8 SIDELINESMAY 2014
FORHORSEPEOPLE • ABOUTHORSEPEOPLE
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e
NayelNassar–
Million
Dollar
Rider
BySophieSt. Clair
T
wenty-three-year-oldNayelNassarandhis teamof
talented horses have racked up some impressive
accolades, especially remarkable considering his
age. In 2011, he competed in Doha, Qatar, placing fifth
individuallyandwinninga teambronze forEgypt at thePanArab
Games. In 2012, he won the Artisan Farms Young Rider Grand
Prix Series at theWinter Equestrian Festival. That same year he
qualified for the LondonOlympics as a reserve rider for Egypt. In
2013, Nayel and his horse, Raging Bull Vangelis S, qualified for
theWorld Cup Final inGothenburg, Sweden, and to top it off he
won the Zoetis $1Million Grand Prix at HITS Saugerties in New
York on his other mount, Lordan. He is currently ranked 98th in
theworld.
I met withNayel during the 2014HITS Thermal Desert Circuit.
What I found was that his burst into international showjumping
wasnot assuddenas it hadseemed.Yearsbeforemovingwest to
attend Stanford University, Nayel was quietly amassing a wealth
of knowledge fromsomeof thebrightest stars in thesport of show
jumping. Whether by design or by chance, each of these
masters has provided something unique to his development.
Each individual component is an accomplishment unto itself but
when all the pieces fit together it completes the image of Nayel
Nassar.
Nayel shared some of themajor influences in his riding career.
Whilegrowingup inKuwait, Nayel would travel over the summers
to trainwithGerman show jumper and trainerMarcusBeerbaum.
“I went out there as a solid 1M-1.20 rider and he built me up,”
Nayel said. “I never really had the horses to go above 1.40M but
he really laid down on all the basics. He really taught me how to
be consistent at that level so that when I actually did make the
jump, it was easy.”
Later, he went to train with Dutch and Belgian Olympian Jos
Lansink. Nayel says that his time with Jos was more of a “fine
tuning” as he still didn’t have the horses to get him to the big
classes. The focus, Nayel said, was primarily on getting all that
is needed for jumping from the flat work. He also took away the
importanceofmaintainingamanagement and trainingprogram to
keep the horses in high performance shape.
In 2012, Nayel trained with American Olympian Laura Kraut
during theWinter Equestrian Festival in Florida. He said, “Laura
is great. She was my first trainer at a high level. That was a big
step forme. She just gaveme a lot of confidence. She toldme to
be a fighter, to always go for it and to persevere. You’re going to
have a bad day and I would always get down on myself when I
did. Shewouldpickmeupand say, ‘You’vegot tomoveon to the
next one.’”
German show jumper Jorg Naeve is another of Nayel’s
Nayel Nassar
and Lordan
Author’s Note
– On Sunday, March 16th, the temperature
was hot and the sun was blazing in Thermal, California. I
returned to the desert to see some of the best riders in the
sport compete for their share of $1million dollars in the AIG
$1MGrand Prix. I have to say that I was especially rooting for
Nayel since I hadonly recently interviewedhimduring theHITS
DesertCircuit.Hewasalmost at theendof theclass just before
my other favorite, Ashlee Bond Clarke. There would be eight
to return for the jump-off. Nayel went next to last. He laid down
a smart and calculated round. Themost excitingmoment was
as he galloped toward the last fence. You could feel everyone
hold their breath as theywatched to be sure he cleared it. And
hedid. Then it wasAshleeBondClarke’smoney to lose. Nayel
had banked on her catching a rail with her speed. She rode an
equally stunning round and edged Nayel out by just enough.
The rest is history as Ashlee BondClarke took home the lion’s
share of the winnings and Nayel placed second in his second
$1MGrandPrix.
