for the nonhorse person looking for an affordable — at $10 a seat — and exciting unique sporting event in which men and women compete against each other.

It also offers ticket holders access to the park, which includes a large kids' playground, food trucks, a beer garden, local vendors and an impressive up-close view of the competition.

“The best thing is that they didn't realize the magnitude of the sport and how intimate it is to where they are sitting,” Pack said when asked about spectator feedback. “Many sports are not close. You can go to a Canucks game and you are 200 feet away from the ice. Here you are ringside. You're right along it and you really get a sense for how big these animals are and how big they're jumping.”

Course designer Holmes says he takes full advantage of the nearness of the stands, which hold 2,500 people, to the action.

“I want spectators to get a look at the horses competing, so I try to have the course travel throughout the whole large grand prix arena. This way each section of the arena gets some part of the course close to them,” said Holmes. “It's really a fabulous arena with lots of atmosphere, lots of room, great footing, and the beauty of a natural setting in the forest and farmland of B.C.”

Foster, who splits her time competing out of bases in Langley, Wellington, Fla., and Antwerp, Belgium, says that while tbird is a top-notch competitive facility, at the end of the day to her, it's home.

“The facility at Thunderbird is world class and their whole team works tirelessly to ensure that every exhibitor has a great time when they are attending any event,” said Foster. “I think the thing that I enjoy the most though is seeing all my old friends and family when I come home.”

I think the thing that I enjoy the most though is seeing all my old friends and family when I come home.