THE MARVELS OF PIAZZA DI SIENA

by Luca Paparelli

Historic, beautiful, fascinating, captivating… There are a number of adjectives one can use to define the international Piazza di Siena horse show in Rome, but perhaps the most appropriate is iconic, the most accurate.
Not because iconic is a ‘fashionable’ word but because it summarises all the others and brings to perfection what has been, since 2018 when Sport and Health joined with the Italian Equestrian Sports Federation in organising the event, the new course of the Rome CSIO.
Rome, Villa Borghese and Piazza di Siena are three places of marvels that were, are, and will continue to be a unique whole in the world of equestrian sports and that have welcomed the best of show jumping every year for almost a century.

Cup aces

If Piazza di Siena is amazing year after year it is thanks to its real protagonists, i.e. the riders and their horses.
This year, in the Intesa Sanpaolo Nations Cup, five formidable pairs came into the limelight with their respective double clear rounds: French riders Antoine Ermann with Floyd des Pres and Nina Mallevaey with Nikka vd Bisschop – both newcomers to Piazza di Siena -, Dutch rider Kim Emmen with Imagine N.O.P. and the Americans Lillie Keenan with Kick On and McLain Ward with Imperial HBF.
With two other super pairs, Karl Cook with Caracole de La Roque and Laura Kraut with Bisquetta, team USA had arrived as favourites and did not disappoint, winning their 6th Nations Cup in Rome.
For both McLain Ward and Laura Kraut, this year’s success was their second in the Piazza di Siena Nations Cup. Ward, who also won the Rome Grand Prix twice (in 2010 with Sapphire and 2016 with Azur, not bad…), had already won the Nations Cup in 1997 with Twist du Valon, while Kraut, with her legendary grey Cedric, was a member of the successful team in 2009.
France, on the other hand, owes its second place to the performances of the ‘nouvelle vague’ made up of Antoine Ermann, 24 in October, and Nina Mallevaey, 25 in January.
Rome was her third senior Nations Cup for Mallevaey, after Dublin 2024 and Ocala 2025. For Ermann, instead, it was his second ever after his debut in the EEF series – Mannheim CSIO 3* in early May.
Last but not least Kim Emmen, also one of the five magnificent ‘double clear rounds’. The Rome Nations Cup has definitively given the Dutch rider, and her phenomenal Imagine N.O.P., a place in Team Netherlands ahead of the European Championships in July.

Nina, Nikka and Dynastie

Young, beautiful and above all an excellent rider. But she also has two super horses that supported her in the best possible way in the Intesa Sanpaolo Nations Cup with two clear rounds that put her in second place with France, and in the Rolex Grand Prix Rome where she reached the third step on the podium.
At Piazza di Siena, Nina Mallevaey presented Nikka vd Bisschop and Dynastie de Beaufour, two top performing mares, as proven by the way they flew over the jumps at Piazza di Siena.
Both are Canadian-owned, by the Rein family, for whom Mallevaey rides. Nikka vd Bisschop was born in Belgium and before this year had already competed at Piazza di Siena in 2022 and 2023 with Canadian rider Beth Underhill – in addition to the 2022 World Championships and, with Eryn Ballard, the 2024 Paris Games.
Again with Underhill, French mare Dynastie de Beaufour also took part in the Rome CSIO in 2023. But in addition to competing, both these mares have already passed on their genetics to their offspring. Dynastie de Beaufour, however, also carries some Italian breeding. Indeed, her dam is Sophia di San Giovanni, a daughter of Holsteiner Elise, and in turn the dam of international winner Zaia di San Giovanni.

Brazilian Style

At Piazza di Siena, two Brazilian riders won the two most important individual competitions.
But what makes these successes even more significant is that they did so with horses born and bred in Brazil!
It is true, the horses carry European genetics, but still they are the result of Carioca breeding.
The fact of the matter is that Yuri Mansur with Miss Blue-Saint Blue Farm has won a place in the Rolex Grand Prix Rome hall of fame, the only Brazilian rider to do so after Rodrigo Pessoa in 2009, while Stephan de Freitas Barcha with Chevaux Primavera Imperio Egipcio is in the one of the Loro Piana trophy.
De Freitas Barcha also placed fifth in the Rome Grand Prix, following a third place in 2023.

Team Italy, a worthwhile third place

For Italian show jumping, the Nations Cup at Piazza di Siena is unlike any other. The pressure is on, a desire to do well and the responsibility of competing in front of the Italian home crowd hoping for results provide motivation and the event will be talked about for at least a whole season.
This is one of the reasons why Team Italy’s third place this year is special.
Giacomo Casadei, 22, with Marbella du Chabli in his second Nations Cup in Rome, Emanuele Gaudiano who rode the grey Chalou’s Love PS in his first Nations Cup, Paolo Paini with Italian bay Casal Dorato both at their first Nations Cup in Rome, and Giulia Martinengo Marquet with Delta del’Isle, as always magnificent and later the best Italian pair (9th place) in the Rolex Grand Prix Rome.