Edwina Alexander Article from Issue 3 of Equestrian Life Magazine

20
From winning a million
to a wedding in Monaco …

Photos: (Main) Stefano grasso (inset) carol Sachs/gucci
showJUMping
by Alison Duthie
The journey of
Edwina
Alexander
A quiet MOMent with
ciSKe vAn OveriS.
Edwina Alexander, like most elite athletes, is
a very busy person. She divides her time between
riding horses, looking for new horses, competing
at shows all over the world, doing the obligatory
mountain of paperwork involved in any business
—www.edwinaalexander.com—not to mention
organising her wedding! Life is certainly never dull
for the world’s highest-ranked female showjumper,
who recently became the first rider on the Global
Champions Tour to accumulate one million euros in
prize money.
Edwina’s story begins in North Turramurra, NSW,
where from a young age she was keen to have horses
in her life, even if those horses weren’t the most
suitable for a young, inexperienced girl. “I always
loved animals and had a natural feeling for horses.
My neighbours had horses and every day after school
I would be at their place either riding or just being
around the stables. I got my first horse, a four-yearold
unbroken pinto at the age of eight. It probably
wasn’t the best start but I was pretty determined
and my goal at that stage was to have a horse, a blue
riding coat and pierced ears. Having achieved that,
I was quickly onto my next goal … to ride at the
Olympics!”
It is often assumed that great riders are born
into families with generations of horse riders in
their blood. This was not the case for Edwina.
Her parents didn’t come from an equestrian
background, although, once they saw the passion
and determination their young daughter had for
the sport, they started to support and invest in her
equestrian career. “My parents were very good and
bought horses for me, but I would do everything
possible to earn pocket money so I could buy things
for those horses. I collected golf balls from the local
golf course and sold them to the Saturday golfers.
I would happily wash the family car, do the dishes—
anything to earn money and prove to my parents
just how serious I was about riding. Looking back,
I have to admit that I missed out on quite a lot of
childhood—the friendships, going to parties and
that sort of thing—because I was so busy riding, but
I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.”
With four children in the Alexander family, each
sibling was encouraged to follow their individual
paths. While Edwina’s two brothers, Philip and
Andrew, were never interested in riding, her sister
Kate participated until her enthusiasm started to
wane at age 16. Meanwhile, Edwina’s competitive
love for showjumping was growing stronger and in
1995, at the age of 19, she won the Australian Young
Rider Championships on a five-year-old horse called
Players. The following year she competed in her first
international show, riding a borrowed horse, as part
of the Australian team in Hong Kong. “We won the
teams event and I won the Grand Prix class, but the
main thing that sticks in my mind about the trip
was that I was violently ill … not the best way to
remember your international debut.”
In 1998, together with Mr Dundee, her best horse
at the time, Edwina made the decision to base herself
www.equestrianlife.com.au 21

22 SPECIAL FEATURE—SHOWJUMPING
ciSK vAn OveriS And edwinA All Kitted Out
in their excluSive gucci clOthing And
AcceSSOrieS.

Photos: carol Sachs/gucci
in Europe for six months to get a taste
of what she saw as ‘the place to be’ if you
were serious about showjumping. “I was
24 and really struggled with being away
from home where I was used to a great
support network. But I needed to know
that I was good enough to make it on the
world showjumping scene and not just at
home in Australia. I am a very competitive
person and as those first few months went
by, I realised that if I wanted to be the best
rider I had to be in Europe, but it wasn’t
an easy choice.”
Edwina has now been based in the
Netherlands for 13 years but continues
to miss her home country and all that
it has to offer. “I miss everything about
Australia and just wish I could move it
closer! It is the best place to live in the
world and because I have travelled almost
everywhere I really feel I can say that. I try
to come ‘home’ every 18 months, but it
is not easy because the European season
never really ends and there is so much
pressure to keep competing all the time
so you can stay at the top. I compete 50
weekends a year which doesn’t leave a lot
of time for anything else.”
Despite enjoying her fair share of
success in her early years in Europe,
Edwina feels her career didn’t really take
off until 2006. In that year, she qualified
for the final at the World Equestrian
Games (WEG) in Aachen and put her
name into the history books as the first
female to do so. She went on to finish
fourth riding Isovlas Pialotta. “Pialotta
was a real favorite of mine. Not only
because she took me to the top of the
sport but she was probably the fastest
horse I have ever ridden. It is thanks to
her that I have gone on to have success
with some of my other favorites, like Itot
du Chateau and Cevo Socrates. Socrates,
as his name suggests, is definitely the
cleverest horse I have ever had and if he
had a little more blood I think he would
be one of the best horses in the world.
I have been riding him for eight years
now and he has played a huge part in my
career, including being the horse I was
“I miss everything about Australia and just wish
I could move it closer! It is the best place to live
in the world and because I have travelled almost
everywhere I really feel I can say that.”
www.equestrianlife.com.au 23

24 SPECIAL FEATURE—SHOWJUMPING
edwinA And cevO itOt du châteAu On their wAy tO winning the 7th leg Of the glOBAl chAMPiOnS tOur in chAntilly.
riding when I reached that million euro
mark on the Global Champions Tour.”
Following on from her WEG success,
Edwina was part of the 2008 Australian
Olympic team in Hong Kong where she
finished ninth individually, riding Cevo
Itot du Château. Since then, she has gone
from strength to strength, working her
way up the rankings list. “My aim now
is to be the number one overall (not just
female number one), then I want to win
the final of the Global Champions Tour
and after that I will concentrate on the
London Olympics.”
The Global Champions Tour was the
idea of Edwina’s soon-to-be husband,
Jan Tops, a highly successful Dutch
showjumper. Jan rode at four consecutive
Olympic games (1988–2000), winning
a team gold medal at Barcelona in 1992.
“I met Jan when I first moved to Europe
but it wasn’t until we met again four years
later that we started a relationship. Jan
and I seem to complement each other
because we are both very determined,
motivated people who always look at the
positive, which I think is one of the keys
to success. It was in 2006 that the idea
of the GCT came about. Jan and I were
in Malaysia at a show and he said he
couldn’t sleep because he had just had an
amazing idea. He sat in the bathroom and
scribbled down ten pages of notes, which
I read the following morning. I thought
the idea was incredible … all he had to do
was pull it off.”
The ‘simple’ aim of the GCT was
to promote showjumping to a wider
audience. Shows are run in some of
the world’s most impressive locations,
including Cannes, Chantilly and Rio de
Janeiro, with substantial prize money on
offer. The series is showcased to the world
through live broadcasts, which gives the
GCT the cachet of a high-class event,
attracting major sponsors like Jaeger-
LeCoultre. Now in its sixth season, GCT
appears, certainly to the outsider, to have
achieved its objective. It is loved by riders
and showjumping followers the world
over, and this year Edwina is well on
her way to winning the final, the last leg
of which will be held in Abu Dhabi in
November at the magnificent Al Forsan
International Sports Resort.
Edwina’s small frame, good looks
and undoubted talent are complemented
by a wonderful range of exclusive
Gucci clothing which Edwina can be
seen wearing at all her major shows.
Photo: Stefano grasso/gct

Photos: (Left) Stefano Grasso/GCT, (Right) Annie Lever
EDWINA ALEXANDER AND CEVO SOCRATES COMPETE AT MONTE CARLO.
“Charlotte Casiraghi (the daughter of
Caroline, Princess of Hanover and the
late Stefano Casiraghi), who is going to
be my bridesmaid, introduced me to Frida
Giannini, the creative director of Gucci in
2009. We seemed to get along very well,
sharing the same passion, and when, in
2010, I had a meeting with Gucci, they
made me a very interesting off er and
we now have a very good collaboration.
I wear exclusive Gucci equestrian clothing
and accessories that were specially
designed for me by Frida. I certainly feel
very fortunate to be involved with such a
wonderful company.”
With 50 out of 52 weekends taken up
competing in each year I found myself
wondering how on earth Jan and Edwina
were going to fi t in a wedding. “We are
getting married in September in Monaco,
during the European Championships …
a free weekend!” Edwina considers her
wedding to be quite a ‘small’ aff air with
only 200 guests invited, although the
whole celebration will be spread over
four days. After a traditional church
wedding, the couple will make their way
to the impressive Hotel de Paris for the
reception. Set high on a hill, guests will
be able to gaze over spectacular views of
the Mediterranean and the following day
a recovery lunch will be held on the beach
at the Sea Lounge. Edwina’s dress is by
the Italian designer, Giambattista Valli.
Bridesmaid Charlotte may have pointed
Edwina in Giambattista’s direction as
she wore one of his dresses to the recent
wedding of Prince Albert and Charlene
Wittstock.
All in all, the wedding is sure to be a
THE HOTEL DE PARIS WHERE EDWINA AND
JAN (INSET) WILL HOLD THEIR WEDDING
RECEPTION.
stunning aff air, but there was no talk of a
honeymoon. Maybe this dynamic couple
will have to wait for another year until the
next weekend off for a romantic getaway.
In the meantime, they have plenty to keep
themselves busy, which seems to be just
the way they like it, and if Edwina pulls
off a win at the fi nal of the GCT it will be
the icing on the cake.
www.equestrianlife.com.au 25