‘When you need a smile most, she’s there’: meet the home-bred who bucked everyone off – and is now jumping clear at the Europeans

Meet the home-bred mare who bucked everyone off as a youngster, who scared her rider and “you couldn’t sit on her”, but has gone on to put smiles on faces – and jump clear at the very top of the sport.

Erika Lickhammer-Van Helmond and her own and VHL Stables’ Comme Tessa VHL put in a perfect round for the Swedish team at the Longines FEI European Showjumping Championships yesterday (17 July). But the 12-year-old mare’s journey to this point has not been the easiest.

“She started late; she was six, turning seven, when she started in the sport, because she was very, very difficult,” Erika explains. “She bucked us off. You couldn’t sit on her. We had to send her away to get backed, and the guy who did back her said ‘I’m never going to forget her’!”

Erika said she and her husband Joris van Helmond thought Comme Tessa, by Comme Il Faut, would be special from the start.

“The first jump she took, me and my husband looked at each other and said ‘This is something else’,” she says. “She was three then so it’s been a long journey, but a fantastic, amazing, fun journey. We never thought she had to do championships but she’s put a smile on our faces so many times, and that’s what it’s all about.

“I enjoy this so much and it’s all down to this horse, and it’s so special; we made her, I saw her getting born, every step this horse has taken, almost every jump, I’ve been there.”

Erika says it is the qualities that make Comme Tessa so good over jumps that were tricky to deal with at the start.

“She’s so elastic, and when she was young, she used that in another way!” she says. “We were all a bit scared of her. When we started jumping her, you were never scared going to the jump, or of the jump, but of the landing, because then she’d buck you off.

“I’m a bit of a chicken with young horses, and I was scared of her in the beginning. But to get the enormous quality; she’s so, so careful. You almost need to ride her to understand how careful she is, and there was no rush, we took our time with her.”

And the fact the journey has been tricky but they are where they are makes the outcome even more special.

“There have been many moments but to stand here, we’re actually at the Europeans – I’m really glad [chef d’equipe] Henrik Ancarkrona trusted us to gain this experience, and I’m very happy we could help the team with a clear,” Erika says.

“I said to my groom today, it’s unbelievable; when you need a smile most, she’s always there.”

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