Why did Larissa Pauluis ride at the Olympics with a heart on her hand?

As she did at Tokyo four years ago, Belgium’s Larissa Pauluis sent a message to her late husband Grégoire Naslin on her hands as she left the Paris Olympics arena today.

Larissa’s gloves this time said: “I promised you” and “I did it” with a heart. She explained, tearfully: “When I knew that he wouldn’t be staying with me, I made a promise to him that I would be in Paris at the Olympics – I said, ‘I promise you, I promise you, forever.’ It was a real challenge because he never saw me riding at grand prix even, but I’m here, so it’s wonderful.”

Larissa bought her ride Flambeau five years, before Grégoire died from a heart attack in 2020.

“He was a horse that nobody wanted because he was so wild, so complicated to work with,” she said. “At the beginning, I said I didn’t believe in him, but it was my husband who said, ‘You have to try, because he has some quality.’

“It was really after two years, when we started piaffe and passage, that we discovered that the horse was so talented. It was in the horse, but with work, with a lot patience, it’s come through so he goes with me with harmony.

“He was really sensitive, really anxious. Four years ago, he couldn’t have passed by a flower and now he goes into a big arena like this for the Olympics. It’s unbelievable.”

Larissa Pauluis and Flambeau at the Paris Olympics. Credit: Peter Nixon

Larissa also talked about the fact the weather was not easy for horses today in the Olympic dressage, as temperatures touched 35ºC.

“He did a super job and was totally with me,” she said, adding that there was just an issue when Flambeau wanted to stop on the last centre line. “It was a mistake from me, I had to manage him a little bit more with my legs. They are animals, not machines.”

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