All about Rodrigo...
Rodrigo Pessoa is the son of Show Jumping legend Nelson Pessoa. Nelson has won numerous titles in Brazil and in Europe, where he became known as 'The Wizard', and it was from him that Rodrigo inherited the passion for horses, for equestrian sports, and learned to ride.
Rodrigo lives near Brussels, close to his parents and to his stables. His daily life is very busy, and if he's not traveling for a competition, he is between the stables and home. The stables is nearly his second home, he is always there or at tournaments, and ends up spending a lot of time either on aeroplane's or in his traveling motor home.
Rodrigo describes himself as a busy but calm person. He loves being with his family, especially his daughter Cecília who was born in 2004 and describes her birth as one of the most important moments of his life.
ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE
At the age of 9, Rodrigo took part in his first competition with ponies in England, and at 12 he conquered the title of Champion of Pony Class in Belgium, his first title of many to come.
At 16, he started competing in the most important Grand Prix's in Europe, and in 1988 he won the first. He won the junior European Championship competition, but could not take the title home because of his Brazilian citizenship.
In fact, Rodrigo's first great year was 1992, when he joined the Brazilian team for the Olympic Games in Barcelona, with Carlos Vinicius da Motta, Nelson Pessoa, Vitor Teixeira and Lucia Santa Cruz da Motta (as standby). He was only 19 and was the youngest rider in the Olympic Games, reaching individual 9th place, riding Special Envoy.
In 1993 Rodrigo conquered the Wiesbaden - Paris (France) and Aachen (Germany) Grand Prix's and in the same year he won his first Derby, in Eindhoven, his father's trade mark.
In order to participate in the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata in 1994, he won the Grand Prix's at Aachen and Aarhus riding Special Envoy, thus earning a place in the team with Nelson Pessoa, André Johannpeter and Vitor Alves Teixeira. And in the Pan, the Brazilians were the gold medal winning team.
In 1997, Rodrigo started getting prepared for a major objective, and won the Grand Prix's at Geesteren, Mannheim and Aachen, reaching the World Cup in Helsinki, Finland, with true chances of winning.
Riding Baloubet they became champions in the 1998 World Cup. In that same year, this time riding Lianos, he disputed the World Championship in Rome, and after a most astonishing performance, he became World Champion! Also in 1998, he won the Rotterdam Grand Prix's and received the "Show Jumping of the Year" trophy as the world's best rider. That was indeed a very remarkable year in Rodrigo's career.
Riding Baloubet in 1999, Rodrigo conquered the bi-championship of the World Cup. Then, in that same year, he won Paris-Bercy, Berlin and Amsterdam Grand Prix's, and Derby at La Baule, and with all these victories they were top of the World Ranking.
In 2000 Rodrigo conquered for the third time in a row the Equestrian World Cup with Baloubet, besides bringing to Brazil the bronze team medal at the Olympics, Sydney riding Baloubet, after a hard decision against France's team.
All was going on well, but on the second round of individual final, Rodrigo and Baloubet ended up losing the chance of bringing an individual medal to Brazil. Despite the great disappointment, Rodrigo overcame and again won several competitions with Baloubet.
At the end of 2000, Rodrigo had already conquered 23 victories, 10 second places, 1 World Cup, 1 Olympic Medal and also ended the year as World Number 1.
2001 was a fantastic year, the fourth in a row disputing the World Cup and, despite the excellent performance riding Baloubet, Rodrigo unfortunately could not conquer the title. Anyhow, he celebrated his participation at the final. He did not win the World Cup, but he conquered the Grand Prix's of Spruce Meadows and Aarhus with the horse Lianos, La Coruña with Taylor Made, Fontainebleau with Bianca d'Amaury, and Milan with Baloubet.
In 2002 Rodrigo took part in Grand Prix's in Europe and North America and managed to accumulate good results in both continents. Altogether there were 175 competitions in 2003, of those he won 21, got second place 12 times and 6 times in third place.
2004 was one of the best years of Rodrigo's life. He conquered 14 victories, 13 second places, 7 third places and 6 Grand Prix's. In the Olympics of Athens, riding Baloubet, he conquered the individual silver medal.
2005 was the year in which Olympic Silver turned into Gold. The Irish group formed by Cian O'Connor and Waterford Cristal got disqualified from the Olympic Games due to doping and Rodrigo Pessoa received, on 29th of August in Rio de Janeiro, the long awaited Olympic Gold Medal. In the same year, Rodrigo won with Baloubet du Rouet the two main competitions at Lãs Vegas Invitational, both competitions of his circuit in Brussels and the TOP10 final in Geneva.
The year 2006 has been quite special. Rodrigo has received the horse Oasis, from entrepreneur Hunter Harrison, and has won Falsterbo (Sweden), Lanaken and Brussels (Belgium) Grand Prix mounting him. Mr Hunter Harrison's daughter, rider Cayce, rides a horse named Couer, of amazing qualities. Since she'll dedicate more of her time to her studies in 2007, Rodrigo will have the chance of riding Couer throughout the year.